Artist Talk Series | "Faces in the Pandemic"
Houston Asian American Archive announces the "Faces in the Pandemic" artist talk series, part of the programs for the current exhibition, featuring six artists in this group show.
The talks will contextualize each of the artists' works in the exhibit as well as their individual practices, journeys, and visions. Audiences will have the opportunity to ask questions at the end.
The talk series is moderated by Ann Shi, associate curator, and Ashley Tsang, Rice student intern.
Artist Talk #1: Sherry Tseng Hill & Anthony Pabillano
Date: September 30, 2020 at 6pm CT
View a recording of the webinar.
Sherry Tseng Hill
Reflecting on the multi-faceted world we live in, Sherry Tseng Hill often superimposes imagery and pattern and plays with combining opposite expressions: the soft and the hard, the transparent and the opaque, the flat, and the spatial, the literal and the abstract. Constantly exploring different techniques and mediums to create textures and see how they can best tell the story or convey the emotions she hopes to evoke, her drawings, paintings, and 3-D constructions reflect her background as an architect. Her love of the sciences, mathematics, and literature, and her particular interest in the idea of nonlinear time/space of personal histories as well as the cosmos are prominent themes in her work.
Straddling the east and the west, Hill was born and raised in Taiwan until the young teenage years. Her childhood experiences in Taiwan forms a great part of her approach to life and her art. She is a Rice alum (BA in Art History & Architecture '80, B.Arch '82), and a practicing architect. She lives and works in Houston.
Anthony Pabillano was born and raised in the Philippines, moved when he was 11, and lived out the rest of his youth in Corpus Christi, Texas. Art has been part of Pabillano's life since childhood; although he later pursued studies in accounting and now a practicing accountant, he never gave up on art. Paper has been a medium unique to Pabillano, ever since an assignment during high school where he was asked to follow Henri Matisse's paper cut practice. Portraiture is his favorite genre from his introspective approach and sharp observations of human beings, especially people he respects and connects with. Using Matisse's inspiration, with self-made techniques of rendering "chiaroscuro" using layered paper art, Pabillano's portraiture forges a unique channel of storytelling, and the discourse in layers of and the depth of skin, their shades, and the intricate and hybrid world we live in.
Artist Talk #2: Brandon Tho Harris & Victor Ancheta
Date: October 7, 2020 at 6pm CT
View a recording of the webinar.
Brandon Tho Harris is an interdisciplinary artist based in Houston, Texas. His creative practice explores his identity as a child of war refugees. By examining the Vietnamese diaspora in relation to his own family history, he is able to understand and process intergenerational trauma. Harris' work incorporates self-portraiture, his family archives, and historical images portraying the Vietnam war. Through photography, video, performance, and installation, he allows the viewers a deeper understanding of the complexities surrounding migration. His work has been featured in exhibitions at Houston Center for Photography and the Blaffer Art Museum. Harris' projects have also been funded by grants from The Idea Fund and Houston Art Alliance. Currently, he is pursuing his Bachelor of Fine Art at the University of Houston with a concentration of Photography and Digital Media.
Victor Ancheta is a gay immigrant artist and writer. He spent his childhood in the Philippines, and then migrated to the United States. He is a graduate of the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts and studied Studio Art and Creative Writing at the University of Houston-Downtown. Victor is a conceptual artist and works in installations, sculptures, and paintings. His pieces deal with his identity and his relationship with religion, colonial and post-colonial history, and deconstructing traditions.
Artist Talk #3: Antonius-Tin Bui & Jennifer Ling Datchuk
Date: October 14, 2020 at 6pm CT
View a recording of the webinar.
Antonius-Tín Bui (they/them pronouns) is a polydisciplinary artist with roots all over the USA.
They are the child of Paul and Van Bui, two Vietnamese refugees who sacrificed everything to provide a future for their four kids and extended family. Born and raised in Bronx, NY, Antonius eventually moved to Houston before pursuing a BFA at the Maryland Institute College of Art (MIC/A).
Since graduating in 2016, Antonius has been fortunate to receive fellowships from the Vermont Studio Center, Kala Art Institute, Tulsa Artists Fellowship, Halcyon Arts Lab, Houston Center for Contemporary Craft, Yaddo, Anderson Center at Tower View, The Growlery, and Fine Arts Work Center.
Antonius has exhibited at various institutional, private, public, and underground venues, including the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, IA&A at Hillyer, Lawndale Art Center, Pennsylvania College of Art & Design, Artscape, Satellite Art Fair Austin, Blaffer Art Museum, Laband Art Gallery, and Smithsonian Arts & Industries Building.
Jennifer Ling Datchuk was born in Warren, Ohio, and currently lives and works in San Antonio, Texas.
As the child of a Chinese immigrant and grandchild of Russian and Irish immigrants, the family histories of conflict she has inherited are a perpetual source for her work. She captures this conflict by exploring the emotive power of domestic objects and rituals that fix, organize, soothe, and beautify our lives.
Trained in ceramics, her works often use a myriad of materials ranging from porcelain to fabric or embroidery. Datchuk holds an MFA in Artisanry from the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth and a BFA in Crafts from Kent State University. She has received grants from the Artist Foundation of San Antonio as well as Artpace to research the birthplace of porcelain in Jingdezhen, China.
In 2016, she was awarded a residency through the Blue Star Contemporary Art Museum at the Künstlerhaus Bethanien in Berlin, Germany, and was a Black Cube Nomadic Museum Artist Fellow. Recently, she completed a residency at the European Ceramic Work Center in the Netherlands and was awarded the Emerging Voices Award from the American Craft Council.