Fall/Winter 2011-2012 NEWS

A National Endowment for the Arts - 2012 Art Works Grant has been awarded to a project for which I am the primary investigator (aka project organizer and co-curator/co-author):

DePaul University
Chicago, IL
$39,000
To support the exhibition, War Baby/Love Child: Mixed Race Asian American Art, and accompanying catalogue. Featuring art works by approximately 20 contemporary artists, the exhibition will investigate the construction of mixed race and mixed heritage, and Asian American identity in the United States.

http://www.nea.gov/grants/recent/12grants/12AAE.php?CAT=Art%20Works&DIS=Museum

The exhibition, co-curated by Laura Kina and Wei Ming Dariotis, is scheduled to open at the new DePaul University Art Museum April 26 - June 30, 2013, Chicago, IL and will then travel to the Wing Luke Museum of the Asian Pacific American Experience August 9, 2013 – January 19, 2014, Seattle, WA. 

Artists:
Mequitta Ahuja, Albert Chong, Serene Ford, Kip Fulbeck, Stuart Gaffney, Louie Gong, Jane Jin Kaisen, Lori Kay, Li-lan, Richard Lou, Samia Mirza, Chris Naka, Laurel Nakadate, Gina Osterloh, Adrienne Pao, Cristina Lei Rodriguez, Amanda Ross-Ho, Jenifer Wofford, Debra Yepa-Pappan.

University of Washington Press to publish War Baby/Love Child: Mixed Race Asian American Art

A related publication of the same title, also co-edited by Laura Kina and Wei Ming Dariotis, has been awarded a book contract to be published by the University of Washington Press to coincide with the exhibition in 2013. This multi-author volume will feature a foreward by Kent A. Ono, a co-authored preface and introductory essay by the editors, 19 original artist interviews conducted by the editors, and original essays from Wei Ming Dariotis and the contributing authors: Camilla Fojas, Stuart Gaffney, Rudy Guevarra, Eleana Kim, Richard Lou, Margo Machida, Stephen Murphy-Shigematsu, Lori Pierce, Cathy Schlund-Vials, Ken Tanabe, and Wendy Thompson-Taiwo. Major funding for the publication has been awarded through the Elizabeth Firestone Graham Foundation, DePaul University and San Francisco State University.

Related programming will be organized in 2013-2014. Stay tuned!

Spring/Summer 2011 NEWS

Launched the online vs. of the Asian American Art Oral History Project through DePaul University and Via Sapientiae.

The purpose of the Asian American Art Oral History Project is to collect oral histories of Asian American artists and key organizers and participants of Asian American arts and cultural organizations. While the scope of the project encompasses diasporic and US born Asians across the United States, the primary focus of the archive is to document the history of Midwestern Asian American artists and arts organizations.

Please feel free to browse through the artist interiews and gallery:
http://via.library.depaul.edu/oral_his/

If you would like to participate or recommend an artist, please contact me at lkinaaro@depaul.edu

G. Reginald Daniel, Paul Spickard, Wei Ming Dariotis and I are busy working to launch the Journal for Critical Mixed Race Studies through UC Santa Barbara. More details soon! Visit out old website for the Critical Mixed Race Studies conference to learn more about our past events. Join our facebook group "Critical Mixed Race Studies" and join our google group "criticalmixedracestudies" to keep up with the latest developments for the next CMRS conference Nov 1-4 2012, launching of the journal and founding of the CMRS association.

Following are my shows and talks from Spring/Summer 2011:

Indigo: Laura Kina and Shelly Joyti
May 14 - June 30, 2011
Opening Reception: Saturday, May 14, 2011 2-9pm
Both artists will be present at the opening
Diana Lowenstein Fine Arts
2043 N. Miami Avenue
Miami, FL 33127-4913
Tel: 305-576-1804
info@dlfinearts.com
www.dlfinearts.com

The torrid history of Indigo is reimagined by artists from Chicago, USA and Gujarat, India.

Diana Lowenstein Fine Arts presents Indigo, a traveling exhibition exhibited in major cities throughout India and now crossing to the US. The exhibition presents complementary bodies of artwork by Indian artist Shelly Jyoti and US artist Laura Kina in a range of media including hand-embroidery on khadi fabric, indigo resist dyeing, Sanskrit calligraphy and mixed-media on canvas. The narrative threads running throughout the artists’ work evoke India’s colonial history, stories of immigration, and the tensions and transformations of cultures evolving in a changing world.

To view the work visit:
Laura Kina's Devon Avenue Sampler
Shelly Jyoti's Indigo Narratives
Visit my blog post to see installation shots.

Transnational Artistic Collaborations: Shelly Jyoti and Laura Kina
Saturday, June 18, 2011 / 2 to 4 p.m.
Woman Made Gallery
685 N. Milwaukee
Chicago, IL 60642
312-738-0400
gallery@womanmade.org
www.womanmade.org

Join us for a conversation with Woman Made artists Shelly Jyoti, from Vadodara, India, and Chicago-based Laura Kina about their collaborative exhibition 'Indigo' which was featured in three venues in India in 2009-2010 (Red Earth Gallery in Vadodara, India Habitat Centre in New Delhi, Nehru Art Centre in Mumbai) and is currently touring the US in 2011 (ArtXchange Gallery in Seattle and Diana Lowenstein Fine Arts in Miami). Refreshments will be served.

Mixed Roots Film and Literary Festival
June 11-12, 2011
Japanese American National Museum
369 E. First Street
Los Angeles, CA 90012
http://www.mxroots.org/

Laura Kina will be presenting at a workshop organized by Monique Fields, a writer published in Ebony magazine who runs the blog Honey Smoke, as well as organizers from MASC (Multiracials Americans of Southern California).
Saturday, June 11, 2011 11:00am-12:00pm
WORKSHOP: Mixed Messages: Mixed Race /Interracial Representation in TV, Film & Media
Read my "Mixed Roots Recap" blog post on this event.

The Future of Asian Art Symposium
Presented in Collaboration with NYU's East Asian Studies Department
Friday, May 13, 2011
12:00 pm - 6:00pm
A/P/A Institute at New York University
41-51 East 11th Street
7th Floor Gallery
New York, NY 10003

I presented my work on one of the symposium panels titled "Asian American Art and Global Flows"

Laura Kina "Field work and sewing signs” abstract
Artist Laura Kina has the blues. This presentation will examine her Sugar (2010) and Devon Avenue Sampler (2009-2011) series, which encompass both transnational and diasporic dialogues and international labor flows and histories.

Set during the 1920’s-1940’s, Kina’s Sugar paintings recall her grandmother’s obake ghost stories and feature Okinawan picture brides turned machete carrying sugar cane plantation field laborers on the Big Island of Hawaii. These kasuri tinged oil paintings take us into a beautiful yet grueling world of manual labor, cane field fires and flumes. Devon Avenue Sampler is a portrait of street signs in Kina’s current neighborhood, a diasporic South Asian/Jewish community in Chicago, IL. This textile series, which uses indigo dye and khadi fabric, was hand embroidered by artisans from a fair trade women’s organization in Mumbai, India.

Association for Asian American Studies
2011 AAAS Conference in New Orleans
Thursday, May 19, 2011 1pm
Sheraton New Orleans Hotel
500 Canal Street
New Orleans, LA 70130

"Between the Domestic and the Trans-Pacific: Trans/national perspectives on the production and consumption of Asian American visual culture" is the inaugural conference panel presented by members of the International Network for Diasporic Asian Art Research (INDAAR). Chaired by the network's founding convenor Dr. Dean Chan (Edith Cowan University, Australia), this panel offers a trans/national dialogue on Asian American visual culture from North American and Oceanic points and comparative perspectives.

Dr. Margo Machida, Associate Professor, University of Connecticut, USA
Consuming Food/Consuming Bodies: Signs of Trans-Pacific Circulation and Contact in Contemporary Art

Laura Kina, Associate Professor Art, Media, & Design DePaul University, USA
Sugar: Obake Plantation Paintings of Uchinanchu Picture Brides

Iyko Day, Assistant Professor, Mount Holyoke College, USA
Transforming the Postwar Domestic in Ruth Asawa’s and Aiko Suzuki’s Hanging Sculptures

Katherine Behar, Assistant Professor of New Media, Department of Fine and Performing Arts, Baruch College, City University of New York
Disorientalism: Consuming Identity

Visit the conference website for details: www.aaastudies.org

Winter 2010 NEWS HIGHLIGHTS

Winter 2009-2010 my two-woman show "Indigo" with Indian artist Shelly Jyoti toured India (Gujarat, New Delhi, Mumbai) and this year we are bringing the show to the United States (Seatte and Miami). I'm really excited about this show because it's the first time that I've shown my work in my childhood hometown.

Indigo: New work by Shelly Jyoti and Laura Kina
January 6 - February 26, 2011
Opening Reception: Thursday, Jan. 6, 5-8pm
First Thursday Artwalk Reception: Thursday, February 3, 5-8pm
ArtXchange Gallery
512 First Ave. S.
Seattle, WA 98104
Tel: 206-839-0377
info@artxchange.org
www.artxchange.org

To read an interview with Shelly and I, visit:
http://www.openthemagazine.com/article/arts/azure-allure

To see all the complete listing of press from this exhibition, please visit my press page:
http://www.laurakina.com/press.html

To view a video about our collaboration visit:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-cRlQjBowQ

Critical Ethnic Studies Association Conference
University of California, Riverside
Critical Ethnic Studies and the Future of Genocide Settler Colonialism/Heteropatriarchy/White Supremacy
Thursday, March 10, 2011 9am
Location - HUB 355
Panel 11.1 "War Baby/Love Child: Mixed Race Asian American Art"

Laura Kina, DePaul University: Chair

Laura Kina, DePaul University
"Same, Same, but Different": Mixed Racea Asian American Art and the Postracial Dilemma

Gina Osterloh, Silverlens Gallery and François Ghebaly Gallery
Somewhere Tropical

Wei Ming Dariotis, San Francisco State University
Miscegenating the Discourse: How Mixed Race Studies Met Asian American Studies and What Will Happen to Their Children

Visit the conference website for details: http://cesa.ucr.edu

Fall 2010 NEWS HIGHLIGHTS

Laura Kina: Sugar
Summer 2010 I went to Hawai'i to finish research for my new "Sugar" series and then promptly locked myself in my studio and painted like a maniac (inbetween working on a book project and planning a national conference). I hope this will be a sweet little show! Many thanks to all of the individuals who helped me with my research: Pi'ihonua community members Roy Daimaru, Henry Shimabukuro, Tetsuo "Tats" Kunihiro, Yoshi "Carole" Oshiro, Margaret Torigoe and the members of Hui Okinawa Hilo Hawaii, and especially my dad - George Kina, Libby Burke from the Lyman Museum, Millie T. Uchima from the Peepekeo community, and Susumu "Merrill" Kanna from the Hakalau community.

Exhibition description: Set during the 1920’s-1940’s, Laura Kina’s SUGAR paintings recall obake ghost stories and feature Japanese and Okinawan picture brides turned machete carrying sugar cane plantation field laborers on the Big Island of Hawaii.  Drawing on oral history and family photographs from Nisei (2nd generation) and Sansei (3rd generation) from Peepekeo, Pi’ihonua, and Hakalau plantation community members as well as historic images, Kina’s paintings take us into a beautiful yet grueling world of manual labor, cane field fires and flumes.

September 10 - October 28, 2010
Opening Reception: September 10, 2010 6-9pm

Woman Made Gallery
685. N. Milwaukee Ave.
Chicago, IL 60642
Tel: 312-738-0400
gallery@womanmade.org
www.womanmade.org

Gallery Hours: Wed., Thurs., Fri. 12-7 p.m.; Sat., Sun. 12-4 p.m.

Laura Kina: Loving
My 2006 Loving series is still touring. California State University Fullerton just published the catalog (Fall 2010) in conjunction with an exhibition Embracing Ambiguity: Faces of the Future (Jan 30-March 5, 2010) which was at their Main Art Gallery and was curated by Jillian Nakornthap and Lynn Stromick. The exhibition and catalog features three of my works from the Loving series as well as works by Nzuji De Magalhaes, Kip Fulbeck, Nathan Gibbs, Loren Holland, Bryce Hudson, Delilah Montoya, Toni Scott, and Bradley McCallum & Jacqueline Tarry. The catalog also features an original essay of mine, "Half Yella: Embracing Ethnoracial Ambiguity." I'm pleased to announce that my home institution, DePaul University, will be displaying the Loving series during the fall and winter quarter in conjunction with their Art & Activism theme for the year.

Exhibition Description: Inspired by the 1967 Supreme Court Case, Loving v. Virginia, that overturned this nation’s last anti-miscegenation law, Kina examines issues of color in black and white. Kina drew life-size charcoal portraits of ten “Bi-Racial Baby Boomers” as representative of the larger mixed race community and movement in the United States.

September - December 2010
DePaul University Center for Intercultural Programs
(formerly the Cultural Center)
2250 N. Sheffield #105
Chicago, IL 60614
culturalcenter@depaul.edu
http://studentaffairs.depaul.edu/culturalcenter/

FIRST ANNUAL CRITICAL MIXED RACE STUDIES CONFERENCE
Emerging Paradigms in Critical Mixed Race Studies
NOVEMBER 5-6, 2010 DEPAUL UNIVERSITY, CHICAGO, IL

CMRS 2010 Event Report
For the inaugural CMRS 2010 conference, we had over 450 people registered and 430 people actually showed up from all over the U.S. from Hawaii to Tennessee to New York as well as scholars from Canada, Korea, and the UK. The programming included 62 sessions of panels, round tables, and seminars; multiple film screenings, keynote addresses by leading scholars Mary Beltran from University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Andrew Jolivette from San Francisco State University, and community activist and artist Louie Gong from MAVIN and Eighth Generation; a Mixed Mixer social event with live jazz music; a performance by comedian Kate Rigg; an Informational Fair; a Book Table; Caucus and Business meetings.

We sold out three boutique hotels with CMRS attendees and many panels were standing room only or at capacity. We were honored to have many senior scholars present at CMRS 2010 as well as a strong contingent of undergraduate and graduate students from area colleges, community members, and a surprisingly high number of graduate students and junior colleagues from across the country. A critical mass of new media artists (podcasters, bloggers, film and video) including bloggers Steven F. Riley from mixedracestudies.org and Fanshen Cox from the mixedchickschat podcast joined us as well. Representatives from community organizations came out in full force from: MAVIN, SWIRL Inc., Mixed Roots Film & Literary Festival, Multiracial Americans of Southern California, Lovingday.org, and the Biracial Family Network.
 
You can find links to download the conference poster and a pdf of the schedule as well as the video of the welcoming address and the three keynote addresses and audio recordings from 18 sessions via ITunesU on the CMRS 2010 website: http://las.depaul.edu/aas/About/CMRSConference/index.asp

Outcomes and Future Goals
We can’t express how grateful we are to all the attendees, participants, volunteers, hosts and co-sponsors for making this event happen.

Following the 2010 CMRS conference, we were able to establish the following Tangible Outcomes:

• DePaul’s Media Production & Training (Wen Der Lin and Greg Barker) video recorded, edited, and posted video from the welcoming address and the three keynote addresses on ITunesU
• DePaul’s Media Production & Training (Wen Der Lin and Russ Patterson) worked with the organizers and participants to audio record conference sessions. 18 conference sessions were edited and MP3 audio was posted on ITunesU
• DePaul’s Linda Greco created updated the conference website under the Global Asian Studies URL (las.depaul.edu/cmrs).
• Laura Kina started a Google group “criticalmixedracestudies” which participants are using to continue to stay in touch. If you haven’t joined yet, please do so! criticalmixedracestudies@googlegroups.com
• CMRS participants are also using our “Critical Mixed Race Studies” facebook page to stay in touch. Friend us! http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/group.php?gid=13919553099
• Chris Paredes, a student at the University of Washington, organized a network of mixed race student organizations from across the country to stay in touch on a regular basis. If you would like to join this discussion, please contact Chris at: paradc@gmail.com
• Amanda Erekson, President of MAVIN, is coordinating monthly call ins for the community orgs. If your mixed race community organization would like to participate, contact Amanda for details: amanda.erekson@gmail.com
• DePaul LA&S undergrad student, Erin Kushino, would like to start a mixed race student org at DePaul. If you know DePaul students who might want to help her with these efforts, please contact her at: erincaitlink@sbcglobal.net
  

• Next CMRS conference – Camilla Fojas and the DePaul University Department of Latin American and Latino Studies will host the second CMRS conference in November 2012. Be on the look out for the call for papers shortly. Please direct all conference questions to Camilla Fojas:cfojas@depaul.edu
• G. Reginald Daniel and Paul Spickard (University of California Santa Barbara), Laura Kina (DePaul University), Wei Ming Dariotis (San Francisco State University) plan to launch an online peer reviewed CMRS journal. We are in the process of reviewing digital platforms for the online journal and drafting a list of CMRS journal advisory board members. We will be sending out invitations to senior scholars shortly. We will be looking for additional junior and senior scholars to be blind reviewers and guest editors. Please direct all questions about the journal to G. Reginald Daniel at: rdaniel@soc.ucsb.edu
• Plans are in the works to found an association for CMRS. Our immediate needs are for a volunteer lawyer to review our by-laws and help us apply for non-profit status. If you are interested in volunteering for a leadership, please contact Laura Kina at: cmrs@depaul.edu

The 2010 CMRS was organized by Camilla Fojas and Laura Kina (DePaul University) and Wei Ming Dariotis (San Francisco State University) and hosted by DePaul University Global Asian Studies and Latin American and Latino Studies and co-sponsored by the MAViN Foundation and DePaul University Department of African & Black Diaspora Studies; American Studies; Art, Media, & Design; LGBTQ Studies; DePaul's Women's Center and the Center for Interercultural Programs.
For more info visit: las.depaul.edu/cmrs

2009-2010 NEWS HIGHLIGHTS

April-May 2010 Laura Kina: A Many-Splendored Thing
The highlight of the year was an invitation from the Foundation for Asian American Independent Media to have a retrospective of my work from the past 15 years in conjunction with the 15th anniversary of the Asian American Showcase. The show was curated by Larry Lee.

A retrospective featuring over thirty selected paintings, drawings and textiles (1995-present) from her Refrigerator, Hapa Soap Opera, Loving, Aloha Dreams, and Devon Avenue Sampler series as well as some early and new works on exhibit for the first time. Kina’s art collectively embraces “ikigai” or the Japanese belief of “a sense of life worth living” and reflects her “postcolonial pop aesthetic” as a multiracial Okinawan Jewish artist/educator/scholar living in a South Asian Indian neighborhood in Chicago.

April 2nd - May 30th
Opening Night: Friday, April 2, 2010 6-8pm
Gene Siskel Film Center Gallery
164 North State Street
Chicago, IL 60601
www.faaim.org/visual
www.siskelfilmcenter.org

To read the exhibition essay visit:
http://www.faaim.org/visual

To view a video of the opening reception visit:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UVzKo81b-Q

To view installation shots of the exhibition visit:
http://laurakina.blogspot.com/2010/04/opening-night-laura-kina-many.html

To view installation shots of the exhibition visit: http://laurakina.blogspot.com/2010/05/installation-shots-many-splendored.html

Dec 2009-Jan 2010 Travelled to India for a two-woman show "Indigo"
The other big show for the year was my collaboration with Indian artist Shelly Jyoti.

Indigo: New Works By Shelly Jyoti and Laura Kina travelled to Vadodara, New Delhi, and Mumbai India. The preview exhibition was inaugurated by Maharaja Ranjitsinh Gaekwad and Maharani Shubhangini Raje Gaekwad at ABS Red Earth Gallery Baroda, Gujarat December 15-16, 2009. The show then went on to the India Habitat Centre New Delhi, December 22-28, 2009 where the exhibition was inaugurated by Mrs Vilasini Ramchandran Additional Secretary Expenditure Ministry of Finance, Government of India, New Delhi. The final stop in India was the Nehru Art Centre January 12-18, 2010 where the exhibition Chief Guest was India’s Member of Parliament Mrs. Supriya Sule.

Learn more about the exhibition and view the press.

On December 31, 2009, I was an invited lecturer at the Centre for Contemporary Theory and General Semantics in Vadodara, Gujarat India. Read a report on her lecture, “Diaspora on Devon Ave: Stitching South Asian/Jewish Intersections”.

Racked up frequent flyer miles travelling for exhibitions and artist talks
In 2009-2010, my work was included in group shows in India (Red Earth Gallery in Vadodora, India Habitat Centre in New Delhi, Nehru Art Centre in Mumbai), Fullerton, CA (Cal State Fullerton), Los Angeles (Korean Cultural Center), Chicago (DePaul Art Museum), and Miami (Diana Lowenstein Fine Arts).

I was invited to give artists talks in India (Centre for Contemporary Theory and General Semantics), San Francisco (de Young Museum), Fullerton, CA (Cal State Fullerton), Chicago (College Art Association, Northwestern University, DePaul University Cultural Center and Humanities Center, Biracial Family Network, Japanese American Service Committee), Austin, TX and Honolulu, HI (Association for Asian American Studies), and Oberlin, OH (Oberlin College).

March 2010 Joined the board of the MAViN Foundation
The MAViN Foundation is the nation's leading organization that helps build healthier communities by raising awareness about the experiences of mixed heritage peoples and families.

Our projects explore the experiences of mixed heritage people, transracial adoptees, interracial relationships, and multiracial families.
http://www.mavinfoundation.org/about/board.html

Feb 2010 Launched the Diasporic Asian Arts Network
The Diasporic Asian Arts Network (DAAN) is pleased to announce that Laura Kina will be serving as the Midwest Representative for DAAN. Diasporic Asian Art Network (DAAN) is a newly created, informal network of scholars, curators, arts writers, and graduate students interested in Asian American art and art history. The purpose of this proposed network is to share ideas and information, both about our own projects and about the work of others in the United States and abroad, toward advancing new research, critical writing, and curatorial efforts involving modern and contemporary Asian American/Asian diasporic art and visual culture.

Visit DAAN: www.nyu-apastudies.org/research/DAAN/

For Midwest event listings and membership, contact Laura Kina lkinaaro@depaul.edu
All other DAAN inquiries, please email the co-organizers listed below:

Alexandra Chang, New York University, Asian/Pacific/American Institute, achang@nyu.edu

Margo Machida, Ph.D., University of Connecticut, Department of Art & Art History and Asian American Studies Institute, margo.machida@uconn.edu