Photo Credit: Jessica TranVo, A Ride Into Space.., Digital Collage
Our ability to dream and imagine our futures is greatly influenced by how we interpret our AAPI histories. Dreaming of more just and equitable realities can transform whole neighborhoods, communities, and societies, but we can only envision more inclusive and expansive social structures if we fully account for the conditions of our present and past, alongside other historically subordinated communities. This segment of the exhibition features artists who address aspects of our present society and also help us dream of better futures.
The Collective Imaginary is part of New Narratives curated by guest curator Leslie Anne Condon and first exhibited in 2020 through Unbound Visual Arts.
Participating Artists: Yanni Niki Li , Ponnapa Prakkamakul, Micah Rose, Jessica TranVo, and Tran Vu
Friday, May 27 from 6:00 to 8:00 pm
Gallery Hours:
Wednesdays 1:00 - 5:00 pm
Thursdays 1:00 - 7:00 pm
Fridays 1:00 - 5:00 pm
Saturdays 1:00 – 5:00 pm
Sundays, Mondays and Tuesdays: Closed
About the Artists:
Yanni Niki Li is a Chinese artist and designer who works primarily in graphic arts. Li’s work is based on the reflection of globalization on people's mindsets and contemporary ideologies. Li mainly uses the language of graphics to create an open dialogue on cultural appropriation, cross-cultural misinterpretation, and consumerism. Her artwork initiates a conversation with the audience and arouses their contemplation on the contemporary social issues that permeate our daily life.
Currently working passionately as a multimedia designer in New York City, Li holds an MFA degree from The School of The Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University. Learn more about her work for the show here.
Ponnapa Prakkamakul is a Thai contemporary visual artist and a landscape architect based in Massachusetts. Through her work, she aims to gain a better understanding of cultural displacement and isolation issues as an immigrant. Ponnapa holds a Master’s degree in Landscape Architecture from the Rhode Island School of Design where she received Lowthorpe Fellowship Award upon graduation. She is also a recipient of David Bethuel Jamieson Artist of Color Residency & Fellowship, Mount Auburn Cemetery Residency, Urbano Project Artist in Residence, Residence Lab’s artist-in-residence program at ACDC and the Pao Arts Center in Boston, and Manoog Family Artist Residency program at the Plumbing Museum in Watertown with four paintings in the museum’s permanent collection. Currently, Ponnapa is a member at Kingston Gallery and a landscape architect at Sasaki. Learn more about her work for the show here.
micah rose kindles soft ferocity, in ode to titas and cousins and lolas who show us ways we love. They share traditions like story circles, yoga, and taiko as paths for communal care. She conjures at Arts Connect International, helping brew artist-led experiments as a co-director of emergence. Micah is thankful to learn & practice with chosen families ~ including peoples who collab at the Cultural Equity Incubator, Pao Arts Center, The Theater Offensive, Luya Poetry, Company One Theatre, The Design Studio for Social Intervention, and beyond. Toward Lumad sovereignty on her motherislands, Rose organizes with Liyang Network and weaves an Instagram avatar @micah_pdf. Learn more about her work for the show here.
Jessica TranVo is a Boston, Massachusetts artist that graduated from Bridgewater State in 2014 with Bachelor degrees in Fine Art and English Literature, with a minor in Art History. Her mixed media collages have a foundation in surreal paintings. Her work plays and distorts digital and/or analog found images. She is mixed Vietnamese American raised by mixed Vietnamese parents, aunts, and grandmothers. Her art can be found at: https://ennuiorsomething.com. Learn more about her work for the show here.
Ngoc-Tran Vu (she/her) is a 1.5-generation Vietnamese-American multimedia artist and organizer whose socially engaged practice draws from her experience as a cultural connector, educator, and lightworker. Tran threads her social practice through photography, painting, sculpture and audio so that her art can resonate and engage audience with intentionality. Her work evokes discourse of familial ties, memories and rituals amongst themes of social justice and intersectionality. She is currently an adjunct faculty in Asian American Studies at the University of Massachusetts Boston. Tran works across borders and is based in Boston's Dorchester community. www.tranvuarts.com | @TranVuArts Learn more about her work for the show here.
About the Curator:
Leslie Anne Condon is a Boston-area multidisciplinary artist and independent curator, interested in Critical Race Art History and issues of representation within the arts. She graduated from the University of New Hampshire with a degree in English and a minor in the Fine Arts. She briefly attended the School of the Museum of Fine Arts as a Diploma student and earned her Post Baccalaureate in Fine Art 3D from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design in 2011.
About the Partner:
Unbound Visual Arts (UVA) is a unique Allston-Brighton-based non-profit art organization. We serve the Greater Boston community with impactful educational programs and exhibits to encourage learning, engagement, and change.
Contact: Leslie Condon, 617-863-9080 x 2017