Walking in the Cosmos: Artists interpreting Urban Reverence at Voelker Orth Museum
"We are slowed down sound and light waves, a walking bundle of frequencies tuned into the cosmos. We are souls dressed up in sacred biochemical garments and our bodies are the instruments through which our souls play their music."
Cosmos flowers, native to Mexico and appropriated for their gardens by Spanish missionaries, represent order and harmony in nature (that ideal of Greek philosophy), as well as tranquility, peace, innocence, and love.
Date: October 30 to December 18, 2022
Venue: Voelker Orth Museum
Address: 149-19 38th Avenue, Flushing, NY 11354 (directions: https://goo.gl/maps/dXk86CEdJnrddRQY7)
Opening Reception: Sunday October 30, 2-4pm
*2:30-2:45pm: visual art performance by Julia Hsia
*3:00-3:30pm: musical performance (Violin, Piano) by Pei-Wen Liao
To open consideration of Urban Tribes, return to the question Kant thought was central “What is the human being?” This universal question has never lost its relevancy. Part of the answer is that being human means embracing cultural diversity, yet at the same time humanity requires valuing people as individuals. For those in caravans approaching the US border, being human is holding on to aspiration in spite of accidents of birth. Yet another response to this question is a reverence for natural and social systems, as elaborated by artistic discourse.
*Urban Tribe detail image from: Yu-Chuan Tseng "Digital Portraits-Jane" 2018, Computer- generated images, Photo print, 4 x 4 inches, 365 pieces. Program by Sheng-Po Shen, Yi-Ching Huang. Courtesy of the artist.
Exhibition Venues & dates
● New York Foundation for the Arts, New York City – June 8 to Sept 20
● El Taller Art Center, New York City - May 23 to September 20
● TAAC Tribeca/E. TAY Gallery – May 30 to July 15
● Light Year 51: We the People, Manhattan Bridge, DUMBO, Brooklyn, on American Independence Day, July 4th, 2019.
LIGHT YEAR : From People to the Land. September 5, 2019.
THE MOMENT Part I New York Hall of Science
Contemporary Taiwanese American Arts
August 8th -September 13th, 2015
Opening reception: August 8, 2015 3-5 pm
Curators: Luchia Meihua Lee, Maple Yu Chieh Lin, C.J. Yeh
Co-organizers: Taiwanese American Arts Council , New York Hall of Science In Partnership with Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei
Participating Artists:
1. Chin Pao CHEN 陳敬寳 2. Yu-Ting FENG 馮鈺婷 3. Chemin HSIAO 蕭喆旻 4. Scottie HUANG 黃致傑 5. Shih Chieh HUANG 黃世傑 6. Ming Jer KUO 郭明哲 7. Daniel LEE 李小鏡 8. HsiangLu MENG 孟祥璐 9. Hao NI 倪灝 10. Mennie Hsiu-Ying SHEN 沈秀穎 11. Amy ChingChun WEN溫淨淳 12. Chin Chih YANG 楊金池 13. C.J. YEH 葉謹睿 14. Rosalie YU 余香瑩
TAAC Recognition
Taiwanese American Artists
July 29 - August 17, 2014
TAAC Recognition-Taiwanese American Artist
TAAC Recognition exhibition is formed by artists who support the launch of TAAC, the Taiwanese American Arts Council. The work is bidirectional – it enables and embodies interaction between Taiwanese American artists and their community. We also peer through a small aperture to see a spectacular world. We celebrate recognition, admiration, and support of the Taiwanese American art community from the Taiwanese community and seek the broader world’s understanding of Taiwanese American artists.
This exhibit combines different generations of expatriate artists - old and the new settlers – which adapted to various aspects to the new culture. The correspondence is also extended to artists in Taiwan rooted in their native land. Different geopolitical periods display both differences and commonalities in creativity.
To observe the moving flow of Taiwanese American Artist, return to the 80s in New York's Soho art district where the first generation of overseas artists settled; they were quite active within the larger western artist circle, and they created a splendid historical moment. The second wave of artists from Taiwan in the 90s faced a changing, confusing insecure world of economic and immigration difficulties. Artists based in the United States find themselves awash not only in the conflict between eastern and western, but also in the cultural whirlpool that is urban America. A metropolitan life – especially in New York - famously requires toughness and resiliency; at the same time metropolitan artists absorb multicultural influences to enrich their inherited outlook. For artists of the last ten years or new students, geo-focused fixed residence in the United States is not mandatory, and the use of new media is indispensable; their work is more diverse and more challenging.
Of the selected artists living in Taiwan, some are bound to the land on which they stand, and thus to consequent norms of culture, custom, and folk traditions; and this can be seen in the subjects which they choose. For example, eating is still an important component of a very recently rural society. In this exhibition, most art works from Taiwan are silkscreen prints, because of the passion and call of the pioneer ofTaiwan modern print making.
Because of limitations in space, not all of the works from Taiwan are on display, but the catalog lists all participating works. In addition, the exhibition only represents and cannot cover all Taiwanese-American artists, but TAAC has planned for the future a platform to promote and assist the development of the arts in Taiwan and the U.S.
