The Women Artists on Immigration: Crossing Borders, Confronting Barriers, Bridging Identities (WAOI) exhibition takes place at the Korean Cultural Center Art Gallery in Los Angeles from February 20 – March 7, 2009. It coincides with the 2009 Art and Activism WCA Confab and the College Art Association Conference, and is part of the Feminist Art Project. WAOI represents a first-time collaboration involving the Korean Cultural Center and the Northern California, South Bay and Southern California chapters of the Women’s Caucus for Art. We hope this will be the beginning of future collaborations among Women’s Caucus chapters and community arts organizations on social activism issues.
The idea for WAOI started with a concerned dialog among WCA members on recent controversies surrounding immigration – the Bush Administration’s initiative to build a border fence between the United States and Mexico, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers’ raids on Northern California schools and the “Day Without Immigrants March” on May 1, 2006.
These discussions led to a broader discourse on globalization, which by its very nature, facilitates the movement of people around the world. Our talks helped formulate the show’s theme: “The dynamic movement of immigrants crossing borders by land, sea and air stirs impassioned debates on whether their arrival diminishes resources and opportunities or enriches society with fresh energy and intellectual capital.”
The timing and location of the show is significant: the 2009 WCA and CAA conference will be held in Los Angeles, not far from the US-Mexico border; and we wanted to seize the momentum of a Presidential election year to express our perspectives on a critical social issue. We hoped to hear from California women artists who were immigrants, whose parents were immigrants and who had strong convictions about immigration.
The core WCA exhibition team came together informally. Because no one person had time to be a full-time exhibitions chair, work was divided among volunteers Alejandra Chaverri (SBWCA), Libby Hartigan (SCWCA), Ann Isolde (SCWCA), Sandra Mueller (SCWCA), and Priscilla Otani (NCWCA). Alejandra took charge of the show’s catalog, Libby worked on publicity, and the rest of us worked on everything else from prospectus development, administration, postcards, correspondence, communications to trouble-shooting.
By a chance cold-call, we met Heeseon Choi, the young gallery director and curator at the Korean Cultural Center Los Angeles. When we explained that we were looking for an organization to collaborate on a show on immigration, she clapped her hands and said, “I’ve dreamed of working on a show like this!” It was the beginning of an amazing partnership with her and the Korean Cultural Center. Heeseon and Jongyul Kim, Director and Consul, generously made their art gallery available for the show and funded the reception.
We were fortunate that Alma Ruiz, curator of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (MOCA) agreed to jury the show. She has curated numerous exhibitions of contemporary art, with a focus on the postwar period in Italy and Latin America, as well as working with emerging artists. Born in Guatemala City, she is an immigrant herself. She received her B.A. in art history at the University of Southern California and M.A. in Italian language and literature from Middlebury College. Alma has been an integral partner in this exhibition, spending two solid weeks thoughtfully reviewing all of the submissions and deciding how her selections worked with each other in the gallery space. She also wrote an excellent statement for the show’s catalog and partnered with Heeeseon to arrange the works in the gallery.
In the course of planning the show, we met Carol Wells, Executive Director of the Center for the Study of Political Graphics in Los Angeles. Her organization houses the largest collection of political posters in the United States and she expressed great interest in collaborating with us. She and Alma Ruiz will select posters depicting women and immigration from the Center’s vast collection. These posters will be displayed in the reception room of the Korean Cultural Center Art Gallery.
The subject of immigration resonated with many; we received 298 submissions from 127 artists throughout California. The majority of the submissions came from non-WCA members (65%). Forty artists were selected for the exhibition, 57% from the greater Los Angeles area, 11% from the San Diego Area and 32% from Northern California. 55% of the selected artists are non-WCA members.
The artists selected for the WAOI exhibition at the Korean Cultural Center Art Gallery are: Mariana Barnes, Yvonne Beatty, Alejandra Chaverri, Ching-Ching Cheng, Gilda Davidian, Cosette Dudley, Dwora Fried, Shelley Gazin, Elizabeth Gomez, Becky Guttin, Jennifer Maria Harris, Trudi Chamoff Hauptman, Judy Johnson-Williams, Niku Kashef, Arzu Arda Kosar and Gul Cagin, Patricia Krebs, Alexia Kutzner, Li’ n Lee, Lynn Elliott Letterman, Viviana Lombrozo, Poli Marichal, Michelle Montjoy, Carol Nye, Amparo J. Ochoa, Priscilla Otani, Lark (Larisa Pilinsky), Sinan Leong Revell, Patricia Rodriguez, Sandy Rodriguez, Ann Storc, Yuriko Takata, Luz Tapia, Tate Sisters, Linda Vallejo, Alicia Villegas, Sama Wareh, Sarah Wilkinson and Holly Wong.
It is important to widen the dialog on immigration beyond gallery walls. The WAOI blog was created to honor the works of the large number of artists who submitted entries. These works will also be projected on a large screen at the Korean Cultural Center Gallery during the exhibition period. We encourage visitors to this blogsite to participate through the sharing of their personal immigrant experience and adding their comments and feedback.
Exhibitions Committee
Alejandra Chaverri
Libby Hartigan
Ann Isolde
Priscilla Otani
Sandra Mueller
The idea for WAOI started with a concerned dialog among WCA members on recent controversies surrounding immigration – the Bush Administration’s initiative to build a border fence between the United States and Mexico, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers’ raids on Northern California schools and the “Day Without Immigrants March” on May 1, 2006.
These discussions led to a broader discourse on globalization, which by its very nature, facilitates the movement of people around the world. Our talks helped formulate the show’s theme: “The dynamic movement of immigrants crossing borders by land, sea and air stirs impassioned debates on whether their arrival diminishes resources and opportunities or enriches society with fresh energy and intellectual capital.”
The timing and location of the show is significant: the 2009 WCA and CAA conference will be held in Los Angeles, not far from the US-Mexico border; and we wanted to seize the momentum of a Presidential election year to express our perspectives on a critical social issue. We hoped to hear from California women artists who were immigrants, whose parents were immigrants and who had strong convictions about immigration.
The core WCA exhibition team came together informally. Because no one person had time to be a full-time exhibitions chair, work was divided among volunteers Alejandra Chaverri (SBWCA), Libby Hartigan (SCWCA), Ann Isolde (SCWCA), Sandra Mueller (SCWCA), and Priscilla Otani (NCWCA). Alejandra took charge of the show’s catalog, Libby worked on publicity, and the rest of us worked on everything else from prospectus development, administration, postcards, correspondence, communications to trouble-shooting.
By a chance cold-call, we met Heeseon Choi, the young gallery director and curator at the Korean Cultural Center Los Angeles. When we explained that we were looking for an organization to collaborate on a show on immigration, she clapped her hands and said, “I’ve dreamed of working on a show like this!” It was the beginning of an amazing partnership with her and the Korean Cultural Center. Heeseon and Jongyul Kim, Director and Consul, generously made their art gallery available for the show and funded the reception.
We were fortunate that Alma Ruiz, curator of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (MOCA) agreed to jury the show. She has curated numerous exhibitions of contemporary art, with a focus on the postwar period in Italy and Latin America, as well as working with emerging artists. Born in Guatemala City, she is an immigrant herself. She received her B.A. in art history at the University of Southern California and M.A. in Italian language and literature from Middlebury College. Alma has been an integral partner in this exhibition, spending two solid weeks thoughtfully reviewing all of the submissions and deciding how her selections worked with each other in the gallery space. She also wrote an excellent statement for the show’s catalog and partnered with Heeeseon to arrange the works in the gallery.
In the course of planning the show, we met Carol Wells, Executive Director of the Center for the Study of Political Graphics in Los Angeles. Her organization houses the largest collection of political posters in the United States and she expressed great interest in collaborating with us. She and Alma Ruiz will select posters depicting women and immigration from the Center’s vast collection. These posters will be displayed in the reception room of the Korean Cultural Center Art Gallery.
The subject of immigration resonated with many; we received 298 submissions from 127 artists throughout California. The majority of the submissions came from non-WCA members (65%). Forty artists were selected for the exhibition, 57% from the greater Los Angeles area, 11% from the San Diego Area and 32% from Northern California. 55% of the selected artists are non-WCA members.
The artists selected for the WAOI exhibition at the Korean Cultural Center Art Gallery are: Mariana Barnes, Yvonne Beatty, Alejandra Chaverri, Ching-Ching Cheng, Gilda Davidian, Cosette Dudley, Dwora Fried, Shelley Gazin, Elizabeth Gomez, Becky Guttin, Jennifer Maria Harris, Trudi Chamoff Hauptman, Judy Johnson-Williams, Niku Kashef, Arzu Arda Kosar and Gul Cagin, Patricia Krebs, Alexia Kutzner, Li’ n Lee, Lynn Elliott Letterman, Viviana Lombrozo, Poli Marichal, Michelle Montjoy, Carol Nye, Amparo J. Ochoa, Priscilla Otani, Lark (Larisa Pilinsky), Sinan Leong Revell, Patricia Rodriguez, Sandy Rodriguez, Ann Storc, Yuriko Takata, Luz Tapia, Tate Sisters, Linda Vallejo, Alicia Villegas, Sama Wareh, Sarah Wilkinson and Holly Wong.
It is important to widen the dialog on immigration beyond gallery walls. The WAOI blog was created to honor the works of the large number of artists who submitted entries. These works will also be projected on a large screen at the Korean Cultural Center Gallery during the exhibition period. We encourage visitors to this blogsite to participate through the sharing of their personal immigrant experience and adding their comments and feedback.
Exhibitions Committee
Alejandra Chaverri
Libby Hartigan
Ann Isolde
Priscilla Otani
Sandra Mueller
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