The Appearance: Art of the Asian Diaspora in Latin America & the Caribbean

On view: September 4 through December 14, 2024

The Appearance: Art of the Asian Diaspora in Latin America & the Caribbean is the first exhibition in New York City to center the artistic production of the Asian diaspora in the region from the 1940s to the present. Focusing on postwar and contemporary art, the exhibition showcases the work of thirty artists from fifteen countries working in a range of artistic mediums including painting, sculpture, performance, photography, and video, to shed light into strategies and themes that resonate across a wide array of Asian diasporic practice throughout Latin America and the Caribbean.

The exhibition embraces and performs the multiple and interrelated meanings embedded in the notion of appearance, inspired by Japanese Brazilian artist Lydia Okumura’s 1975 print by the same title. From acts of appearing and becoming visible—including different types of apparitions—to the idea of impressions and physical resemblance, artists in the show grapple with the complexities of negotiating (in)visibility, revisiting and remaking family archives and stories, and engaging and reconfiguring spiritual practices. The show also addresses abstraction as a formal strategy linked to language, the senses, and the body in the context of the Americas’ postwar art. 

Conceived as an appearance in and of itself, the show sheds light on the often-overlooked experiences and artistic trajectories of Asian diasporic subjects and collectives across Latin America and the Caribbean, casting them as both grounded in their particular context and constitutive of broader transnational histories. 

To accompany the show, we will present a series of public programs and publish a catalogue. 

This exhibition is co-curated by Tie Jojima, former associate curator and manager of Exhibitions at Americas Society in New York, and Yudi Rafael, independent curator and researcher based in São Paulo, Brazil.

Library and Archive Exhibition Space
Ghost Stories: Highlights from Asia Art Archive In America

A collaboration with Asia Art Archive in America (AAAinA) and Americas Society, Ghost Stories: Highlights from Asia Art Archive In America presents books and archival materials from AAAinA’s collection that enrich the gallery exhibition, expanding upon the themes, histories, and legacies of the Asian diaspora.

Ghost Stories: Highlights from Asia Art Archive In America showcases the performance titled Ghost Stories by Singaporean artist and writer Lee Wen presented in Chiapas, Mexico in 1997. Lee, a prominent figure in performance art layered this work with social commentary and critiques of various forms of state repression. This performance includes broken chairs and references to ghosts, symbolizing the haunting and the injured. During the performance, Lee repeatedly chanted the Chinese idiom, “Kill the chickens to frighten the monkeys." This chant metaphorically represents the violence and disappearances used by authoritarian governments to control their citizens. 

The exhibition also highlights books from AAAinA’s collection by artists in The Appearance, as well as those that relate to larger histories of the Asian Diaspora throughout the world.

On view from September 4 to December 14.

For more information, please visit our website.

Flag Series: Prayer Birds, 2024

Americas Society’s Flag Series is pleased to present Alice Shintani's Prayer Birds, 2024

Prayer Birds is an extension of the Tuiuiú flag series (2017-ongoing). The series is based on the intersection of two reference sources: the Tibetan prayer flags, whose fluttering inscriptions are traditionally spread by the wind; and the geometric-universalist patterns of Athos Bulcão’s concrete tiles present in iconic Brazilian modernist public buildings. In various sizes, shapes, and assemblies, the flag series aims to openly and playfully engage with the public within the political, social, and cultural contexts in which they are installed. 

Prayer Birds is particularly inspired by the migrant birds that adopt New York’s Central Park as a temporary home (just a few blocks from AS/COA), as well as by the diasporic artists featured in The Appearance exhibition, to stimulate imagination from such cross-references openly.

On view from September 4 to January 25, 2025.

The Flag Series presents public artworks on 68th Street, furthering Americas Society’s engagement with the surrounding community in New York and creating new dialogues between artists of the Americas and our audiences.

For more information, please visit our website.