Brick Aux Presents
Asian Americana: Comfort
An AAPI group exhibition and market
at Brick Aux Gallery – 628 Metropolitan Ave
May 4 – June 3, 2023
Opening Reception May 7, 3-6pm
Closing Reception June 3, 7-10pm
Gallery Hours Saturdays and Sunday 12-5pm or email shawna.brickaux@gmail.com to arrange a visit.
On “comfort”
Being Asian in America is by definition being a member of diaspora. When emigrating away from a homeland, one often leaves behind an array of comforts. In response to culture shock, some rebuild or import approximations of what was left behind. Others find distinct new comforts in their new American surroundings.
As the following generations root themselves further in American life, these inherited comforts are blended into a new Asian Americana. However, comforts from the mother culture are often diluted or transformed. Other times, they are abandoned completely under the pressures to assimilate with mainstream white America.
Comforts can be a security blanket we wear around ourselves to build a temporary and individual shelter from a world that wearies us. Comforts can be something we share, to build and reinforce community.
Artists
Sally Chen
Sally Chen (they/she/he) is a queer, non-binary, second-generation Chinese (specifically Taishanese!) American multidisciplinary artist who’s born, raised, & based in Brooklyn, NYC. They graduated from Parsons School of Design with a BFA in Illustration and Psychology minor in 2022.
Through their work, they seek to create joy, laughter, instill softness, and maintain resiliency as often in a world that often feels too tough to be in. Whether this takes the form of whimsical, textured, and immersive illustrations awash with poetry, sculptural pieces, or silly animations, it’s important to them to create work that speaks to their identity and culture whilst uplifting those around them.
Petrina Cheng-Tatara
Petrina Cheng-Tatara has been crocheting for over 2 decades and aims to expand on what we typically associate with crochet or knitting. Focusing on surrealist wearables and Asian themed amigurumi to live up to a “good enough to eat” aesthetic. They experiment with a combination of crochet, knitting and needlefelting to achieve their vision. You can find their work on Etsy under “TeaLoveCrochet”. They hold a B.A. in Creative Writing from Ithaca College and currently live in Woodside, NY with their husband and cat.
R.Drada
R.Drada (b. 1986) is an Asian-American artist based in Berlin, Germany who contemplates the questions of women, destruction, freedom, emotions, her own identity, idealism, and dehumanization. An emerging artist, she has previously trained at the Art Students League of New York. Her works have been published in Horizon Magazine, The Purposeful Mayonnaise. R.Drada is the founder of a Berlin visual artists group established for artists seeking artistic community.
June Liu
June Liu (she/her) is a NYC-based casual creative. She enjoys experimenting with different mediums ranging from fabric to terracotta. She enjoys creating detailed pieces that are humorous and fun for a brief visual respite from our day to day.
Xuan Liu
Xuan Liu (she/ they) is a China-born, Philadelphia-based artist. She makes video, drawing, sculpture, performance, and social engagement art. Her subjects often concern critical thinking towards rules, power structure, and linguistic application in late capitalism. She employs humor and poetics as a strategy for dealing with political issues, and the subtle playfulness empowers both her practice and subject. Her works have been exhibited internationally in New York, Chicago, Paris, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Shanghai, etc.
Liliana Rasmussen
Liliana Rasmussen is a Brooklyn-based artist from the West Coast whose digital portrait painting emphasizes feminine energy and agency and seeks to challenge patriarchal narratives and Eurocentric beauty standards. A multi-disciplinary artist, she also creates tufted rugs, mirrors, and wall pieces. She is the founder and creative behind Naicha Studio
Shiori Takemori
Shiori Takemori is a LA-based artist specializing in cute, queer, feminist, and Asian American pottery. Known for her cheeky mugs and Shrek-inspired pieces, she creates unique pieces that incorporate both wheel throwing and handbuilding. Her inspirations include pop culture, political activism, memes, and shower thoughts. Whether they’re kawaii Japanese “drugstore” rolling trays or colorful cunt mugs, she strives to connect with audiences by bringing her own playful and light twist to the conversation.
Bonnie Zhou
Bonnie Zhou is a Brooklyn-based figurative artist born in Toronto to a Chinese immigrant family. She grew up in an environment of scarcity and survival, where artistic pursuits were discouraged in favor of a “stable” corporate career. After getting a degree in mathematics and computer science, she worked as a software engineer at Google for 6 years before burning out.
During high school Bonnie picked up dance as a hobby, and it was the first time she felt free to express herself without limitation. After over a decade of dancing, she started figure drawing during the global pandemic. Her figure work is largely inspired by her spiritual explorations through her own body as a dancer, which includes grappling with body image, sensuality, and femininity as an Asian woman. She uses Chinese ink brush techniques, spray paint, charcoal and other mixed media to convey the conflicting emotions of fetishization, shame, and empowerment. She continues to do through visual art what she has always done through dance: release and express all the emotions that we are taught to hide and suppress.
Fake Green Cards Project
Fake Green Cards Project is a social engagement art project where you could apply for a green card from us and we will issue a green card by hand-drawing it for you. We invite you to reconsider what an ID card means or does to your identity, who decides what’s fake and what’s valid, and linguistically why humans are defined by their sex, nationality, the color of their eyes or skin, and how they are being put in certain categories. It is a project not only offering to share (im)migration stories but also questioning terminologies and languages being used in everyday social structure.
Shown here is a sample blank green card that would be filled out during your interview. Also Xuan Liu has lent her own green card for display as an example.
Fake Green Cards Project will be at Brick Aux Gallery issuing green cards on a donation basis during our closing reception, June 3. Merch is available in the market area of the show.
If you’d like to apply up for a Fake Green Card, sign ups will open at the beginning of the closing reception. To stay up to date with Fake Green Cards Project and get a reminder for the event, follow the project and sign up for notification reminders on Instagram
Vendors
Convenience Store Studio
gary_af
gubbins nyc
The Revolutionary Mushroom
vickyisdrawing
Cookie Smut