ARTIST GALLERY
The exhibits at Asia Pacific Cultural Center, 3513 East Portland Avenue, Tacoma 98404 (our temporary address) is open to the public from 9:00 AM to 5:00 pm. Please let the office know of your visit by calling 253-383-3900.
Four artist from India now showing their diverse work at the APCC Gallery
Please join us to celebrate these artists on March 2nd from 3:30-5:30 for an artist reception with food and drinks to accompany the art and meet the artists!
Asia Pacific Cultural Center is proud to showcase the extraordinary talents of four renowned artists from India – Aaliyah Gupta, Exta Gupta, Jayshree Krishnan, and Kamla Kakaria. Their captivating works of art are currently on display at the APCC gallery, inviting art enthusiasts to embark on a visual journey through the rich and diverse cultural tapestry of India.
A Glimpse into the Artists
Aaliyah Gupta
Statement
Natural disasters across the world have a global impact on multiple levels – environmental, economic, sociological. This series is about the idea of Dispersion (an act, state or instance of dispersing or of being dispersed), a study of the movement of particles, ash, smoke, clouds, oil, water, wind, sand.
Biography
Born and raised in Kolkata, India, Aaliyah comes from a long line of spirited, rule-breaking women who pursued their passions despite the odds. Her most recent works are an exploration of cartography and memory. She has exhibited nationally and internationally, lived in New York and Copenhagen and is now rooted in Seattle and part of the Equinox Studios community.
Aaliyah has been awarded artist residencies at Ucross Foundation, Vermont Studio Center, Jentel Foundation and Willapa Bay AIR. Recent exhibitions include Brand51 at Brand Library & Arts Center, NEXT 2022 at PrintMatters, Houston; EKS-Rummet in Copenhagen; Site: Brooklyn Gallery; Bellevue Arts Museum; ARTS at King Street Station, Museum of History & Industry and Core Gallery in Seattle.
In addition to her studio practice, she is actively involved in advocating for immigrant rights and was the founding executive director of Chaya, an organization serving South Asian survivors of domestic violence.
Ekta Gupta
ekta-gupta.pixels.com
Biography
Ekta Gupta is primarily a colored pencil artist, who enjoys capturing the beauty of nature in her artwork. She also loves the play of light and shadow on faces, and likes to utilize the simplicity of graphite to portray the complexity of wrinkles on paper. As the need for reference photos arose, she branched out into photography which has evolved into a full-blown passion. She believes art is a never-ending evolution of the creative mind and is constantly experimenting with different media including acrylics, charcoal, pastels, pen and ink, and chalk; various surfaces such as tiles, wood and burlap; genres ranging from realism to cubism; and diverse subjects including, but not limited to, flowers, fruits, people, pets, landscapes and waterscapes.
A pharmacist by education, she has been involved in the health industry since 1987. A brief stint as an educator in a school for gifted children (1996-2009,) exposed her to a variety of experiences with children as well as adults. She first dared to pick up a pencil in 2009 at the instigation of a friend, and with the support and encouragement of her family, has been creating and evolving ever since. Mostly a self-taught artist, she has had the privilege of receiving art instruction from Duane Dudley (Illustrator – Scooby Doo movies) in Tulsa, OK, where she lived for 23 years, and from Margaret Davidson, Kathleen McKeehen and others at Gage Art Academy in Seattle, WA, after moving here in 2010.
She has been a member of the Colored Pencil Society of America as well as the American Society of Botanical Artists. She has shown her work at local galleries, juried shows, and various art fairs including the Miller Art Exhibit at the University of Washington, Bloedel Preserve, Snoqualmie River Arts Tour, Sammamish Arts Fair, Redmond Arts Fair, Railroad Days in Snoqualmie, Mount Si Festival, and Wine/Art walks in the Puget Sound area.
She has curated multiple shows for local galleries and facilitated numerous art markets for the Downtown Issaquah Association as their Art Liaison. She has also been an art instructor at Pratt Fine Arts Center, ArtEast Gallery, and various senior centers in the area. She has created commissioned works for various patrons here and abroad, including a Hollywood producer, and a corporate conglomerate. Her work has been featured in Courageous Creativity, Colored Pencil Magazine, as well as in Ann Kullberg’s Colored Pencil Magazine. She uses the proceeds from the sales of her artwork to make loans through KIVA.org, a group that provides microloans to the underprivileged populace around the globe and has made more than 1300 loans so far.
JAYASHREE Krishnan
Artist Statement
This body of work is centered around one primary theme: raptors, and the poetic beauty of their movement in the skies. As these birds fly in the sky, the invisible repetitive patterns traced by these birds escapes human perception. What if they were to leave contrails like a jet plane behind for us to see? What visual poetry could we perceive in the sky?
My inspiration for this body of work comes from the 13th century Sanskrit poem Garuda Gati. This 32-syllable poem is accompanied by a diagram of four concentric circles which contain the letters of the poem in a peculiar order. I later discovered that the order of these letters in fact traces the flight path of the Brahminy Kite. The order of the letters similarly matched certain photographers’ studies of raptors’ flight patterns. This fascinating exploration led me to paint several versions of the poem and the raptors as a series focused on movement.
The collection of paintings here focus on two raptors - Vultures and Kites. As part of this series, there is a specific way I created the backgrounds for the paintings. The use of cold wax and sand in the impasto backgrounds provide the texture I was seeking to show distance as well as movement. After working with a set of 16 smaller studies , I proceeded to use the same technique in the larger pieces.
I grew up in India listening to stories from mythology with these birds portrayed as demigods. There is a sense of reverence to the natural world that comes from the deification of animals and birds. This collection of paintings is an invitation to the viewer to stop and stare at the skies differently. What magical patterns did the raptor in the skies leave for you to see?
Kamla Kakaria
kamlakakaria.wordpress.com
Biography
I am trained as a printmaker and painter. For the last few years, I have been working with creating installations. The freedom of making environments has allowed me to make work that is not only bigger than myself but also moves my work outside of the box (or frame) into the public’s space. This has generated a more satisfying statement from me and more interesting discussions with viewers. I see my work moving in this direction of living in space and off the wall. I also see myself needing to share my cultural visual viewpoint with a larger general audience.
Our new featured artists now showing at the APCC Gallery thru January 2024
Please join us to celebrate these accomplished artists on December 2nd from 3:00-5:00 for an artist reception with Khmer food and drinks to accompany the art and meet the artists!
In a historic first, Asia Pacific Cultural Center (APCC) proudly presents an all-Cambodian art exhibition, featuring the compelling works of two remarkable artists, Vuttha Oum and Tony Keo (Rachana) Phuong. With a combined total of 16 original artworks, this exhibition unveils a poignant narrative shaped by the tumultuous history of Cambodia, the artists' resilience, and their subsequent artistic evolution in the United States.
APCC proudly hosts the works of these two exceptional artists until January 24, 2024. This exhibition is not only a celebration of artistic talent but also a testament to the resilience of the Cambodian spirit. Don't miss the opportunity to immerse yourself in the captivating stories told through 16 original artworks that bridge the past, present, and future.
A Journey of Resilience: Vuttha Oum's Story
Vuttha Oum's artistic journey begins in the aftermath of the Khmer Rouge Communist Regime. In 1979, as a young boy, Oum escaped the war-torn country, seeking refuge in Washington State after enduring the hardships of the refugee camps in Thailand. It was there that he first discovered his passion for art, attending art school and mastering the intricacies of drawing, painting, and wood carving.
Oum's talent quickly shone through, earning him the top prize in an art painting competition in the refugee camp in 1980. During his time in the camp, he actively contributed to the community, volunteering for Save the Children. His artistic endeavors extended beyond traditional canvases, as he painted stage backgrounds for performing arts and created road signs.
Despite facing adversity, Oum's determination to support his family led him to sell his artwork. In 1981, he embarked on a new chapter, immigrating to the United States. Settling in Washington, Oum continued his education and artistic pursuits, participating in various art shows and winning accolades, including second place in a high school fine arts competition. Although he chose to focus on a career in civil engineering and technology after high school, the exhibition at APCC unveils a collection of the artworks he carefully preserved—each piece a poignant reminder of his roots and the challenges he overcame.
Today, Vuttha Oum stands not only as an artist but as a leader within the Cambodian communities in Washington State, a testament to his remarkable journey from a war-torn childhood to a position of influence and inspiration.
Bridging Cultures Through Art: Tony Keo (Rachana) Phuong's Perspective
Tony Keo (Rachana) Phuong, a graduate in Visual Communication (Graphic Design) with a degree from the University of Fine Art in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, contributes a distinctive voice to the exhibition. Having fled Cambodia before completing his university studies, Phuong brings a fusion of traditional and contemporary influences to his artworks.
Beyond the canvas, Phuong is an avid outdoorsman, finding inspiration in biking, hiking, and camping. His unique perspective is reflected in his art, which captures not only the struggle of his homeland but also the diverse experiences that have shaped him.
Our new featured artists now showing at the APCC Gallery thru November 8
Artist Reception - October 7th from 4:00-6:00 pm at APCC with artists' introductions at the beginning and mingling with food and drinks. All the artists will be in attendance.
Explore stunning artworks by three exceptional artists on display until November 8, 2023.
Wen-Hsi Tsen was born in Taiwan and paints in acrylic and oil for landscape paintings of deserts, canyons, and forests in a painterly manner with dappled brush strokes catching light on the land.
Anna Choi Lee was born in South Korea and grew up in various countries around the world. Anna offers a variety of subjects from floral, architectural, and abstracted landscapes handling it all with a freshness with each style and subject.
Japanese American, Mizu Sugimura, addresses a deep and important narrative of her mother's dementia through the medium of collage. Mizu bravely and poetically processes the long and difficult experience of her mother's decline as well as the unspoken, hidden issues of how mental health was not part of their family conversation.
APCC Presents Inaugural Art Exhibition Celebrating Samoan and Chinese Artists
The exhibition will kick off with an opening reception on June 26 from 3:00 to 5:00 pm, located at 3513 East Portland Avenue, Tacoma, WA 98404. This event provides an opportunity for art enthusiasts, cultural enthusiasts, and the local community to engage with the artists and gain deeper insights into their creative processes.
Asia Pacific Cultural Center (APCC) is thrilled to announce its inaugural art exhibition, showcasing the talent and creativity of artists from Samoa and China. Curated by APCC's Board member June Sekiguchi, the exhibition will take place in the center's new temporary building located at 3513 East Portland Avenue, Tacoma, WA 98404. This unique event aims to foster cultural exchange and appreciation while highlighting the diversity of artistic expressions within the Asia Pacific region.
The exhibition will feature the works of two esteemed Samoan artists, Kamu of Kaydrey's Polynesian Tattoo and Marialina Wallace, alongside the captivating artistry of Chinese artist Yichao Zhang. Each artist brings their distinct style and perspective, offering visitors a rich and immersive experience through their artwork.
Visitors will have the pleasure of exploring the artworks on display until September 6th. This extended period allows ample time for individuals to fully immerse themselves in the diverse and thought-provoking collection. The exhibition promises to be an enriching experience, fostering cross-cultural understanding and appreciation among attendees.
APCC's inaugural art exhibition is a testament to the organization's commitment to showcasing the vibrant cultures of the Asia Pacific region. By providing a platform for talented artists from Samoa and China, this event aims to foster cultural exchange, celebrate diversity, and encourage dialogue about the transformative power of art.
Artist Yichao Zhang
Our current featured artist now showing at the APCC Gallery
Please join us at her artist reception is March 17, 2023, 5:00 pm to 7:30 pm @ APCC; light refreshments will be served.
Yichao Zhang was born and raised around Zhengzhou, in Henan province, China, in 1999. She lives in America, where she is married to her wife and creates art in multiple styles and mediums.
Her work has been described as having a signature warmth and character unique to her touch. She enjoys exploring queer themes, science fiction, nature, and complex human expression and figures in her work.
I-Ching Reimagined by artist Maggie Jiang
Our featured artist for November and December.
Maggie Jiang's work will be on exhibit from November 4 to December 26, 2022.
The opening reception is Nov 12 from 1-3 pm @ APCC, light refreshments will be served.
Exhibition Statement
As a Chinese American artist, I have always been fascinated by the richness and universality of the I-Ching, more commonly known as the “Book of Changes”. The I-Ching is an ancient Chinese text of divination, historically used by scholars, emperors, and laymen to foresee the future. It consists of 64 hexagrams, each with a different meaning and interpretation. Each hexagram is formed from two trigrams consisting of three broken or unbroken lines. Broken lines are “yin” and solid lines are “yang”, and there are a total of eight possible trigrams: Qian (Heaven, 乾, ☰), Dui (Lake, 兌, ☱), Li (Fire, 離, ☲), Zhen (Thunder, 震, ☳), Xun (Wind, 巽, ☴), Kan (Water, 坎, ☵), Gen (Mountain, 艮, ☶), and Kun (Earth, 坤, ☷).
Visually rigid and conceptually fluid, the I-Ching emphasizes continuous change as a way of being. This duality is also represented in the works I have chosen for this exhibition. When I first started this body of work, I was primarily attracted to the geometric rigor of the trigrams and hexagrams themselves and created a number of works in which they are the primary visual vocabulary. However, as time passed, I found my work evolving, almost as if it too was being influenced by the philosophical ideas expressed in the I-Ching. The hexagrams began to become secondary visual elements and in many cases, receded altogether. However, what remains consistent is the continued exploration of the interactions of colors, the physical and perceptual qualities of paint, the tension between symmetry vs. asymmetry, and the visual sensation between motion and stillness.
As attentive viewers will note, no painting in this exhibition is quite what it initially appears to be. Therefore, they will be rewarded with a richer experience upon deliberate examination of each individual work.
Maggie Jiang Artist Bio
Maggie Jiang is a Seattle-based visual artist who previously worked in business and technology for many years before deciding in 2015 to dedicate herself full-time to making art. Born in Beijing and educated in both China and the U.S., she also worked internationally in Australia, Hong Kong, Beijing, and Europe during her business career. As a Chinese American artist who was raised in two distinct cultures, her focus has been on using geometry to create a visual language that can communicate across cultures with clarity, inclusiveness, and compassion.
Largely self-taught, Jiang’s art education includes classes at Gage Academy and North Seattle College. Exhibiting regularly since 2016, Jiang won 1st prize in 2016 and 3rd prize in 2018 in the Abstract Category at Best of Gage, as well as being selected as the Stranger’s Artist of the Week in July 2022. She is represented by Rinehart Gallery in Seattle, where she recently had her well-received solo exhibition, “I-Ching through thick and thin.”.
She counts the Bauhaus movement, Concrete Art, and artists such as Josef Alberts, Piet Mondrian, Carmen Herrera, and Thomas Nozkowski as some of her main influences. Her intention is for her work to create tension and ambiguity in the minds of her viewers, more specifically:
· Tension between the analytical and spontaneous sides of the self
· Tension between hard-edged forms and visceral and tactile surface textures
· Tension between the austerity of geometry and playfulness of curvilinear forms
· Tension between harmony and discord as well as motion and stillness
· Ambiguity between perceptual vs. physical figure and ground relationships
· Ambiguity between visual vs. audible rhythms upon viewing the work
· Ambiguity between the color perception of the eye vs. the interpretation by the brain
· Ambiguity between chance and control in the creative process
Our October 2022 Featured Artist
HORATIO HUNG-YAN LAW
APCC is proud to be the host of the first solo exhibition of the Urban Studies Series by Horatio Hung-Yan Law
Horatio Hung-Yan Law was born in Hong Kong to Chinese parents and moved to the US at the age of sixteen. With this multi-cultural background, he has developed an artistic practice whose subjects include the Chinese immigrant’s experience, reinterpretations of cultural icons, trans-cultural adoptions, the Iraq War, and the current culture of consumption. His work often tackles weighty subjects with ephemeral and unexpected materials, creating quiet, conflicting, meditative and evocative works. In studio work, public art, and community residencies, Law deploys common cultural artifacts to explore issues of identity, memory, and the loss and gain of cross-cultural struggle in the evolving global community. Horatio Law resides in Portland, Oregon.
Horatio Hung-Yan Law is a public art and installation artist who is interested in creating collaborative installations with diverse communities, and in exploring how art activates the complex and dynamic relationship between individual and community. Tacoma residents will recognize Law’s shimmering Cloud Gates over 38th Street in the Lincoln District where he served in creating the comprehensive art plan.
Other public art projects include the Redmond Overlake Streetscape Renovation, the King County Children & Family Justice Center Facade and Entrance Project in Seattle, and The AMP: AIDS Memorial Pathway, AIDS Remembrance at Cal Anderson Park in Seattle to name just a few projects.
STATEMENT ON URBAN STUDIES SERIES OF PHOTOGRAPHIC WORKS:
Urban Studies was actually a byproduct of trying to entertain myself while performing my daily walking exercise by photographing my surroundings and the places I passed through during my five-mile walk every other day. No, I did not intend them to become a series, but when I tried to put a framework around these seemingly random snapshots, the title “Urban Studies” took hold. Suddenly, grouping these snapshots under this title made sense, and it in turn motivated me to do more and post these photographs on social media as a group. So far, I have posted almost 1,400 entries on Instagram and Facebook.
https://www.instagram.com/urban_studies_by_horatio_law/
https://www.facebook.com/horatio.law.37
Our May-June 2022 Featured Artists
Jim Kurihara and Keven Furiya
See their amazing work now showing at the APCC gallery.
Jim Kurihara works in oil paints to create paintings from real life but also from imagination. His focus is on using live models and plein air landscapes to represent his creative ideas. He likes to experiment with color, composition, and free application of paint to create his art. His work in art is influenced by his Pacific Northwest life experience and Japanese heritage.
Contact Jim Kurihara at allaprima99@gmail.com
Keven Furiya is an active member of the Seattle art community who has created art in the city for more than 25 years. While pursuing his own practice and exhibiting locally, Furiya has also moderated various life drawing sessions in the art community. His art education began at Seattle Central Community College, with Graphic Design and Illustration. This was combined with work as studio assistant to Seattle-based artist William Elston.
As a nisei (American-born Japanese), Furiya is inspired by the work and shares many of the subjects that intrigued artists Kamekichi Tokita (1897–1948) and Kenjiro Nomura (1896–1956). Both immigrated from Japan at the turn of the 20th century, becoming Seattle business partners in a sign-painting shop. This was located in the Nihonmachi, that local precinct currently known as the Chinatown International District. Prominent contributors to the Pacific Northwest art world from the early 1900's to the 1940s, each participated in the national Public Works of Art Project (PWAP). Both artists' plein air paintings of their neighborhoods and surroundings provide a visual snapshot of their era: a time which, for the city, proved pivotal. They continue to influence Furiya’s urban landscapes, his interiors and his portraits of fellow artists.
Contact Keven Furiya at www.furiya.com
Our March-April 2022 Featured Artist
Meet Juliet Shen
See her beautiful paintings now showing at the APCC gallery.
Juliet Shen grew up in New York, where her father was a translator at the United Nations. She started painting in childhood. Post-college, she spent the 1970s painting and performing dance in NY. After moving to Seattle in 1983, she had a long career as a graphic designer, running her own firm from 1989–2012 and teaching typography at the School for Visual Concepts. In 2006 she was awarded a masters degree in type design by the University of Reading, UK. Since 2012 she has been painting full time, exhibiting in several solo and group shows. Her work has been collected by Seattle Public Utilities, King County, Portland OR, and Tacoma Art Museum.
Artist Statement
I am inspired to make art by my observations of the natural world and I believe nature holds moral lessons for society. I paint landscapes that echo human interactions: the abstract patterns of tidal water moving in contrary directions yet ultimately resolving into a cohesive whole; the re-emergence of life from destruction and decay in the forest. I'm interested in drawing the viewer into a journey that produces the same uplifting feeling afforded by looking at a real landscape.
I have not received traditional training in brush painting, which involves a lot of patient repetition and imitation. I am learning the potential of the brush by experimenting on my own and being willing to meet failure. I admire the minimalism of the Chinese brush as a tool, and its ability to nonetheless create such lush textures on paper. Training in typography has influenced my style by heightening my awareness of how edges and the spaces between things visually define our physical world. I see patterns in everything around me.
While I learned painting in oils as a child and I love color, I believe you can evoke the essence of things with just black ink. However during the worst days of the pandemic, I found myself diving into the use of color just to create some joyful, carefree moments. This show shows examples of both types of work.
Our January-February 2022 Featured Artist.
Meet Jayashree Krishnan
See her incredible work of healthcare workers now showing at the APCC gallery.
Jayashree Krishnan lives in Seattle with her husband, two daughters, and a dog, Buddy. Her studio is in the historic Inscape Arts building located in the International District. She primarily paints portraits and landscapes. Find more of her work at Jayashreekrishnan.com and her Instagram page, @jayashreeart.
About the Art and the Creative Process
The healthcare workers shared photographs of themselves taken at work and shared them with Jayashree. She used those pictures as a reference to paint the portraits using watercolor paints. Some of these portraits were made on artist-grade cold press watercolor paper and mounted on wooden panels. Most of them were made on substrates called clay boards (wooden panels coated with fine kaolin clay). The paintings were then sealed, varnished, and framed.
ARTIST GALLERY ARCHIVES 2021 - 2017
Archives pulled from our previous website.