Arts Council Silicon Valley Announces Awards
Six South Bay Artists Receive Prestigious Artist Fellowship Awards
http://artshiftsanjose.com/wordpress/?p=500
By Josh Russell, Spring 2008

Arts Council Silicon Valley announced the recipients of its Artist Fellowship program, awarding a total of $20,000 to six Bay Area artists. This year, the Arts Council awarded one fellowship in each of five different categories, with two recipients in a fifth category.

Visual Arts – 2 Dimensional: Printing, Drawing & Printmaking
Katherine Aoki
Santa Clara
Visual Arts – 3 Dimensional:
Textile & Installation
Therese May
San Jose
Visual Arts – 3 Dimensional:
Textile & Installation
Flo Oy Wong
Sunnyvale
Literary Arts: Novel/Memoir
Peter Malae
Santa Clara
Performing Arts/Music: Composition
Henry Mollicone
Saratoga
Performing Arts/Dance: Performance
Rasika Kumar
Monte Sereno

click here for Article

70/30: Seventy Years of Living, Thirty Years of Art
a mid-career retrospective of Bay Area artist Flo Oy Wong
1-25 May 2008 at SomArts Cultural Center
a part of the Asian Pacific Islander Cultural Center’s 11th Annual United States of Asian America Festival

Celebrating her upcoming 70th birthday and three decades of work Chinese American artist Flo Oy Wong’s exhibit, 70/30: Seventy Years of Living, Thirty Years of Art, is on view May 1 through May 25, 2008 at SomArts Cultural Center, 934 Brannan Street in San Francisco. Curated by Nancy Hom, 70/30: Seventy Years of Living, Thirty Years of Art is a part of Asian Pacific Islander Cultural Center’s (APICC) annual month-long celebration “United States of Asian America Festival.” Admission to the exhibition is free. For hours and more information, please telephone (415) 864-4126 or visit www.apiculturalcenter.org

In 1978, after working in her family’s Oakland Chinatown restaurant and raising a family of her own, Flo Oy Wong turned her eye to the process of making art. Engaging in the dialogues of contemporary art, she began to create work that offered glimpses from and stories of ordinary and often overlooked people. Wong uses rice sacks, rice, sequins, beads, suitcases, flags of the United States, scanned photographs, and found objects to create large scale installation pieces. Born and raised in the East Bay, Wong has been lauded with awards from the Euphrat Museum of Art at De Anza College, the Women’s Caucus for Art, Kearny Street Workshop, the Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation, and the city of Sunnyvale.

Included in 70/30: Seventy Years of Living, Thirty Years of Art will be seminal pieces from each of Wong’s series as well as some early figurative drawings and process paintings.

“The Suitcase Series” is comprised of several suitcase book installations that tells family and community stories. My Mother's Baggage: Lucky Daughter addresses Wong’s mother’s place as an unwanted child in her family. My Mother's Baggage: Paper Sister/Paper Aunt/Paper Wife talks about her mother’s immigration experiences. 1942: Luggage From Home To Camp, a collaboration with the Japanese American community, will be shown in 70/30. All of the works examine the often-tragic cultural intersections that resulted from Asian immigration to the United States.

“The Joss Paper Series,” which includes Bitter Melon Rice Blues: Elegy for America, Rice for my Ancestors, and District Six: A Memory, are memorial installations that honor family and community. District Six, an installation about Cape Town, South Africa, will be shown in the exhibit.

Flo Oy Wong has also partnered with the African American and Japanese American communities in her work, including The Baby Jack Rice Story, which tells of her husband’s life in Georgia during segregation. The installation The Kente Rice Story: Talking Our Connection is a collaboration with two African American women artists – Reece Crawford Tocho and Pamela J. Berry.  With assistance from the Japanese community, Wong mounted 1942: Luggage From Home To Camp at the Japanese American Museum of Art in San Jose. Working with the survivors from the camps to extrapolate the memories of what the internees carried to their detention, the installation is a record of a dark moment from our collective past. 1942: Luggage From Home To Camp will be shown in 70/30.

Wong creates a new piece for the exhibition
For 70/30, Wong has created a new piece, My Sister: Li Hong, about her 86-year-old developmentally disabled sister. Wong will explore the humanity of her sibling’s life - a story of survival and compassion. My Sister: Li Hong consists of an embellished pinnable dress form and a mandala, as well as a sound component created from oral family reminiscences and Chinese opera music (Wong’s sister was able to sing Chinese opera when she was younger).

A brief biography of Flo Oy Wong
Flo Oy Wong has exhibited widely. In California, she has shown at the de Young Museum, the Angel Island Immigration Station, the Chinese Culture Center (in San Francisco), the Oakland Museum of California, the Euphrat Museum of Art, the Triton Museum, the Fresno Museum of Art, the Japanese American National Museum (in Los Angeles), the Japanese American Museum of San Jose and the Pacific Asia Museum. She received a commission from the Sacramento Philharmonic to create the Gold Mountain project featuring the Chinese American communities of Sacramento and the nearby Delta regions. Wong is currently included in the Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History’s exhibition Ying: Inspired by the Art and History of China.

She is also a participating artist in two national traveling exhibitions. Along with Faith Ringgold, Miriam Shapiro, Jaune Quick To See Smith and others, she is included in Women Only! In Their Studios. She is also featured in Reimagining the Distaff Toolkit with Betye and Alison Saar.

The artist’s website is www.flo-oy-wongartist.com.

Related events for 70/30: Seventy Years of Living, Thirty Years of Art
On Saturday, May 17, coinciding with the exhibition will be “A Conversation with Flo Oy Wong,” a discussion with the artist, moderated by Moira Roth, Trefethen Professor of Art History at Mills College. Admission is free.

On Thursday, May 22, APICC will present a book launch and signing for the 70/30: Seventy Years of Living, Thirty Years of Art catalog. The 64-page, softbound, full-color catalog covers three decade of art by Flo Oy Wong. The book contains a major essay on the artist’s work by Margo Machida, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Art History and Asian American Studies at the University of Connecticut. The artist will be present to sign the catalogs.

From May 22-25, danceNAGANUMA will present “Noodle Women,” a performance inspired by Flo Oy Wong's 30-year retrospective. “Noodle Women” offers a rich landscape of thoughts and feelings within a balance of formality and levity. The dance is an exploration of eating long life noodles and will take place on stage and within Wong’s exhibition. General admission is $20. Students/Seniors and advanced tickets are $18. For more information, please visit www.apiculturalcenter.org.

About the United States of Asian America Festival
Now in its 11th Year, the Asian Pacific Islander Cultural Center (APICC) proudly presents the Annual United States of Asian America Festival. APICC showcases Asian Pacific Islander artists who exemplify the best in dance, theater, visual art and multimedia.

APICC supports and nurtures the artistic endeavors of the San Francisco Bay Area Asian Pacific Islander community. Through collaboration, sponsorship, producing and presenting, APICC supports the development and growth of multidisciplinary art. APICC empowers the diverse voices of the community to reflect their unique experiences as Asian Pacific Islanders living in America.

General information about the exhibition
70/30: Seventy Years of Living, Thirty Years of Art is on view May 1 through May 25, 2008 at SomArts Cultural Center, 934 Brannan Street in San Francisco. The exhibitionis part of the APICC’s annual month-long celebration United States of Asian America Festival. Admission to the exhibition is free. For hours and more information please telephone (415) 864-4126 or visit www.apiculturalcenter.org

May 29th Arts Council Reception