[Solar] Revolution

Happy New Year and Happy 2018, friends!

At Heavenly Lake / Tianchi, in the middle of Bogda Peak
of the Tianshan mountain range. Xinjiang, China, 2017.

Who else thought 2017 felt uncharacteristically long? Ever since I was 7 I felt that time passed by too quickly, with each subsequent year slipping out of my grasp as soon as I could grab ahold of it. Last year, however, felt like a thousand years in one. (Thank you, American political hellscape.) When reflecting on it on New Year’s Eve, I’d think back to an event and go, “Wait, that was this year?” (I was shocked, for instance, when I realized the City selecting my artwork to be exhibited at the Chicago Cultural Center was an accomplishment I could include in my list below.) But in the national night there was always a light on, and my musing in this year-old interview (more about that later) that “Good things can still happen, and good things still do happen” turned out to be true; I had another great personal year in terms of what I achieved and with whom I shared it (you).

My highlights of 2017, in no particular order:

• The first juried exhibition I applied to as an artist I got into; my artwork was selected to be exhibited in the Chicago Cultural Center as part of the City of Chicago’s “Year of Public Art” initiative. Not bad.

• I became a published comic book artist and writer for the first time, contributing art and an original story exploring Asian American identity in the graphic novel anthology New Frontiers.

• A sketch of mine was exhibited in the Nasty Women Chicago Art Show (and I sold it, with 100% of the sale donated to Planned Parenthood).

• I had fun guest judging submissions for a show at Line Dot Editions.

• I appeared in the political documentary Transition to Power, my first time in a film.

• I started sharing the Chicago edition of Dreams of a City one mapped postcard per day, every day, online for the first time ever.

• My parents and I traveled to Western China for the first time, embarking on a Silk Road Tour.

• Things like this kept happening.

• Against all odds, hope survived, as did we.

My top liked Instagram photos of 2017, thanks to you.

You might notice that in 2017, I brought my own art back to the forefront (after producing the biggest and best interactive group show I’d ever done). As an artist who’s also a curator, I find that it’s often difficult to balance the two; when using your creativity to curate exhibitions where you showcase the talents of other artists (which I love doing), oftentimes your own art takes a backseat. This year was about focusing on creating art myself, without ignoring my love for that public interaction and advocacy. As is my nature, even “my” art is yours, like an ongoing collection of your hopes. We’re in this together.

2017 was also, of course, about the Resistance, from nationwide activism to little, personal* triumphs and acts of defiance. *(Remember how, at the end of my episode of Transition to Power last year, I answered that “I’m gonna’ keep doing what I’ve always been doing; I’m gonna’ keep showing off how badass my parents and my grandparents and my ancestors and my culture and my people are; I’m gonna’ keep championing women of color”? Know that sometimes simply living and loving—loving yourself and loving not only your heritage and those who came before you but also loving the living, those in the here and now, because cultures are more than customs—can be a victory. My pride in being a Chinese American woman is a flag flying in the face of phobia and hate. It is a raised fist, punching through ceilings that are walls.)

What were the best parts of your year? Leave a comment!

Your top 8 most read posts of 2017:

8. “New Frontiers” – My announcement that a new story of mine (including artwork by me) would be published in an original graphic novel anthology by the team behind the Asian American superhero anthology Secret Identities. 

7. “Southern Song” – My annual pre-Hong Kong art trip post. 

6. “[Your Guide to Overcoming] Expo FOMO” – My picks for what to see at Expo Art Week, including Expo Chicago and the second edition of the Chicago Architecture Biennial (which ends this Sunday!). 

5. “City of [Ours]” – My words of gratitude after the Chicago Cultural Center Open House; it included The Subject Is Chicago: People, Places, Possibilities exhibition, for which I was chosen to represent Ward 32. 

4. “People, Places” – My announcement that I’d be sharing one mapped postcard every day at @dreamsofacity. 

3. “Possibilities” – My announcement that I’d been selected to exhibit my art at the Chicago Cultural Center. 

2. “Open Call for Artists: Line Dot Editions’ Holiday Show” – The, well, open call for artists for Line Dot’s Holiday Show, which I’d been invited to guest judge. 

1. “Power” – My episode of the political documentary Transition to Power by On the Real Film, who interviewed me about my thoughts on the 2016 election and its aftermath. This also happened to be my first post of 2017, setting the tone for the rest of the year. “Rebel scum” indeed.

Honorable mentions (posts that weren’t written in 2017 but were widely read nonetheless):

• “Love Letters: An Artist Studio Visits with Sheila Arora” and “Star Collecting: An Interview with Sheila Arora” – Features on a LEXICON participant and former client and forever friend who catapulted to fame after these posts; she now has thousands of Instagram followers and is an artist at Thomas Masters Gallery.

•  “Discussion: Art as political weapon, artist as social instigator” – From 2011 (this blog’s birth year!), a conversation that’s ever relevant.

• “Not all those who wander are lost” – My look back at 2014 (this post probably saw a resurgence thanks to the news that a Lord of the Rings prequel series is in the works).

• “Discussion: Skill vs. concept” – Another topic from 2011 that permeates everything I’ve done and continue to do (spoiler alert: to me, both are essential).

• “Hope” – A defining piece I wrote on New Year’s Eve 2016 that still resonates with readers now, especially the passage wherein I reflect on “the lows” and offer some tough love, advice, and calls to action.

Things to look forward to in 2018:

• I’m co-curating an art and poetry event.

• Throughout the year is the first Art Design Chicago. I’ll be previewing the exhibit opening on January 11; follow along on social media that day for live updates.

• Starting February 16, it’ll be the Year of the Dog!

• The fight continues:

• The Women’s March returns this month. (Here’s a link to the Chicago march on January 20.)

• The year of midterm elections has arrived; on November 6, 33 Senate seats and all 435 House seats will be up for reelection. We have 10 months to prepare; get involved (canvas, donate, etc.), go vote, and let’s take back this country.

What are you excited about? Let me know!

I wish you good fortune, good health, happiness, and—above all—strength. We made it this far, and we’re still here. Keep working. Keep fighting. Keep caring. Keep doing good. Thank you for helping keep my hope alive. Onwards!

Orbit

I checked my P.O. box yesterday and now I have a total of 365 Chicago postcards! For those of you who aren’t familiar: In 2008 in New York and since 2012 in Chicago, I’ve been leaving thousands of handmade, pre-stamped, self-addressed postcards all over the city, each with the prompt “Tell me one thing you dream of doing before you die. Use this card as your canvas,” as well as a different code on the corner.

I record where I leave each one, so when a card returns to me, I match up the code with the location and am able to tell where each card was found. I created a map of Manhattan that way, almost 10 years ago, and am gradually piecing together one of my home city, Chicago.

It’s a labor of love and a love letter made of many love letters.

And since February (when a portion of these postcards were selected by the City to be exhibited at the Chicago Cultural Center as part of their Year of Public Art initiative), I’ve been sharing 1 Chicago dream a day, every day, at @dreamsofacity on Instagram. So this means I’ll have been posting these dreams for at least a year once I’m done. Follow along! (And to those who have already been following, thank you so much!)

I love my city so much.
Wandered into an Art Deco building, snuck to a top floor,
went into a stairwell, and saw this, shhh.

(The most recent response to all this? “Keep making the world a more magical place!” Thank you, Destry!)

On Thursday I attended an event called The Makery Experience in a secret garden in Pilsen. It was a celebration of artisans and craftspeople and also confirmation that I’m a time traveler (see below). Thanks for inviting me, Prisoner Wine Co.!

Tintypes of me and Adrienne Glover (one of the artists in LEXICON)
by Jen Jansen Photography.

Local stuff for you to check out:

• My mentor and dear friend Robin Rios opened an Etsy shop!

• Apparently you can get free [Chicago style, of course] hot dogs this week at these locations. (I serendipitously scored a free one on National Hot Dog Day at one of my favorite carts by agreeing to add ketchup to mine. I actually hesitated because it felt so wrong.)

 

At Kim & Carlo's Hot Dog Stand, Museum Campus.

And as for my dreams? A couple weeks ago I got called a Renaissance Woman. One has now come true.

City of [Ours]

Me at The Subject Is Chicago: People, Places, Possibilities exhibition at the Chicago Cultural Center Open House (check out whose name is next to [/ repping Ward] 32):

Thank you to everyone who came on Saturday (your support means everything to me), to everyone who participated in my art-making event (I ran out of postcards within the hour! so amazing), and, of course, to the museum and to the City of Chicago’s Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events for selecting me and giving me this opportunity! And to the fellow exhibiting artists who came by my table, it was so wonderful meeting you! What a kind, creative, and overall incredible group to be a part of.

If you missed it, the show runs ‘til April 9, and you can (and should, to be honest) follow my ongoing interactive public art / mapping project at @DreamsOfACity, where I’m sharing one mapped Chicago postcard a day, every day. (As of this writing, there are 356.)

And, via my Twitter, here are some Oscars thoughts.
 

Alignment

I’ve been invited to speak at the next 20x2 Chicago! Thank you, Andrew Huff! Save the date for Saturday, October 22, 6-8pm, at Quenchers.

I’m back from a trip to Greece (photos on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and Tumblr), just in time for Expo Art Week. But that’s not all that’s happening.

Chicagohenge.

Today is:

• Of course, the first day of Expo Chicago, returning for its milestone fifth year! (I’ll be at the VIP preview tonight.) In honor of the event, Throwback Thursday to one of my favorite chats with the fair’s President and Director, Tony Karman.

• Your last chance to see Luftwerk’s solarise: a sea of all colors, a site-specific series of immersive light installations at the Garfield Park Conservatory.

• The autumnal equinox and Chicagohenge (pictured above)! Twice a year, the rising and setting sun lines up perfectly with the city’s east-west street grid. The first day of fall is one of those times.

• Hobbit Day (and Tolkien Week)! Here’s another throwback: Me in Hobbiton, New Zealand, and when I quoted Gandalf in an interview.

Quite the day, September 22.

And a reminder: I’ve been invited to speak on a panel at the inaugural Startup Art Fair during Expo Chicago! So honored. The conversation’s this Sunday, 1pm, at MileNorth Hotel. Hope to see you there!

Uptown Pearls

Curating a show, in a space like this, within one month (slash two weeks since I just finalized the list of artists and the opening’s on the 23^rd)? Challenge accepted.

Photo by Heather Fritz.

(In case you didn’t see the update in the previous post, the building used to house a bank, and, according to Uptown-er and excellent local history source Jeffrey Littleton, it was originally a vaudeville theater. What a place for an art exhibition.)

[And an update for this post: Take a look at the first art installed. Jason Hawk is the man.]

And for the ultimate “Throwback Thursday”: Wrote this when I was 5.

The world is bound with secret knots

Hope you enjoyed that red-drenched February holiday spent with loved ones and gifts in paper form... Chinese New Year, duh.

(Still relevant to CNY.) Spotted this in downtown Chicago.
One of my Dreams of a City assistants saw one in Lakeview as well.

Some personal news:

• Apparently I have one of the top 1% most viewed LinkedIn profiles of 2012. Thanks for creeping stalking looking at my profile!

• Two years ago, I moved into the city of Chicago. What a great decision. Here’s to all the wonderful people I’ve met in this wonderful place.

• Here’s a lovely idea for you all to steal.

A roundup of news and tips from the past few weeks (if you’re interested in getting these and more on a daily basis, you can follow Artists on the Lam on Twitter and Facebook!):

Awesome people doing awesome stuff:

• Congratulations to Tempestt Hazel, friend and co-founder of Sixty Inches From Center, for topping Chicago Magazine’s “C Notes Power List: Art’s Hit Makers”! She deserves it. She’s also a great hugger.

• As a preview of the Art Institute of Chicago’s new Kara Walker: Rise Up Ye Mighty Race! exhibition, I live-tweeted last week’s sold-out Chicago Humanities Festival talk about race and identity, featuring the artist herself. (The last local event I live-tweeted was “Art: How It Moves,” part of Chicago Ideas Week, which you can read about in this post.) She casually threw around questions like “What are the stories we tell to help us understand our being in the world?” She shaded Steven Spielberg. She wore an outfit that I coveted. She called her childhood self a witch. She elicited an audience reaction that tempted me to create the hashtag #WhiteLaughter (but I refrained). Her brilliance here (scroll down a little, past my freaking out about David Bowie and Yeah Yeah Yeahs, but not further than my freaking out about Frank Ocean and Depeche Mode... welcome).

Free stuff:

• Speaking of the Art Institute, Free Thursday Evenings are back! (I may or may not have already used one such evening to plaster the place with postcards.*) Just in time for the new Picasso and Chicago exhibition.

• Leonardo Da Vinci’s notebooks have been published online. (I idolized him as a teen because he made me feel less weird about simultaneously being an artist and a scientist-slash-nerd. Slightly less weird.)

Interesting stuff:

• This is a 3D printing pen that lets you draw sculptures in midair. This was my reaction after watching the video.

*(“Snail mail is dying”? “The post office is going bankrupt”?

Everyone chill out.

I got this.)

And impressions of L.A.:

James Turrell installation at NYE+BROWN, L.A.

You can take a look at photos of my recent L.A. trip on Flickr, on Facebook, and via the slideshow below.

Oh twelve oh yeah // Year in Review

First, an announcement for 2013:

I received a VIP invitation to the inaugural Art Basel Hong Kong, happening in May. Count. Me. In.

And now for a look back at 2012. I’m going to try to make this short and sweet (“try” being the operative word here) because the past year felt short and was oh so sweet.

Photo by Sophia Nahli Allison, 2012.

My year in review:

• I CAN DO THAT, the second show I curated independently, was, simply, the best (so far); I

• popped my international contemporary art fair cherry with the likes of ART HK, Art Basel, and Art Basel Miami Beach; I

• traveled the world and explored the art scenes of Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Basel (and other Swiss cities), and Berlin, but also made sure to shine a spotlight on the local arts, including the inaugural Expo Chicago; I

• launched Dreams of a City (and launched a bunch of balloons into the night sky); I

• celebrated my venture’s first anniversary; and I

• had a blast.

OK fine here are 2012’s top 10 most read posts as well:

10. “I Can Spell // Sorry, Time Out Chicago magazines” – The I CAN DO THAT call for artists flyer.

9. “I / We / Can / Did” – The aftermath of the I CAN DO THAT closing reception.

8. “Hong Kong and China were niu bi // Shanghai off spray paint” – Jetlag.

7. “On ubiquitous banana men, palm readers, and maps” – Featuring a couple I CAN DO THAT artists and an introduction to what would later become Dreams of a City.

6. “Best in Show” – I CAN DO THAT rocked.

5. “Midwesterner in the Middle Kingdom // The Outsider” – Third culture kid angst.

4. “Notes from [an] underground [art scene advocate / Miami Art Week virgin]” – “Your report on Miami is better than any article in any newspaper anywhere.” Dude.

3. “Discussion: Art as political weapon, artist as social instigator // This painting would look nice in my foyer” – With great art comes great responsibility. Maybe.

2. “Winging It, in the Modern— / People’s Choice” – In which I stood in the middle of the Art Institute and harassed museumgoers.

1. “Lucky 13 and More Numbers” – The results of #2’s shenanigans.

Thank you for being a part of such a thrilling year. When I think about 2012, more than anything, I see beautiful people, faces, you—whether you squeezed your way through a crowd at a show and found me, months later; or lingered with me outside a 7-Eleven late at night as you peddled pictures of pop stars; or laughed with me in multiple languages in a photo bookstore halfway around the world; or sat with me on a stoop in the summer heat to talk art and life and the love of it all… this year was painted with the light of new friendships forged, old relationships strengthened, fleeting encounters that left eternal impressions. Here’s to an even brighter year. I can’t wait to see what 2013 will bring.

Have a safe and fun New Year’s, everyone.

Hong Kong and China were niu bi // Shanghai off spray paint

I am back in Chicago, almost too jetlagged to be a functional member of society, wondering if the less-than-87%-humidity will dry out my skin, and missing Hong Kong dreadfully (I may or may not have typed that with a slight British accent in mind—damn you, remnants of Colonialism, telling me to “mind the gap” and “queue for lifts”!).

Oh, just kickin' it with my uncles. No big deal.

Finally, I’ve uploaded my photos of the art in Shanghai and Hong Kong to Flickr and Facebook! (Beijing photos can be found in these two posts.) I’ll focus on Hong Kong in my next post. In Shanghai…

Respirator mask, dude.

…I’d been crashing in a room my cousin and his flatmate use to dry their laundry and stockpile their liquor (seems reasonable). My cousin’s girlfriend Maggie had the following to say about art in China: that “Beijing is more political,” whereas “Shanghai is more international,” and that, because of its political bent, “Beijing is more passionate about art and music” (the Chinese are all about rock, and I thank my Shenyang-living friend for introducing me to a colloquialism young people shout at rock concerts: “niu bi,” which is slang for “awesome” and literally translates to “cow vagina,” which makes the phrase even more awesome).

Second city syndrome, anyone? As a local, Maggie obviously has a much more nuanced assessment of Shanghai and its relationship with the arts than I would. My explorations of the city, however, led me to believe that Beijing’s art scene has a formidable rival.

Shanghai’s main art hub is the Moganshan Road art district, which, like Beijing’s 798 Art Zone, comprises a complex of old warehouses converted into art galleries and studios. It’s less grandiose than 798, unsurprisingly, but it feels more accessible, and it isn’t without its fair share of provocative art. Moreover, Shanghai’s “international” character permeates its artistic community; among the first artists and gallerists I met there, for example, were expats from Seoul during an art opening at a Korean restaurant in the French Concession.

But what I loved most was ambling beyond the central gallery cluster and losing myself in graffiti, whether it coiled along a wall or punctuated a vast expanse of vacant lots populated by squatter homes, roosters parading in and out of garbage piles, and urban ruins long forsaken, crumbling, simultaneously weighed down by time and held up by color, by paint, suspended in a silently beautiful balancing act.

I spoke with a couple of the graffiti artists writing in broad daylight, and they explained that graffiti is, more or less, “tolerated.”

What I also loved: When Maggie asked if Chicago still has gangsters “like in the movies.” My cousin and I told her that was almost a hundred years ago and that they bootlegged alcohol. Her response? “That’s not very gangster.”

Punching Crunch time in the face

Exquisite Corpse opens this Friday! Local artists have been dropping off their pieces at the exhibition space, and pieces from across the country and overseas have been signed, sealed, delivered (and could be yours! support starving artists!). And. They. Look. Amazing. Really, you need to see the art in person. Get excited.

As a preview of what you can expect at the show, here’s a striking collaboration by Boston-based artist Gideon Ansell and Amsterdam-based artist Mark Pol:

Image courtesy of Gideon Ansell, 2011.

Installation begins tomorrow. Let’s do this.

“How many surrealists does it take to screw in a lightbulb?”

“A fish.” (Thank you, Carrie McGath.)

More behind-the-scenes previews of Exquisite Corpse artwork (find past sneak peeks here, here, here, and not there but here):

A piece by Robin Rios and Derail Howery:

Image courtesy of Robin Rios, 2011.

Werewolves? Vampires? A post-apocalyptic showdown between Adam and Eve? This is not your mother’s hairdresser’s lover’s dog walker’s dealer’s nanny’s chessboard.

The final version of this piece by Brittany Majka, Carrie McGath, and Jennifer Moore:

Image courtesy of Jennifer Moore, 2011.

I never would’ve expected it to take such a direction, and I love that. See more photos—including other exquisite corpses—and read about the process at Jennifer’s very informative blog, where there are a few NSFW images (although still much classier than the Marilyn Monroe behemoth she, Brittany, and Carrie [rightfully] mock).

A work in progress by Jessica Drogosz, to be added to by Avisheh Mohsenin and Jes Standefer:

Image courtesy of Jessica Drogosz, 2011.

Philadelphia-based artist Becket Flannery (whom I interviewed for my first Sixty Inches From Center article) and New York-based artist Tucker Rae-Grant are organizing their collaborations around the idea of bait and trap, “both in the sense of how painting operates as a trap, how the surface is a kind of bait and the frame is a kind of trap, [and] also the ways in which paintings and art objects can be tactical.”

Diane Ponder, Lorraine Grandinetti working on behalf of the late Frank Grandinetti, and Patricia Biesen are keeping their individual images unknown to each other until the opening reception, where they will unveil their final piece. Similarly, Deirdre Fox, Jessie Winslow, and Zachary Trebellas “would like to maintain the mystery for now.” The images and videos I’ve seen so far from both groups, however, are making it very hard for me to not share them with you (Patricia even stated, “I’ve just created one of the most unique paintings of my entire career for this event”), but fortunately (or unfortunately), I [think I] have willpower.

And Cassie Hamrick and Veronica Stein are working on a series of pillows that will be displayed on couches and chairs they’ve found throughout the exhibition space. Guests will be able to touch and interact with these pieces. Art: it comes in furniture form too.

And that’s not even all the artists.

Basically, this is going to be one hell of a show.