July 20 - September 22, 2024
Image: Annette Miae Kim, Conversations with My Father, 2024, canvas, newspaper, tissue, acrylic, metal clips and nails, 64 x 243 inches.
Glendale Library, Arts & Culture and ReflectSpace Gallery are pleased to present (Be)Longing: Asian Diasporic Crossings, an exhibition that delves into the multi-generational afterlives of war and displacement and East-West Asian diasporic placemaking through maps, sculptures, photography, archives, video, and layered materiality. It features artists from the US, South Korea, and China.
Anchored by the work of Los Angeles-based artists Annette Miae Kim and Kyong Boon Oh, (Be)Longing asks us to consider how diasporic histories and spaces are created and narrated. Can you draw the borders of belonging? How do you make a map of a transnational and borderless community? How much do histories of displacement and war enter the contemporary narrative of a community? What is the relationship of a diasporic community to its indigenous lands and history? Kim and Oh have family in both South Korea and North Korea, and these fraught familial histories brings a personal and poignant dimension to their work. They query and challenge our preconceptions about diasporas and borders through maps, archives, sculpture, and tactile materiality.
Four artists from Korea and China—Sun Siran, Xia Yan, Gil Woong Kim, and Donah Lee—meditate their diasporic journeys and relationship to homelands with newly commissioned video work. Los Angeles-based contemporary ceramicist Jennifer Cheh reflects on her diasporic present by reaching back into traditional Korean forms.
All seven artists in the exhibition grapple with their diasporic histories and present-day and strive to articulate their own sense of being and belonging.
Image: Kyong Boon Oh, 6.25 – Mapping, 2024, archival pigment print on canvas, pin, thread stainless steel/copper/aluminum wire, hand-sawn, hand-woven, 76 x 80 x 15 inches.
Artists in the exhibition:
Annette Miae Kim | Kyong Boon Oh | Sun Siran | Xia Yan | Gil Woong Kim | Donah Lee | Jennifer Cheh
Curated by Monica Hye Yeon Jun | Ara & Anahid Oshagan
(Be)Longing: Asian Diasporic Crossings will be on view from July 20 through September 22, 2024 at ReflectSpace Gallery, inside Glendale Central Library located at 222 East Harvard, Glendale, CA, 91205. An opening reception was held on Saturday, July 27, 6:30 PM – 8:30 PM.
Exhibit-Related Articles:
Asbarez Inspires and Informs Korean Artist’s Diasporic Exploration at ReflectSpace Gallery by Aleen Arslanian (Asbarez, August 5, 2024)
(Be)Longing: Asian Diasporic Crossings: Art exhibit explores diaspora experience, with work from Korean, Chinese artists by Doug Hwang (Asia Journal, July 26, 2024)
Art exhibit explores Asian diaspora experience, with work from LA, Chinese, Korean artists by Isabel Umekubo (Pasadena Star-News, July 10, 2024)
ReflectSpace Gallery
Glendale Central Library
222 East Harvard Street
Glendale, CA 91205
3 free hours of parking is available with validation at the Marketplace parking structure across the street from the Harvard Street entrance. Accessible parking is available on the east side of the building. View the Visit page for public transit information.
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