Artists & Identity

ERINA ALEJO is an educator, organizer and artist. Through ethnographic and archival frameworks, Alejo examines the role of the city, family and body in intergenerational memory, healing and trauma. Click to watch their Artist Spotlight 

Join influential playwright Philip Kan Gotanda to get the inside scoop on the ideas and inspirations behind his groundbreaking body of work, including his play, After the War Blues, which explores the lives of a diverse community in San Francisco’s Japantown in the aftermath of World War II. Gotanda, who teaches theater at UC Berkeley, appears in conversation with Michael Omi, associate professor of Asian American and Asian diaspora studies at UC Berkeley. To set the stage, local actors and musicians perform scenes from Gotanda’s plays. Warning: Contains explicit language.

The Bay Area’s own Ballet Afsaneh, a dynamic ensemble whose repertory focuses on Silk Road regions in Central Asia, will perform colorful, kinetic traditional dance.

The Urami Waterfall in Niko, Picture of Famous Places in the Sixty-odd Provinces, August, 1853, by Ando Hiroshige (Japanese, 1797 – 1858), Woodblock print; Ink and colors on paper, Gift of Japanese Prints from the Collection of Emmeline Johnson. Donated by Oliver and Elizabeth Johnson, 1994.48. Photograph © Asian Art Museum of San Francisco.

In this Therese Schoofs Memorial Lecture, Asian Art Museum docent, Kalpana Desai, discusses the life and works of the Korean artist Yoong Bae.

This video documents the creation of a Buddhist painting by the monk artist, Seol-min (formerly known as Jae-u), who has dedicated her life to keeping the tradition of Buddhist painting alive.

See demonstrations of employing both traditional (no electric needles!) and modern techniques. Joining Horitaka’s diverse, talented crew of tattooists are special guests from Japan — Shige, a powerhouse tattoo artist who has been showcased all over the world; Mutsuo, who’s designed for Bathing Ape and Hysteric Glamour; and Kazunobu Nagashima, a client of Shige who will proudly display his backpiece, which won a 2007 Milano Tattoo Convention award.

Benedicto Reyes Cabrera (or BenCab, as he is more popularly known) is widely hailed as a master of contemporary Philippine art. Hear a conversation between him and Filipino American author Luis Francia at the 2011 Filipino American History Month Celebration at the Asian Art Museum.

Hailed as one of the most important photographers of our time, New York-based Japanese artist Hiroshi Sugimoto is also an accomplished architect. He approaches his work from many different perspectives, with architecture as one component in designing the settings for his installations. As a photographer of the highest technical ability, with equal acclaim for the conceptual and philosophical aspects of his work, Sugimoto has created works in his “Five Elements” series that are constructed as shrines to a primordial birthplace. Using geometric symbols from thirteenth-century Buddhism, Sugimoto encases a single image from his iconic Seascape series in each glass structure.