1994-1995

Fall 1994

Announcement for Coming Across, Part 2. Cover of six-page announcement has  script by artist Enrique Chagoya: “Real immigration takes place internally. People come here, but it may be years before they land here. It has nothing to do with paper. Instead of change of place, it is a journey of the spirit, different from being a nomad. It is a whole transformation. In a world which has masses of people who move, we are talking about a spiritual experience in everybody. Everyone is an immigrant of some kind.”

Coming Across, Art By Recent Immigrants, Part 2
9/27-12/8/94

Artists include Seyed Alavi, Cambodia Contemporary Arts Project (KylV, Tho Soh IV, LukKan, Rath Kan, Leang Ngin, Sith Ouch), Enrique Chagoya, Su-Chen Hung, Gigi Janchang, Wosene Kosrof, Sandra Sunnyo Lee, Elena Lokshina, Vi Ly, Long Nguyen, Geoffrey Iheanyi Nwogu, Joanna Salska, Canan Tolon, Jose Meza Velasquez.

Works in various media by artists who recently immigrated to the U.S. and now live in the San Francisco Bay Area. Part 2 focused on social, political, and historical issues and on how the artists synthesized ideas from the different cultures they have experienced. Their countries of origin include Cambodia, Ethiopia, Iran, Korea, Mexico, Nigeria, Poland, the former USSR, Taiwan, Turkey, Vietnam. Woven throughout is the concept of immigration as representative of the common human experiences of continual and rapid change, shifting identities, and loss of a secure place called home. The exhibition is about cultural identity, about "home," literally and figuratively, and about recent history as the artists have lived it. The artists offer observations and commentaries about social, political, and historical issues, synthesizing and building upon ideas drawn from the different cultures they have experienced. Part 2 asks viewers to examine the works of art in light of two questions "What do you have to say?" and "How have you developed a way to be here?" Project funding: Rockefeller Foundation, Apple Computer, Inc. Also Advanced Micro Devices Inc., Arts Council of Santa Clara County, The Metropolitan Life Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, Pacific Bell, Tandem Computers.
BOOK: Coming Across: Art by Recent Immigrants, 1994. Produced and edited by Jan Rindfleisch. Project development by Jan Rindfleisch with Patricia Albers and Judy Goddess. Developed with the Bronx Museum of the Arts, with funding from the Rockefeller Foundation and the NEA. 65 pages, 31 illustrations, perfect bound. Published in conjunction with the Euphrat two-part exhibition: Coming Across, 2/3-4/20/94, 9/27-12/8/94. Presents art by San Francisco Bay Area artists who have recently immigrated to the United States. See PUBLICATIONS. Public Reception for Coming Across, Part 2, roundtable discussion with the artists led by artist Long Nguyen, 10/13. Presentations with De Anza Visiting Artists and Speakers Series: Cathi Tactaquin, Immigration and the Future of an Open Society, 10/5; Film Director Lee Mun Wan, screening and discussion, The Color of Fear, 11/1. Companion exhibition for Sunnyvale Creative Arts Center Gallery: Speaking Volumes: Photographs by Misako and Ken Akimoto, Portraits by Yong Mao, 11/8-12/23/94.

View ancillary materials for the Fall 1994 exhibitions.

Winter 1995

image Electronic, works by nine artists who use electronic media and computer-assisted technology to create art.
1/11-2/12/95

Artists include David Bacigalupi, Eric Johnson, Char Davies, Helen Golden, Diane Fenster, Marius Johnston, Michael Tolson, Annette Weintraub, Michael Maggid, Wade Kimball, Max Hein, John Hersey.

Curated by Michael Cole, De Anza graphic design instructor: "From Char Davies' digital light boxes produced on a Silicon Graphics workstation, to Max Hein's word and image object lessons created on an Apple Macintosh…"

Spring 1995

Changing Threads: Creating Traditions and Memories
3/1-4/19/95

Artists include Norine K. Nishimura, Timothy Berry, Virginia Harris.

Exhibition of quilts, paintings, and installations drawing from diverse cultural traditions and memories, and which, through the artistic process, led to the invention of new traditions. During April, the exhibition incorporated a collaborative bas-relief mural created by over 600 local elementary school students through the Arts & Schools Program; the mural depicted narratives of their family and cultural traditions.

View ancillary materials for the Spring 1995 exhibitions.