Talk

MFA Fine Arts and SVA Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion present a conversation between artists Ji Woo Kim (MFA 2023 Fine Arts) and Yin Ming Wong (MFA 2023 Fine Arts), artist and faculty member Aya Rodriguez-Izumi (MFA 2017 Fine Arts) and MA/MAT Art Education Chair Dr. Catherine Rosamond on the harmful effects of the “model minority” myth

This panel aims to share discourse on inclusivity and community, specifically delving into how the Asian American identity is an intersection of race, ethnicity and nationality. We will consider the fallacies in how Asian Americans are perceived in cultural contexts and racial and sociopolitical environments. This conversation will examine concepts of belonging and displacement through critical theory in relation to art-making and education. The panelists will guide the dialogue through anecdotes and personal discoveries in relation to a wider collective Asian American experience.

This event is open to the public and all are encouraged to attend, regardless of their background or familiarity with AAPI topics. There will be time for a Q&A following the conversation. Attendees are invited to share their insights. While the focus is primarily on the Asian American experience, we hope this exchange of ideas motivates further inclusive conversations that contribute to greater awareness and care toward the AAPI community at large.

About the Panelists:

Ji Woo Kim is an artist raised in Vancouver, Canada, and is currently based in New York, New York. She received a BFA in painting with highest honors along with a minor in art history from Pratt Institute (Brooklyn, NY) in 2018 and graduated from the School of Visual Arts MFA Fine Arts program in 2023. Kim’s work explores themes of identity in the context of race and ethnicity while questioning concepts of home and community in relation to her own background as a 1.5 generation immigrant. Recent solo shows include “Rediscover, Recapture, Reclaim,” Blouin Division, Montreal (2022) and “We Yearn to Belong,” ATM Gallery NYC, New York (2021). Her work has also been exhibited internationally at Harper’s Gallery, New York (2023); Stems Gallery, Brussels (2023); Carl Kostyál, Milan (2022); Galerie Hussenot, Paris (2021), amongst others.

Yin Ming Wong is an artist living and working in Brooklyn, New York. She received her BFA in fine arts and BA in psychology from Parsons, the New School in 2019 and graduated from the School of Visual Arts MFA Fine Arts program in 2023. She paints to explore the struggle for language fluency and conversation in the perpetual experience of code switching. Her work focuses on nostalgia, displacement and the shortcomings of words, informed by her experience of being born and raised in Midwestern America to Chinese immigrant parents.

Aya Rodriguez-Izumi is an interdisciplinary artist and educator whose work blends installation, performance, community engagement, documentation and beyond to explore aspects of ritual retention, cross-cultural identity and histories that risk erasure. She was born in Okinawa, Japan, and grew up between that island and East Harlem, NY, where she currently lives and holds a studio; she is also on faculty at SVA’s MFA Fine Arts department and a current member at AIR Gallery.

Dr. Catherine Rosamond (she/her) is the chair of the MA/MAT Art Education department at SVA. She is an educator, artist and writer whose pedagogy is firmly rooted in culturally responsive and learner-centered practices. At SVA, she has served on the DEI Task Force. On the national level, she currently serves as the Higher Education ED&I Commissioner for the National Art Education Association (NAEA). Her scholarship interests include artistic research and investigations that center intersectional systems of oppression through a decolonial lens. She is currently writing and co-editing a book titled, Disruption and Convergence: Generating New Conversations through Arts Research (Brill Publishers 2024).

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