In 2021 the Portland Chinatown Museum launched an Artists-in-Residence (AiR) program with the generous support of the Oregon Community Foundation’s Creative Heights Initiative. Under the guidance of Museum Art Advisor Horatio Hung-Yan Law, the 3-year program invited six Asian American artists who live and work in Oregon or Washington to collaborate, create, and exhibit new art that reflects on the past, present, and future of Portland’s Chinatowns and Oregon’s Asian American communities.

Comprised of two residency cycles, the PCM Artists-in-Residence (AiR) program aims to:

  • Connect contemporary artists with the rich history of Portland Chinatown art and culture.
  • Provide a leading role for artists in community efforts to preserve, revitalize, and re-imagine Portland Chinatown as an important cultural and educational site.
  • Facilitate greater representation, equity, and opportunities for Oregon and Washington Asian American artists.
  • Help build bridges and a larger sense of community between historically marginalized cultural groups.

2021/2022 Artists

PCM’s first AiR cohort exhibited their work in December 2022 with a multi-media group show entitled Illuminating Time. Click on the names below to learn more about the artists.

ALEX CHIU

Alex Chiu is a Chinese-American painter and muralist living in Portland, OR. His art practice is an exploration of family, community, Asian American identity, and Portland history and culture. Over the past few years, he has worked with schools, businesses, and community organizations to design, organize, and paint murals. His creative process involves directly engaging with community members in conceptualizing and executing these murals. 

SAM ROXAS-CHUA 姚

Sam Roxas-Chua 姚 is the author of Saying Your Name Three Times Underwater, Echolalia in Script, and Fawn Language. His poems, artworks, and asemic writings have appeared in journals including Narrative, December Magazine, Cream City Review and an essay/review of his two recent books appears in the Georgia Review and Rhino Poetry. His poetry sequence Diary of Collected Summers was awarded the Missouri Review’s Miller Audio Prize and most recently he was interviewed by Gulf Coast Journal. Poet Tyehimba Jess describes Sam’s poems as “surreal yet rooted in palpable color and history … it transcends oceans, blends geographies, and bleeds a multitongued heritage for us to better find ourselves.” Sam lives in Eugene, Oregon.

SHU-JU WANG

Multiple voices and viewpoints are the cornerstones of Shu-Ju Wang‘s work, a reflection of her personal history of migration and background in technology, science and art. It is a balancing act of the analytical vs. meditative modes of creating, of re-imagining traditional motifs in a contemporary context, and of understanding our stories as a relationship between narration vs. interpretation. In a culture of bigger-is-better and faster-is-better, she creates small & intimate work, slowly. Influenced by Chinese gongbi style paintings, illuminated manuscripts, and Islamic miniatures, her work combines abstract & representational forms in lush and jewel-like colors, and she invites viewers to interpret, to draw conclusions about this world that we live in.

Read & Watch

Illuminating Time Exhibition Catalogue

Edited by Julie Chae and designed by Bryan Potter Designs, the Illuminating Time exhibition catalogue illustrates how the artists forged connection and resonance to the history and life of Chinese American individuals and communities, illuminating their time in the past and present, and building foundations for the future.

People and Earth: Artist Talk with Alex Chiu, Shu-Ju Wang, and Sam Roxas-Chua 姚

Artists Alex Chiu, Shu-Ju Wang, and Sam Roxas-Chua 姚 present their explorations into the richly complex and compelling history of Chinese American communities in Oregon.  This talk was moderated by PCM Art Advisor Horatio Hung-Yan Law on May 28, 2022.

2023/2024 Artists

PCM’s current AiR cohort began their residency in June 2023, and will exhibit their culminating work from November 2023 to April 2024. Click on the names below to learn more about the artists.

LARK PIEN

Lark Pien is a cartoonist, colorist, and author-illustrator of three children’s books, and over thirty short stories for comic anthologies and pamphlet style comics. A contributor to the young readers’ SundayHaha.com and Illustoria magazine, Lark is best known for her characters Long Tail Kitty, Mr. Elephanter. Her colorwork appears in bestsellers Sunny Side Up, Stargazing, Dragon Hoops, Invisible, and American Born Chinese. She’s colored for many YA authors including Gene Luen Yang, Christina Diaz Gonzalez, and Jennifer & Matthew Holm. Lark received a Kim Yale award, a Harvey, and is a minigrant recipient of Koyama Provides.

Lark’s favorite way to make comics is with pencil and paper. It amuses her that a story can be told within a single panel and simultaneously in many panels together. She gravitates towards non-homogenous environments, preferring to explore complexities of relational objects and their meanings.

Her zine corner on Patreon features the less abstract Immortal Chicken, journaling her travels, animal encounters, food recipes, relationships with fellow chickens, and practice in the internal martial arts.

JOSH SIN

Joshua (Josh) Sin is a Canadian-born artist and designer living in  Portland, Oregon. Trained as an Industrial Designer and a Shoemaker,  he’s spent 10+ years working at large companies on innovation projects  in retail, sports, and technology. 

Josh centers his practice on world-building, not just creating garments  but imagining and designing the backstory for the people, cultures, and  landscapes where they might appear. He sculpts textiles from found  materials and salvaged fabric; by experimenting with traditional quilting  and mending techniques Josh allows the materials to inform new  patterns and create new fashions. He then inserts his fashion into digital  3D universes, constructing mysterious characters and worlds around  his clothing design. 

Ultimately, Josh’s work asks the viewer to question perception: What is  old and new, trash and elegance, digital and reality, art and  commercial? Josh’s other work involves experimenting with tufting  guns, 3D scanning, and parametric design while researching his family’s  immigrant stories, model minority identities, and American culture. 

YUYANG ZHANG

Yuyang Zhang (he/him/his) (b.1993, Wuhan, China) is a multi-disciplinary artist living in Portland, Oregon. His collages and paintings are staged fictions that combine historical propaganda archives, personal photographs, pop cultural references, and digital iconographies. By putting deconstructed visual assets together into new contexts, Zhang’s work depicts a queer diasporic experience of navigating through cultural hybridity and personal identity. Absurdity and humor are often present in the resulting work to engage the audience while also offering underlying social commentaries.

Zhang holds a BS in Hospitality and Tourism Management from Purdue University and an MFA in Visual Studies from Pacific Northwest College of Art. He has exhibited his work nationally and internationally, including Portland, Oregon; New Harmony, Indiana; Shenzhen, China; and Berlin, Germany. Zhang has been featured in publications including AINT-BAD, BOOOOOOOM, Buckman Journal, The Hand, and 《只属于我的视界:手机摄影自白书》(My View Only: A Monologue of Mobile Photography).

Follow the PCM AiR Journey!

Get to know our 2023/2024 artist cohort and their AiR experience by following them on Instagram.

 

This program was made possible in part by the generous support of the Oregon Community Foundation (OCF) Creative Heights Initiative. The Oregon Community Foundation (OCF) was founded in 1973 with a big mission: to improve the lives of all Oregonians through the power of philanthropy. In partnership with donors and volunteers, OCF works to strengthen communities in every county in Oregon through research, grantmaking, and scholarships.