CCACC Art Gallery Host Virtual Exhibition to Celebrate AAPI Month

CCACC Art Gallery is hosting a virtual artwork exhibition to celebrate AAPI heritage month. Featured with the artworks from eight renowned Asian Pacific artists, this exhibition is free and open to everyone. Applied with different perspectives and their own unique creations, their artworks present the multi-cultural heritage and active innovative spirit of the Asian-Pacific American community in the United States.

Those eight artists are Akemi Maegawa, Yoshiko Ratliff, In-soon Shin, Myoung-Won Kwon, Shanye Huang, Paul K. Y. Kwok, Quanxuan Shuai and Yuming Sun.

Akemi Maegawa

Akemi Maegawa works with ceramics and mixed media and her work often responds to unique perception of western civilization because of her background strongly rooted in Japanese culture and history. Her works quite often look deceptively simple and ironically ordinary. However, she focuses on the beauty or drama through exploring those mundane objects to search and define a meaning of life.

Maegawa is a Washington, DC based artist born, raised and worked in Japan. She holds MFA in Ceramics from Cranbrook Academy of Art and BFA from the Corcoran Collage of Art and Design.

In-soon Shin

The work of the relief is one of my serial works: which is han-ji pulp pressed impressions of ancient Korean tomb reliefs. The tomb reliefs were used to depict auspicious eternal life power. By fragmenting the images I depict the limits of personal endeavors and the use of the han-ji paper indicates impermanence.

Based on East Asian art teachings I am using my “Ki (氣)” – one’s sense and sensibility, an expression of internal (personal) energy and the philosophy, an expression of life's connectivity with the universal cycle, to explore my personal artistic inner vision, my inner passions.

Now, my attempt is to transform the ancient motifs of my heritage into the contemporary visual art world.

Miyoung Won Kwon

What I write is a look into my inner feelings, but the words are a new reflection of me on their own. By dipping my brush into the ink and then laying it on paper then to look at what I have created, I see a new mirror of me in a different position and sound yet still me. When one can look at what I have written and not only see but also hears the words then I know that I have accomplished what I want and that is what I write.

Paul K. Y. Kwok

I hope the showing of these paintings will remind viewers that the natural scenes are always beautiful and that they will make arrangements to enjoy. I also hope that the following review by a colleague of mine will help you enjoy more of my work.

“With rich and vibrant colors, the artist’s use of broad brushstrokes over a horizontal surface allows the full grandeur of nature to manifest concealing idyllic Chinese elements within a western visage, the pieces successfully fuse the aesthetic philosophies of China and the West.” Kai-Yuen Ng, director, K. Y. Fine Art.

Quanxuan Shuai

Born in Sichuan in 1969, Shuai Quanxuan came to Virginia from Chengdu, Sichuan, China in 2018. He held a solo painting exhibition at Dwell Fine Art & Craft, The Plains, VA, 2019. He obtained a solo painting exhibition schedule at Athenaeum, Alexandria, VA, 2020 and will be rescheduled to a future day after the pandemic.

"I want my paintings to be full of sunshine and vitality. When my viewer is going through a hard time, I wish for my paintings to comfort and console them. Therefore I keep my paintings quiet and peaceful, and to be devoid of all fear and anxiety."

Shanye Huang

I create artwork to foster joy, hope, meaningful connections and conversations. Inspired by Chinese yin-yang philosophy, calligraphy, and woodblock prints, as well as elements of my native folk art such as embroidery and textiles, I use lines and colors, symbols and metaphors, forms and patterns in my art, integrating techniques such as carving, paper cutting, dripping, taping with mixed media including some unconventional materials to explore the complex nature of human existence and the resilient human spirits in this historically challenging world.

Yoshiko Ratliff

Yoshiko Ratliff is a painter and an award-winning ceramicist. She was born and raised in Japan. She lives in Falls Church, Virginia and paints at her studio 203 at Torpedo Factory Art Center, Alexandria, Virginia. She also creates elegant porcelain crystalline glazed ceramic pieces at her home studio.

She has been exhibiting her work at Torpedo Factory Art Center, its satellite gallery at Mosaic District, Fairfax, VA., 3 times at Creative Crafts Council Biennial Exhibition, the Mansion at the Strathmore, Glenview Mansion, Rockville, MD and other galleries nationwide as well. Her work is found in private and corporate collections in the US, Japan and Brazil. She has received many awards, and has been featured in publications and radio interviews.

She is a juried member of the Scope Gallery at Torpedo Factory Art Center and the Kiln Club of the Washington DC Area since 2004.

Yuming Sun

After rooted in tradition for several decades, I started to search for a way to let the ancient calligraphic art breathe with contemporary air. I am not willing to follow the roads trod by predecessors, whether those roads are correct or not. I try to use multi-layer instead of single-layer, to use dense compositions instead of uniform layouts, to use repetitive and stacking, and even to introduce colors and other new ways to create calligraphy to induce resonance from the viewers, just like abstract art.

You are welcome to login the following access link: http://www.ccaccartgallery.org to enjoy the exhibition. Keep updated with the latest Asian American Heritage Month Celebration events, please follow Facebook@ccaccdc or CCACC website.