Closing Reception for Prints of Pop (& War)

We celebrate Roger Shimomura‘s 2012-13 residency at A/P/A Institute with a closing reception and catalog launch for Prints of Pop (& War), A/P/A’s inaugural gallery exhibition.

Contributors to the catalog and special guests Tomie Arai, Luis Francia, and Jennifer Hayashida will share their personal reflections on the power and relevancy of Roger’s work.

RSVP using the form below. Reservations are also accepted via phone (212.992.9653).

Acclaimed for his poignant, bright-colored prints and paintings, award-winning artist Roger Shimomura’s work challenges constructions of the racialized “other” and calls attention to the power of material and pop culture to normalize whiteness. He was born in Seattle, Washington and spent two years of his early childhood in Minidoka (Idaho), one of ten concentration camps for Japanese Americans during World War II. He holds the title of Distinguished Professor of Art Emeritus from the University of Kansas where he taught for 35 years. His work is in the permanent collections of over 85 museums nationwide.

Luis H. Francia’s poetry collections include The Beauty of Ghosts; Museum of Absences; and The Arctic Archipelago and Other Poems. He is the author of the memoir, Eye of the Fish: A Personal Archipelago, and A History of the Philippines: From Indios Bravos to Filipinos. He has edited three anthologies, including Brown River, White Ocean: An Anthology of Twentieth Century Philippine Literature in English and, with Angel Velasco Shaw, Vestiges of War, on the 1899 Philippine American War. In 2012, Bindlestiff Studio in San Francisco staged the world premiere of his full-length play, The Strange Case of Citizen de la Cruz. He writes an online column for the Philippine Daily Inquirer, and teaches at New York University, Hunter College, and the City University of Hong Kong.

Jennifer Hayashida is a poet, translator, and visual artist. She is the recipient of awards from, among others, the New York Foundation for the Arts, the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, PEN, the Jerome Foundation, and the MacDowell Colony. Her work has been published and exhibited in the U.S. and abroad, including multiple book-length translations of contemporary Swedish poetry, and screenings at venues including the Centre Pompidou, the National Gallery of Art, and the Flaherty Film Seminar. She is Director of the Asian American Studies Program at Hunter College.