ALEESA PITCHAMARN ALEXANDER

The best thing we can do for significant artists is honor their practice through deep and rigorous research, thereby offering a new perspective on an artist’s life and career. That’s what I was trying to do with The Faces of Ruth Asawa, and I feel good about what we’ve achieved. In addition, I had such a lovely time working with Asawa’s family members on this project – it’s amazing to experience how her legacy lives on.

GM: How do you think society should steer conservations about diversity and safety beyond the #StopAsianHate Movement?

APA: I do find it particularly upsetting – and nefarious – that AAPI lives only seem to “matter” more in the media when they are being visibly threatened. At the same time, violence against Asian Americans is something that does need to be discussed – but so does our joy, success, and complexity.

GM: What are you currently working on in your practice, including any upcoming plans for the AAAI?

APA: I’m working on three exhibitions that will open in 2024 related to the Asian American Art Initiative. One of the lessons I learned from working on my last major exhibition, East of the Pacific: Making Histories of Asian American Art (Sept. 28, 2022 – Feb. 12, 2023, at the Cantor), was that so many AAPI artists of prior generations had difficulty finding platforms for support, in part because of their race and ethnicity. This led to many of these artists being almost entirely excluded from the historical record In an effort to help prevent that from happening to another generation, I’m looking forward to working with living artists – many of them emerging – to help provide meaningful opportunities for engagement. As the AAAI is an ongoing project, Marci and I can also take our time to plan our next steps, which is great; doing meaningful, thoughtful work takes time That being said, fall 2024 will be a very exciting season at the Cantor.