OUR HEAVEN

Belden Granada
Title: Youth
Medium: 35mm Photography
(4) 12x16

Based out of San Jose, Belden is a frequent show goer with a background in illustration and design.

For this project, I wanted to create portraits that not only showcased Asian musicians from the Bay Area, but also captured the essence of each person. It’s inspiring to know individuals of Asian descent are paving the way for the next generation of music.

L to R: John Phan (Nu Ethnic), Alicia Rei Kim (Dokoe), Ryan & Christian Francisco (Wander), Sabrina Mai (No Vacation)

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Rocky Nguyen
Title: Portraits 2017
Medium: 35mm Photography
(4) 12x16

Rocky is a Vietnamese photographer based in San Jose. They started shooting in 2015 when they were given a camera and taught the basics of exposure by their friends. Rocky usually shoots portraits and prefers their subjects to be queer, femme, and/or people of color.

mudbloodead

Hello, my name is mudbloodead and I'd like to think I'm an artist. I'm not quite sure where I stand next to these artists who fall into their passions and walk with their art on their sleeves daily. I do not think I'm there for many reasons, procrastination and fear. I’ve studied painting for years but have yet to do anything with it. This will be my first show and I hope you all enjoy it. These pieces are snippets of things I remember growing up as a .5 generation Korean immigrant.

Monique Miller
Title: Untitled
Medium: Ink and acrylic on bristol, ink and graphite on tracing paper
18x24, 8.5 x 11, 8.5x 11 (+ a flash book 8.5x 11)

I am a twenty-two year old half-Japanese lady currently living in San Jose. I love tattoos and plants, so my work brings together two of my favorite things.

I started getting tattoos about a year ago and each new addition has brought me closer and closer to growing into the body I want to be in. However, I fear the reaction of my Japanese family when they see me with my tattoos. In Japan, tattoos are associated with yakuza (Japanese gangster) and many places refuse service to those with tattoos for this reason. It makes me sad to think that something I find so beautiful is found to be inappropriate and highly stigmatized in a country I call home.

While tattoos have helped me feel more at home in my own skin, I can feel myself pulling away from the home I find in Japan and in my family that lives there. I struggle with this dichotomous relationship I have with tattoos. I see tattoos as art, and maybe if I can make them beautiful and gentle and harmless enough, they can see that too.

Aaron Coleman

“You don’t look Asian...” - A Shout To The Heavens That I Belong

Growing up and searching for identity as a mixed asian was challenging. I was too Black to be Korean and too Korean to be Black. I lived in a hard to swallow societal concept. “Don’t Koreans and Blacks don’t get along?” and “How is that even possible?” ring in my head in the voices of those that doubt and pick apart my validity and sheer existence.

I felt a loss in identity and was unsure of how to present myself. It wasn’t until college did I come to realize that my identity didn’t need to be one or the other and that carving out my own identity was essential.

Being mixed means that both of your ethnicities cultures are intertwined. I needed to tell myself, “I am Black. I am Korean. I am mixed. And I belong in both cultures. I belong in my own.”

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Aaron Coleman is an artist based out of San Jose, CA. Powered by the love of storytelling and inspired by quintessential animated works, Aaron finds a fervor for composing vibrant and dynamic pieces as well as intimate and unique portraits that demonstrate the many elements of a compelling story.

Aaron is currently an independent artist, creating work on their own time. They hope to continue to do art as they plan to corporate it with their major once they transfer to San Jose State.

If interested in purchasing works, contact: running.aarons.art@gmail.com.

Purchasing is done through venmo @runningaaronsart

0752AM
Title: TANGERINE
Medium: Digital Photography
(4) 16x20

0752AM (七五二AM) is a first-generation, Chinese-Vietnamese photographer and botanist from San Jose, CA. Their work intends to reconnect their mixed-South East & East Asian experiences with the landscape.

Tangerines are symbolized to bring wealth and prosperity, and are often bought in pairs during Lunar New Year festivities. Double femmes, double prosperity, and double happiness. Our heritage overflows in cultural wealth. TANGERINE is a series that reflects the vibrancy and excellence of the Asian womxn who left a mark in my life.

Nam Macnguyen
Title: Propositions
Medium: Ink on board
8x8, 12x24, 15x15, 18x18

I am an aspiring illustrator from south San Jose. I have a variety of interests ranging from the arts through science and beyond which contributes to the creation of my work.

This series of illustrations are interpretations of everyday nuances that the average person would likely encounter. Each drawing focuses on a different issue that everyone faces internally on a daily basis.

Olivya Nora
Title: The Witch
Medium: Digital
14x18

I learned to hate myself and the me I was stuck with at a very young age. Always unhappy because my hair wasn't a curly blonde, or that my skin wasn't ghastly and spotted with freckles, or that my eyes weren't a brash blue color -- the little things that made life seem that much more enjoyable. Thankfully to a series of events, people and experiences, I was able to detach from toxic traditional ideals and learn to unhate the me I was born as. I aspire to create and produce art that represents myself and who I am not only as an artist, but an Asian American artist.

It was rumored during the Vietnam War, that a group of soldiers burned down a witch's hut. In an act of vengeance, she hunted them down one by one and killed them for days. She stopped when they finally agreed to rebuild her home. Pictured is the village witch wearing a traditional Áo bà ba, sitting on the corpses of the soldiers she had killed, nonchalantly smoking from an opium pipe.

18%GREY
Title: Baliktad
Medium: Digital Photography and Audio
5x7, Voice

my name is lorisa. i present my photography under 18%GREY. most people call me reese. i do what i can with what i know and what i have.

Baliktad is an exploration of what it means to be comfortable in one’s own skin, examined through the lens of my autistic 6-year-old niece, Jayelle De Guzman. Like ethnic minorities, I feel those with mental disorders (such as autism) can find it hard to fit into the “status quo.” The Tagalog word, baliktad, translates to “inside-out” or “backwards”, and in a sense, and may be what it’s like to live with autism: a little backwards but essentially taking what one feels inside to express themselves genuinely in their outer world. Through these photographs, I hope to remind people that we all struggle, but we all have the ability to find a way to embrace ourselves despite the limitations that we may be faced with.

Quan Danny Tran
new year: print 8x10
untitled: print 11x14
side mirror: print 5x7
noodle bowl: print 8x12
untitled: print 11x14
Medium: 35mm Photography

Danny Tran uses photography to process his past and present. He photographs from a distance, calling attention to the easily overlooked and approaching his subjects with a softness, presenting them in context with their surroundings. Isolation, connection, and the unintentional are recurring themes in his work.

These photos are taken at places from both my childhood and my adult life. They make me feel the disconnection to Vietnamese culture despite being raised in it, and my longing to keep it a part of me while still navigating my identity.

Nathalie Spicy Nguyễn
Title: Sriracha
Medium: Mixed Digital Media
36x108

Nathalie Nguyễn is a narrative illustrator and upcycle designer based in San Francisco. Her work represents or challenges the socially & environmentally conscious intentions of her problem-solving generation. Her passion in 3D/VR technology and the future of education nourishes her usage of new & mixed digital mediums. She also upcycles garments with a deep interest in zero waste manufacturing.

Sriracha conveys the vietnamese-American experience in Little Saigon, Westminster. It chronologically narrates the artist's personal experience through a collage of comic illustrations, photographs, and 3D models.

Saoirse Alesandro
Title: everything stays intact
Medium: watercolor, ink, pencil, gouache, collage, stickers, postcard on semi-transparent vellum
18x90

I'm Saoirse Alesandro, and I'm a Japanese/Filipinx/white illustration student. I was born and raised in the south bay, and just moved to Highland Park in Los Angeles. I make work about trauma, memory, friends and family, all through a mixed kid lens.

This piece was made in the first week of moving to a new part of the state. Here, I process "home", skin, blood, what sticks beneath the surface whether or not I want to carry it, and bowling alleys.

Roan Bontempo is currently a student at University of California Santa Cruz studying Studio Art and Business Economics. Through photography and print medium she explores individuals’ reconciliation with familial upbringing and the notions of time and self. Abstracted motifs work to deconstruct antiquated perceptions of Asian identity and otherness while creating alternative forms of personal narrative.

@roanbontempo

www.roanbontempo.com

Samantha Huang
Title: Anxiety/Meditation
Medium: Ink and correction fluid on canvas
22x28, 16x20

I am a Taiwanese American aspiring artist from Fremont, California. I am studying illustration at California College of the Arts and I enjoy painting in my free time. Growing up, I was somewhat ashamed of being Asian and I unknowingly whitewashed myself as a result. I rejected my parent's attempts at keeping me connected to my roots because I didn't see the value in it at the time. Today, I couldn't be more proud to be Taiwanese and I express that as much as I can in my art.

I hope that I can encourage people to find the little things that define their identities and cherish them.

Sean Carino
Title: “The Difference Between a Lover and a Fighter” & “Tree and the Acorn”
Medium: Print
8.5 x 11

Sean Carino is an SJSU student majoring in Public Relations. He writes poetry and performs at open mics. A first gen fil-am 23 year old born in Hayward and raised in the suburbs of Dublin.

“The Difference between a Lover and Fighter” and “Tree and the Acorn” are two works of poetry by Sean Carino with illustrations provided by Sammy Yoshikami. These poems were inspired by the question of why sometimes we classify people as one or the other while the second relates to how humanity and nature are easily connected.

Adrian Bendaña Discipulo
Title: Buhay Ko
Medium: Digital photography, archived photos
5x7

Adrian Discipulo is a first generation Filipino-American journalist and visual artist with a background in documentary photography, based out of Eastside San Jose.

Buhay Ko is a documentation of my familial history, presented through my own photographs and archived photos from family photo albums. Having grown up entirely in America, connecting with family members I had never met and hardly knew became an obstacle of language barriers and online interactions and phone calls, and never quite felt like a sufficient or comfortable way I wanted to meet and learn about my own family; an issue I've come to understand many first generation children face living in a different country.  My most recent trip to the Philippines presented me a concrete opportunity to truly connect with family I had not seen in over 16 years, as well as meeting new family members who have been born since then. Buhay Ko is the beginning and first part of a forever ongoing project to understanding my own history and growing closer to my family, and is dedicated to them.