ConversASIAN

ConversASIAN was a group exhibition of innovative, multimedia artworks by leading and emerging artists from China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, and the United States. Adopting a variety of conceptual approaches, the featured artworks investigated notions of individual, communal, and national identity, with artists Toshihiro Sakuma and Hoang Duong Cam exploring relationships between society and the individual, while others such as Yang Zhenzhong and Fumiko Nozawa documented the effects of alienation and displacement in urban life.

Through the lens of this thematic framework, ConversASIAN sought to inspire and educate the local artistic community on emerging, contemporary dialogues around the topic of rapidly evolving cultural identities in an increasingly multicultural world. Commenting on this conceptual premise, founding Director Leslie Bigelman stated: “the National Gallery hopes to highlight to our viewers the possibility of incorporating new insights and an innovative process into our own Caymanian cultural development”. Bigelman further added: “our everchanging culture, like many around the world, can find its own expression through contemporary art forms while retaining the value and integrity of who and what we were, can and will be”.

ConversASIAN was guest curated by founding Director of M.Y. Art Prospects in New York, Miyako Yoshinaga, and was on view at the National Gallery of the Cayman Islands’ former location at Harbour Place from 16 September – 23 December 2002.