You’ve seen the exhibit, now hear the stories behind the artworks. Think!Chinatown is honored to present the “Just Between Us: From the Archives of Arlan Huang” official book launch. Arlan Huang will be joined by fellow artist and longtime friend Tomie Arai in conversation about their rich community of artists and dive into a selection of works from the exhibit. DJ YiuYiu 瑶瑶 will also spin some of Arlan's favorite tunes, including Chinese doowop and 60s/70s Taiwanese Enka Blues.
If you haven’t already, make sure to get your copy of “Just Between Us” at Think!Chinatown’s Studio!
Reservations are necessary to attend, suggested donation of $5-15 is appreciated.
Just Between Us is the fully illustrated exhibition catalog for the group exhibition at Pearl River Mart Soho on view now through August 27, 2023. For over five decades, artist and activist Arlan Huang has amassed a significant collection of paintings, photographs, drawings, and more from "art swaps," or friendly exchanges between fellow artists that operated outside traditional transactions.
Published by Pearl River Mart and Think!Chinatown, the book begins with an introductory essay by Danielle Wu, followed by an interview between Howie Chen & Arlan Huang. Huang's collection traces his time in the Asian American arts network, Godzilla, and the Chinatown-based collective Basement Workshop. Featured artists include Tomie Arai, Ken Chu, Corky Lee, Alex Paik, Hoyt Soohoo, Bob Hsiang, and Martin Wong. As the owner of the frame shop Squid Frames, Huang kept longtime correspondence with conceptual artist Sol Lewitt.
Arlan Huang is an artist based in New York. His work is characterized by its play with translucency and opacity, darting between a wide variety of mediums including acrylic paint, glass, and multimedia installations. His abstractions are informed by the conflation of recent and collective memory, as well as everyday life; for example, his freehanded paintings reference his mother’s cheongsams and grapes harvested at only certain times a year in Japan. Taken together, his work probes the possibility of Asian Americanness, or the feeling of belonging amidst feelings of placelessness. As an active member in Godzilla: Asian American Arts Network, Huang has been a key player in broadening opportunities for Asian Americans in the Arts and Asian American activism more broadly. His murals have dotted various public spaces in New York, and he has placed permanent installations in New York and San Francisco.
Tomie Arai (she/her) is a public artist, born and raised in NYC. The stories of displaced and dislocated communities across the globe form the basis for her collaborations with historians, activists and cultural organizations. Through the framework of community-led collaborations, Arai uses public art, mixed media installations, and large-scale light projections as platforms to amplify issues of race, gender and social justice. Arai has designed both temporary and permanent public works of art for Creative Time, the US General Services Administration Art in Architecture Program, the NYC PerCent for Art Program, the MTA Arts for Transit Program, the San Francisco Arts Commission and the Pew Charitable Trust. She is a co-founder of the cultural collective, The Chinatown Art Brigade and is an artist-in-residence with CAAAV: Organizing Asian Communities on NY’s Lower East Side.