About HEARTMIND: Selections from the Bob Lee and AAAC Collection

When the Asian American Arts Centre was founded in 1974, the idea of “Asian American” was inchoate and largely undefined. Across nearly forty years of exhibitions, programming, and collecting, Bob Eng Lee, AAAC’s longtime director, brought together a venerable collection of sculptures, drawings, and paintings. Co-curated by Lisa Yin Zhang, Simon Wu, and Jayne Cole, Draft: Portraits & Selections from the Bob Eng Lee and AAAC Collection sweeps through the history of this storied organization with select works. 

The title of this exhibition, Heartmind signifies our evolving relationship with this collection. We are drafting a select few artists from an expansive collection of dozens; AAAC’s work forged a kind of first draft of Asian American history; and this exhibition will hopefully be only the first of many inquiries into this wonderful collection.

HEARTMIND Selections from the Bob Eng Lee and AAAC Collection is an exhibition that engages the history of AAAC and the Asian American arts community, and themes of Asian American identity. Selections exhibits a number of historical works by artists who became members of important artist collectives such as Basement Workshop, Godzilla, and Epoxy; works which engage themes of home and displacement especially as resonant in New York’s Chinatown; and pieces which engage ideals and adversities of Asian American identity.  Included in this part of the exhibition are works by Yoshiki Araki, Ming Fay, Joseph Goto, Teh Ching Hsieh, Tai Dang, Arlan Huang, Dorothy Imagire, Matsumi Kanemitsu, Ik-Joong Kang, Soon Im Kim, Nina Kuo, Kwok Mang Ho, Evri Kwong, Tara Subrawal, Wing Young Huie, and Charles Yuen. 

This iteration of the exhibition will be accompanied by a portrait show of significant people, places, and ideas at Pearl River Mart. Together, this project represents the first of a long-running investment in a vast, enlightening, and idiosyncratic collection. 

Curator Bios:

Lisa Yin Zhang is an art historian, curator, and writer from Queens, New York. A graduate of Williams College and Stuyvesant High School, she is currently senior staff writer at TheGuide.art, and has previously held positions at the Museum of Chinese in America, the Noguchi Museum, The Museum of Modern Art, and more. 

Simon Wu is a writer and curator based in Brooklyn. 

Jayne Cole is a contemporary art historian based in New York City. Her research focuses on the intersections of art, architecture, and urbanism in Lower Manhattan in the late twentieth century.

Thank you to AAFE for hosting the space.