Photo by Luke Liu
Think!Chinatown celebrates the closing of In Our Corner with a reception and a panel discussion with the curators of NYU 80WSE’s Legacies—Howie Chen, Jayne Cole Southard, and dr. christina ong, moderated by Sophia Ma, curator of In Our Corner. As the initiators of the original exhibition that inspired In Our Corner, the curators bring insight to how significant Asian American artist collectives and organizations of the 1970s-1990s–Basement Workshop, Asian American Arts Centre, and Godzilla: Asian American Artists Network–worked with, inspired by, inspired, and struggled with allyship and solidarity.
Free with no RSVP required!
In the spirit of In Our Corner, we're so happy to platform beautiful handmade ceramic wares crafted by our dear friend and T!C ally, Janusz Jaworski AKA probabilityblue. Through collaborative pricing, Janusz has a sliding scale payment system for his wares. Stay for a thoughtful discussion and party & go home with one-of-a-kind ceramics!
ABOUT THE PANELISTS
Howie Chen is the director and curator of 80 Washington Square East gallery at NYU. A founding director of Chen’s, a townhouse gallery in Brooklyn, he has held curatorial roles at the Whitney Museum of American Art (2001-2007) and MoMA PS1. He was also a director of Dispatch, a curatorial production office and project space in New York (2007-2011). His writings have been published by Primary Information and Badlands Unlimited and have appeared in magazines such as Artforum, Frieze, and Art in America. Chen is the editor of the anthology Godzilla: Asian American Arts Network 1990-2001 (Primary Information, 2021). He was recently on faculty at NYU Steinhardt School and has been a lecturer at the Art, Culture and Technology program at MIT, Parsons School for Design, and Rhode Island School of Design. Chen was a board member of Working Artists and the Greater Economy (W.A.G.E.) and currently serves on the board of Primary Information.
Jayne Cole Southard is a New York-based art historian and curator. Currently, she’s a Lecturer in the Department of Art at the City College of New York (CUNY), where she teaches courses in art history and arts writing. Jayne’s research specializes in global contemporary art, focusing on Asian art in a transnational context. Her research has been supported by organizations including the Henry Luce Foundation and the Association for the Historians of American Art. Additionally, Jayne has a wide-range of museum and gallery experience. She held positions at the Shanghai Museum, the Walker Art Center, Groveland Gallery, and Think!Chinatown, among other venues. Recently, she served as co-curator for Legacies: Asian American Art Movements in New York City, 1969-2001 at NYU’s 80WSE. Jayne holds a PhD in Art History from the University of Oregon.
dr. christina ong (she/her) is a postdoctoral scholar in Asian and Asian American Studies at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. She obtained her PhD in Sociology from the University of Pittsburgh in 2024. Her research uncovers how diasporas create community through place-based activism and art production. Her current work chronicles the impact of the Basement Workshop (1969-1986), the first pan-Asian political and arts organization active in Manhattan’s Chinatown.
Sophia Ma is an independent curator and writer based in Brooklyn. Ma focuses on broadening the reach and understanding of Asian American artists and their art. She curated exhibitions at La MaMa Galleria, Dorsey Fine Art Gallery, Chiquita Room, Think!Chinatown, FiveMyles, Tiger Strikes Asteroid, Dr. M. T. Geoffrey Yeh Art Gallery at St. John’s University, Walter’s at Walter Elwood Museum, SpringBreak Art Show, Hunter College 205 Hudson Gallery and 205 Project Space, and Rockwell Studios. She was a juror for the 2025 SHIFT Program at Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts, the International Studio & Curatorial Program’s 2023 Helen Frankenthaler Residency Program, and Residency Unlimited’s 2024 Open Call for NYC-based BIPOC Artists. She has written for multiple art publications, including Art Papers, Hyperallergic, The Brooklyn Rail, Art Spiel, Arte Fuse, and White Hot Magazine. Ma received her MA in art history and curatorial studies from Hunter College in 2020.
ABOUT THE EXHIBIT
In Our Corner: Exchanges in the Asian American Art Movements and Beyond explores the personal and professional support that artists of Asian descent received during and after the Asian American Art Movements. This companion exhibition to Legacies: Asian American Art Movements in New York City (1969-2001) at New York University’s 80WSE Gallery, invites five artists of the three key art collectives and organizations featured in Legacies to show alongside five non-Asian American artists who supported their work and growth over the years. These relationships range from recently made friendships to lifelong partnerships and even marriage: Kathleen Foster joins Ching Ming Cheung; Charles Luce joins Helen Oji; Howardena Pindell joins Arlan Huang; Shellyne Rodriguez joins Tomie Arai; and Arleen Schloss joins Nina Kuo. To highlight AAAC’s collection and its ongoing solidarity-building, In Our Corner presents five works by non-Asian American artists from the collection, Columbia Fiero, Kitty Katz, Donald Lipski, Eva Mantell, and Sepp Seitz. As the hosting institution for In Our Corner, Think!Chinatown’s commission of Black Gotham’s Grand Rising and its inclusion in the show demonstrates the organization’s ongoing exchange and collaboration with communities of color. Through interviews and writings from the artists, In Our Corner highlights these bonds and explores how artist collectives/organizations intersected and fostered connections.