February 4-July 7, 2023
Told from the point of view of Sansei (third generation) Japanese Americans, Resilience—A Sansei Sense of Legacy features eight artists whose work reflects on the effects of EO9066 as it resonated from generation to generation.

While several of the artists employ traditional Japanese methods in the construction of their work—Lydia Nakashima Degarrod’s use of boro stiching on her works on paper; Na Omi Judy Shintani’s use of kintsugi on the ceramic vessels which accompany her deconstructed kimonos—others use iconography relating to Japanese culture as a jumping-off point for personal explorations on the subject of the incarceration camps—Reiko Fujii’s photographs-as-kimono; Wendy Maruyama’s columns of replicated camp ID tags.

The exhibit also includes work by Kristine Aono, Tom Nakashima, Roger Shimomura, and Jerry Takigawa. Each in their own way, the artists in this exhibition express moments of deeply felt pain and reluctant acceptance, emotions which were often withheld by their elders.

Curators Jerry Takigawa and Gail Enns explain, “The Sansei generation is perhaps the last generation of Japanese American artists that can be directly connected to the WWII American concentration camp experience—making their expression particularly significant in clarity of emotion.”

Image Credit: Kristine Aono, Daruma of Resilience, 2019 – 2021; photocopied documents, paper sticky notes, paint, Aqua Resin, EPS foam, wood base, 60 x 48 x 45 inches (84 x 49 x 48 inches on exhibition pedestal, not pictured); Courtesy of the artist, photograph by Chris Barclay