Immigration of Ceramics

Period 2024.4.18-7.28
Location National Asian Culture Center Creation Space 6

The 2024 ACC Asia Network is an annual project established in 2017 to revitalize the “Asia” discourse, which is the institutional agenda of the National Asia Culture Center. This year’s ACC Asia Network exhibition, Immigration of Ceramics, highlights contemporary ceramics actively developing outside of Asia through artists with migration experiences.

Ceramic art is considered a traditional heritage of Asia, and the medium’s symbolism is inherent in Asia. Ceramic culture, which has spread from Asia to the entire world through the historical migration of humankind, is being reinterpreted and developed into contemporary art, especially in the United States, where racial and cultural convergence is actively taking place. The four participating artists, Steven Young Lee (Korean-American), Linda Nguyen Lopez (Vietnamese/Mexican-American), Se Oh (Korean-American), and Amy Lee Sanford (Cambodian-American), have diverse migration backgrounds, such as second-generation immigrants or adoption. Their works have the characteristic of being expressed in the context of cultural clashes originating from individual migration narratives and the subsequent search for identity. At this point, the works unfold a story distinct from ceramic art made in Asia. Immigration of Ceramics is an attempt to read contemporary ceramics anew through the occurrence of migration, which has been intertwined with human history, rather than a chronological study of style.

For this exhibition, the artists traveled to Gwangju from the United States to create some of their works. The exhibition seeks to provide visitors with an opportunity to encounter the works and walk along their path together.