The Reimagined Worlds of Carlos Villa

For the closing event of the Carlos Villa: Worlds in Collision exhibition, esteemed art historian, curator, and cultural critic Margo Machida will give a presentation based on her contribution to the exhibition. This lecture will be followed with a roundtable discussion with Machida, co-curators Mark Dean Johnson and Trisha Lagaso Goldberg, and Asian Art Museum Senior Associate Curator and Head of Contemporary Art Abby Chen.

ABOUT THE PRESENTERS

Margo Machida, PhD is Professor Emerita of Art History and Asian American Studies at the University of Connecticut. She has lectured and published widely on her research and served as a curatorial advisor for the inaugural 2017 Honolulu Biennial. Her book, “Unsettled Visions: Contemporary Asian American Artists and the Social Imaginary” (Duke University Press, 2009) received the Cultural Studies Book Award from the Association for Asian American Studies. Machida received the 2021 College Art Association Excellence in Diversity Award, and is a co-founder of GODZILLA: Asian American Art Network (1990–2001).

Mark Dean Johnson is professor of art at San Francisco State University. He was the principal editor of “Asian American Art: A History, 1850–1970” (2008) and cocurator, coeditor, and coauthor of exhibitions and related catalogs including Asian/American/Modern Art: Shifting Currents, 1900–1970, de Young Museum (2008); China’s Changing Landscape, Nordiska Akvarellmuseet in Skärhamn, Sweden (2014); Changing and Unchanging Things: Noguchi and Hasegawa in Postwar Japan, Noguchi Museum (2019); Chang Dai-chien: From Heart to Hand, Asian Art Museum (2019); and When I Remember I See Red: American Indian Art and Activism in California, Crocker Art Museum (2019).

Trisha Lagaso Goldberg is co-curator of Carlos Villa: Worlds in Collision, and former Director of Curatorial Affairs for the FOR-SITE Foundation. Her curatorial projects include Tropical Disturbance for the Luggage Store (2018) and Sino Ka/Ano Ka: San Francisco Babaylan which was co-curated with Carlos Villa for San Francisco State University and the Museo Ng Maynila (1998). Lagaso Goldberg was the founding director of the thirtyninehotel gallery in Honolulu, and recently co-curated Lands End, featuring the work of 27 international artists addressing the climate crisis and presented within the context of the historic Cliff House in San Francisco.

Abby Chen is the head of contemporary art and senior associate curator at the Asian Art Museum. Chen’s team opened the 2020 museum expansion with an exhibition by Zheng Chongbin, public commissions by Jenifer K Wofford and Chanel Miller, and the inaugural rotation of the contemporary art permanent collection gallery, featuring Jayashree Chakravarty and Lam Tung Pang, amongst other projects. She previously served as Artistic Director and Deputy Director for the Chinese Culture Center of San Francisco, where she led a transformation of the community organization into a leading global platform for contemporary art exhibitions and public projects.