Creative Currents: Celebrating AAPI Art and Collaboration

In celebration of AAPI Heritage Month, reserve a Phoenix Kingdoms ticket for the price of a General Admission ticket. Apply promo code AAPI2024.

Celebrate the 20th anniversary of AAPI Heritage Month with activities and programs for the whole family. Go behind the scenes of the striking, cosmos-inspired tile mural on the East West Bank Art Terrace with a screening of Ala Ebtekar: Luminous Ground and hear from the artist in person as Ebtekar joins local AAPI artists Dave Young Kim and Jenifer K Wofford in conversation. Kids and families can enjoy storytelling and a variety of hands-on art activities, while guests of all ages can learn more about AAPI artists and their work throughout the museum, including an AAPI-focused contemporary tour. 

Featured: 
2 PM: Artist talk with Ala Ebtekar, Dave Young Kim, and Jenifer K Wofford, moderated by Assistant Curator of Contemporary Art and Programs Naz Cuguoglu, including a screening of the short documentary Luminous Ground: Ala Ebtekar.  
3:15 PM: AAPI-themed Contemporary Art Tour (limited capacity) 
3:15 PM: Art Terrace Social Mixer (drinks available for purchase)

Tours:  
11 AM: Phoenix Kingdoms: The Last Splendor of China’s Bronze Age  
2 PM: Collection  
3 PM: Phoenix Kingdoms: The Last Splendor of China’s Bronze Age 

For Kids and Families:   
All Day (10 AM–5 PM): A variety of art activities offered in Shriram Experiential Learning Center   
11 AM: Storytelling (pre-K) 
12–3 PM: Star tile activity on the Art Terrace inspired by Ala Ebtekar’s Luminous Ground (while supplies last) 
1 PM: Storytelling (all ages)  

ABOUT THE PANELISTS

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  Ala Ebtekar (b. 1978, active San Francisco and Tehran) is an artist whose work brings forth sculptural and photographic possibilities of the universe and time gazing back at us. His extensive research and making process borrows and physically reworks thousand-year-old image/object-making traditions, as well as the latest technological advances in production. Ebtekar’s work has been exhibited widely internationally and throughout the United States; his numerous public and civic art commissions include work at SFO, Alserkal in the UAE, the City of Oakland, the Asian Art Museum, and Meta HQ in Menlo Park, CA. He holds an MFA from Stanford University and a BFA from the San Francisco Art Institute. 

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  Dave Young Kim (American, b. 1979) is a fine artist whose work engages with the intangible quality of home and explores themes of nostalgia, war, conflict, and displacement. Born and raised in Los Angeles, he received a BFA from UC Davis and an MFA from Mills College and is a recipient of the Asian Pacific American Heritage Award. His work has been exhibited at the Asian Art Museum, Ewkuks, Vessel Gallery, Berkeley Art Center, SFAC Main Gallery, Kang Collection, and the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. In 2020, he co-founded the Korean American Artist Collective (KAAC), a group of artists building community around work rooted in the Korean American experience. 

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  Jenifer K Wofford is a San Francisco artist and educator whose work investigates hybridity, history, calamity, and global culture, often with a humorous bent. She is also one-third of the Filipina-American artist trio M.O.B. Her work has been exhibited at venues including BAMFPA, Oakland Museum of California, YBCA, San Jose Museum of Art, Southern Exposure, Kearny Street Workshop, Wing Luke Museum, DePaul Museum. Wofford is a 2023 YBCA 100 Honoree and a recipient of the Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters and Sculptors Grant. Born in San Francisco and raised in Hong Kong, Dubai, Malaysia, and the Bay Area, Wofford has also lived in Oakland and Prague; she teaches at the University of San Francisco. 

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  Naz Cuguoglu is Assistant Curator of Contemporary Art and Programs at the Asian Art Museum. Originally from Istanbul, she has curated exhibitions and programs internationally at documenta fifteen, Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, the Walters Art Museum, and the 15th Istanbul Biennial, and locally at the Wattis Institute, Berkeley Art Center, Headlands Center for the Arts, and Slash. Cuguoglu previously held positions at KADIST, the de Young Museum, and SFMOMA. Her writing has been featured in SFMOMA Open Space, ArtAsiaPacific, Hyperallergic, and Nka: Journal of Contemporary African Art.