NPR for North Texas
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

‘We are here in Texas’: Dallas Asian American Art Collective puts on its first show

A photography print of a man inside a minaret. A ceramic chalice. A tissue paper collage illustration from a children’s book. A short film about a trip to Europe with friends.

Each of these pieces of art was created by Asian American artists from North Texas and featured in the Dallas Asian American Art Collective’s first art show over the weekend.

Co-curators Christina J. Hahn, Leili Arai Tavallaei and Jackie Tao Law, who are all Dallas-based artists, partnered with the Cedars Union, where they put on the show.

People explore the exhibit as the Dallas Asian American Art Collective hosts its first annual show at the Cedars Union Dallas on Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024.
Juan Figueroa
/
The Dallas Morning News
People explore the exhibit as the Dallas Asian American Art Collective hosts its first annual show at the Cedars Union Dallas on Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024.

Tavallaei said the collective wanted to reflect the diversity of emerging and established artists of Asian American and Pacific Islander heritage in North Texas. The co-curator is a printmaker, mixed-media painter and animator whose work explores her mixed-race identity as someone with parents who are Persian Iranian and Hāfu, mixed Japanese identity.

A lot of people, when they hear of Asian artists, they usually think of international Asian artists that have made it big across the pond,” she said. “We here want to kind of make a statement that we are, in fact, here in the States. We are here in Texas.”

Law said that distinction of being an Asian American artist matters because being part of the diaspora is an entirely different experience from being Asian.

You end up having this blend of maybe your home culture and then being from wherever you immigrated to,” said Law, who is a first-generation Hakka Chinese visual artist.

Here are some of the artists who displayed work at the show:

A stillshot of the Hong Kong Market Place in Dallas.
Courtesy of Jorenzo Mallari
A stillshot from Jorenzo Mallari's video "To Here and Back" shows the Hong Kong Market Place.

Jorenzo Mallari, video “To Here and Back”

Growing up in Tyler, Mallari said his family would travel two hours each way to get groceries from the Hong Kong Market Place in Dallas. It was part of his family’s Sunday ritual: get a haircut, buy groceries and head home.

Mallari said there’s a “small but mighty” Filipino community in Tyler, but for a long time there wasn’t a space to pick up basic ingredients to make food from his culture.

“When I was a kid, I was annoyed that we would have to be there. But as I got older, I appreciated how important that was, how some of my favorite foods we wouldn’t have been able to make it or they wouldn’t have been my favorite foods had we not gone there.”

The second-generation Filipino American filmmaker describes “To Here and Back” as a visual tone poem that reflects the immigrant story.

“I think it’s about coming back to a place and seeing how time has changed it even though it’s kind of stayed the same in your head,” he said.

Dongjing Zhang Berglund poses with her son Gordon, 7, in front of her piece “People Studies,” 2023, Fountain Pen, Fude nib 55 degrees inked with Platinum Carbon Black, during the Dallas Asian American Art Collective’s first annual show at the Cedars Union Dallas on Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024.
Juan Figueroa
/
The Dallas Morning News
Dongjing Zhang Berglund poses with her son Gordon, 7, in front of her piece “People Studies,” 2023, Fountain Pen, Fude nib 55 degrees inked with Platinum Carbon Black, during the Dallas Asian American Art Collective’s first annual show at the Cedars Union Dallas on Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024.

Dongjing Zhang Berglund, fountain pen on paper “People Studies”

Berglund said last year she focused on “trying to be more Chinese” and returning to her roots. A big part of that has been drawing scenes from everyday life in China, including sketches of three delivery drivers, a night market full of delicious snacks or people waiting in line with thick parkas.

“I was just there about a year ago during the winter, when everyone was in the big, puffy jackets which is not something you see in Texas,” she said.

Dongjing Zhang Berglund talks about her piece “People Studies,” 2023, Fountain Pen, Fude nib 55 degrees inked with Platinum Carbon Black, during the Dallas Asian American Art Collective’s first annual show at the Cedars Union Dallas on Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024.
Juan Figueroa
/
The Dallas Morning News
Dongjing Zhang Berglund talks about her piece “People Studies,” 2023, Fountain Pen, Fude nib 55 degrees inked with Platinum Carbon Black, during the Dallas Asian American Art Collective’s first annual show at the Cedars Union Dallas on Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024.

Originally from Beijing, the artist, who works as a web architect by day, now lives in Plano with her family. She sometimes makes sketches from photos and online reference art, which reminds her of how different the scenery is back in China.

“I remember the hutongs, which are the little alleys. I remember wearing my red scarf as a little kid and the yellow hats in elementary,” she said. “Seeing those things in drawings brings back a lot of memories.”

Jae Hyun Choi poses in front of his piece “Immanence,” 2024, Acrylic, pastel chalk on canvas sheet, diptych, during the Dallas Asian American Art Collective’s first annual show at the Cedars Union Dallas on Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024. Pei-en Yang’s “Three Homes,” 2024, transparency film, photography, collage, can be seen on the left.
Juan Figueroa
/
The Dallas Morning News
Jae Hyun Choi poses in front of his piece “Immanence,” 2024, Acrylic, pastel chalk on canvas sheet, diptych, during the Dallas Asian American Art Collective’s first annual show at the Cedars Union Dallas on Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024. Pei-en Yang’s “Three Homes,” 2024, transparency film, photography, collage, can be seen on the left.

Jae Hyun Choi, acrylic and chalk on canvas “Immanence” and “Mu-je”

Choi is a medical student in North Texas by day and artist by night. His colorful, abstract paintings don’t immediately seem to reference language but that’s the inspiration for his work.

He said he incorporates Chinese typography into his pieces as a system that connects Korean and Japanese, the two languages that he speaks.

The artist said he wanted to explore questions like: “How do we represent the world through language? What are some ways that you can kind of twist or distort or play with the form of language to represent the world?”

Choi said language has been an important way to connect with loved ones.

“It’s how I feel connected to my family abroad. Whenever I go back to that language context, it feels like coming home in a way,” he said. "I feel like so much of Korean culture is bound up in the way language is constructed, in the way you relate to people and honorifics.”

Arts Access is an arts journalism collaboration powered by The Dallas Morning News and KERA.

This community-funded journalism initiative is funded by the Better Together Fund, Carol & Don Glendenning, City of Dallas OAC, The University of Texas at Dallas, Communities Foundation of Texas, The Dallas Foundation, Eugene McDermott Foundation, James & Gayle Halperin Foundation, Jennifer & Peter Altabef and The Meadows Foundation. The News and KERA retain full editorial control of Arts Access’ journalism.

Elizabeth Myong is KERA’s Arts Collaborative Reporter. She came to KERA from New York, where she worked as a CNBC fellow covering breaking news and politics. Before that, she freelanced as a features reporter for the Houston Chronicle and a modern arts reporter for Houstonia Magazine.