Posts by Melanie Elvena
A Tribute to Artist Hung Liu by AAWAA Artist Member Lenore Chinn
A Tribute to Artist Hung Liu by AAWAA Artist Member Lenore Chinn

“For me as an artist, a painter and photographer, I would be hard pressed to pick just one or two favorites in Hung Liu’s expansive body of work. Paintings, works on paper, mixed media, sometimes with a bird cage attached, or installations with thousands of fortune cookies, would be employed in her arsenal of ideas. Her works were at once insightful and transgressive in illuminating the hidden stories of subjects largely absent in the public’s consciousness here and in China.”

Read More
MemberMelanie ElvenaAsian American Women Artists Association
Aleesa Pitchamarn Alexander on Asian American Art, Past and Futures
Aleesa Pitchamarn Alexander on Asian American Art, Past and Futures

In 1989, after the national meeting for the Women’s Caucus for Art, the Asian American Women Artists Association (AAWAA) was established by Betty Kano, Flo Oy Wong, and Moira Roth in San Francisco (fig. 5). Bing joined the group soon after. AAWAA is unique as one of the only arts organizations in the United States explicitly created to support Asian American women artists. Beyond organizing exhibitions and public programs, AAWAA also runs the Emerging Curators Program, which offers opportunities for Asian American women to gain experience in the curatorial realm. For AAWAA and many other Asian American art collectives, it is not just the representation of Asian Americans on museum walls that matters; they recognize the need for Asian Americans to occupy important roles as public and creative leaders within institutions and beyond.

Read More
Blog Post, MemberMelanie ElvenaAsian American Women Artists Association
In Memory of AAWAA's Late Co-Founder, Moira Roth
In Memory of AAWAA's Late Co-Founder, Moira Roth

It is with great sorrow and grief that we announce one of AAWAA's co-founding members and biggest supporters, Moira Roth, passed away on the morning of June 14 while in hospice care. She will always be a major part of our history as a co-founder along with artists Flo Oy Wong and Betty Kano and was always such a major advocate for feminism and women of color artists. As an academic and professor of Art History at Mills College, Moira instilled in us the need to document our art and work from an empowered place, on our own terms.

Read More
Melanie ElvenaAsian American Women Artists Association Comment