The Appearance: Art of the Asian Diaspora in Latin America & the Caribbean

Watch co-curators Tie Jojima and Yudi Rafael speak about the intention behind the exhibition, on view through December 14 at Americas Society in New York.

“We want viewers to understand, in this exhibition, the complexity and the processes of each individual artist: working within their own countries, within their own contexts, and their very specific family histories, histories of migration, how they ended up being Latin American,” says Tie Jojima, co-curator of The Appearance: Art of the Asian Diaspora in Latin America & the Caribbean. “But also understand these artists as a whole, understand this being a conversation within Latin America, with specific histories of racialization that in many countries excluded Asians from narratives of national identity.”

Mimian Hsu, a Costa Rican artist, explains the process and meaning behind her work, which is based on a letter found in her country archives that requests for Chinese immigrant families to be reunited. Hsu embroidered the text on a bedsheet that is traditionally used during wedding nights to adorn the newlyweds' bed. She is one of 29 artists from 15 different countries featured in the exhibition, with works produced on different mediums, including painting, photography, sculpture, and video. 

“They are bridging the local, the regional, and the global, in terms of thinking about what is particular and what is common to broader transnational experiences of diaspora,” says Yudi Rafael, co-curator of the exhibition, about the artists and their work. 

The Appearance: Art of the Asian Diaspora in Latin America & the Caribbean centers on the artistic production of the Asian diaspora in the regions from the 1950s to the present. The show opened on September 4 and will be on view through December 14, 2024.