What is Asian American Art?
Artist Laura Kina discusses her work, and its relationship to the framework of "American Asian Art".
Laura Kina, Hajichi (kasuri and F-35s), 12×12 inches, Oil on wood panel, 2024.
Chicago based artist Laura Kina will share how her paintings use autobiography to archive personal and collective memories and Okinawan American identity. Drawing from over 30 years of experiences as a member of Asian American/Asian diasporic artists’ collectives and networks, Kina will address the question of “What/When/Where is Asian American art?”
The 2026 Sydney Asian Art Series is convened by Yvonne Low and Natalie Seiz, and co-presented by the Power Institute and VisAsia at the Art Gallery of NSW.
People
Laura Kina
Laura Kina (she/they) is a queer, disabled, mixed-race Okinawan American artist and educator whose work focuses on Asian American art and identity. Kina is a Vincent de Paul Professor at the Art School at DePaul University in Chicago and is the coeditor of War Baby / Love Child: Mixed Race Asian American Art and Queering Contemporary Asian American Art and the illustrator of Lee A. Tonouchi’s award-winning children’s book Okinawan Princess: Da Legend of Hajichi Tattoos. Kina is coeditor/illustrator, along with Jave Yoshimoto, of Word of Mouth: Asian American Artists Sharing Recipes. Kina’s artworks can be found in collections at the Mingei International Museum, Okinawa Prefectural Museum and Art Museum, and The Smithsonian Archives of American Art.
IG @laura.kina www.laurakina.com. Photo by Jeff Carion, 2024.