ASIAN CELEBRATION EXHIBIT
GALLERY GUIDE
ASIAN CELEBRATION EXHIBIT
ON THE FLOOR
A Jud Turner
“Loki - Sockeye Salmon”
I am a sculptor working with found objects and welded steel to capture the sense of wonder and excitement I feel about the natural world. I specialize in animals with a dynamic realism.
B Parisa Garazhizn, MFA candidate, University of Oregon
If It Were Visible
I live in a country where you can hear bad news every day. The news doesn’t disappear over time, nor is it forgotten or softened; it has a lasting effect on human life. We have no control over these events. They grow and wrap around us; they grow and even bloom! I want to show how news and events affect our lives. They have an invisible impact, but in my painting, I want to show the reality of the existence of news. News is solid squares that grow and bloom around humans.
This sculpture symbolizes growth and expansion. To me, the cubes resemble plant seeds that, once placed in a suitable environment, begin to grow and develop. This piece embodies that very process of growth and engulfment. The news, like a sprouting plant, has germinated, turned green, and continues to expand, constantly surrounding and shaping its environment. As long as the conditions remain fertile and alive, it keeps growing, becoming larger and larger, and eventually even blooming.
C Cooper Powell Ceramic Pieces
I love working with clay because it lets me shape the ideas in my head into something real that I can touch and hold. Every time I sit down to make something, I feel calm and focused, like the world slows down and I’m just having fun.
Making ceramics teaches me to be patient and creative. It’s exciting to open the kiln and see how the colors and glazes turned out. There’s always a little surprise. I want people to feel happy when they see my work.
R2-D2 I made this R2-D2 cup because I love Star Wars, and R2-D2 is one of the coolest characters. He may be small, but he’s clever, loyal, and always ready to help.
Octopus Mug I made this octopus mug for my grandma because she loves octopuses. She always tells me how smart and interesting they are, so I wanted to make something special just for her.I shaped the octopus so its arms wrap around the cup like it’s giving it a hug. I added little details like the suckers and tried to make it look like it was moving.
Bonsai I made this bonsai-inspired ceramic piece for my dad because he loves bonsai trees. When I created this piece, I thought about how much my dad’s love for bonsai teaches me about nurturing, patience, and attention to detail. Just like bonsai, our relationship grows stronger with care and time
Creamy Japanese Tea Cup Set I made this tea cup set for my mom because tea has always reminded me of her, warm, comforting, and full of quiet strength. I chose a creamy, soft glaze to reflect her gentle nature and the peaceful moments we’ve shared over tea.
Making this set was a way for me to slow down and think of her. I hope every time she uses these cups, she feels the love and gratitude I put into each one.
D Harold Hoy Ghost Salmon
My work since the 1960’s has dealt with the relationship of humans and nature. The subject of my recent work deals with the Pacific Salmon. I am interested in n dealing with ideas that relate to the status of the salmon in our modern day world.
E Kerry Wade Gaming Table
The inspiration for my furniture comes from the materials I use. The curve of a ski becomes an architectural detail and a mid century game board adds a classic look as well as functionality .
This piece is fabricated from cross country skis and two game boards. The top is a wooden chess board and the lower is a pressed tin Chinese Checker board.
F Karen Russo
Follow the Golden Thread
Star Blossom Galaxy
Passage Through Ultramarine
Karen Russo is a figurative ceramic sculptor who lives and works in the lush green foothills of western Oregon. She chooses clay as her primary medium because of its malleability, capacity for transformation, and direct connection to the earth. Karen tells visual stories through carving and painting. Her art is
the observation of and interaction with an ever changing landscape, a collaboration with the feminine and nature.
“My sculptures depict women that seem to originate from different eras and geographical origins. Through these maternal archetypes, so evocative of the precious earth from which they were formed, I hope to express an eternal optimism for the human spirit in this beautiful and turbulent world.”
G Renee Mahni Turner “Release”
ON THE WALL
1 Keerti Hasija Kauffman Floating
The colors and patterns of South Asian folk art have always invited me into a world of joy and connection to thousands of years of tradition.
Thoughts
I want to recognize the female form in its common state of tensing while deep in thought.
Mehndi
The colors and patterns of South Asian folk art have always invited me into a world of joy and connection to thousands of years of tradition.
2 Chris Pontrelli Principals at Play
I paint primarily with acrylics on canvas. I’m drawn to the power of simple icons generated by our society. I greatly admire the work of mid-20th century designers. Some believe they were taking cues from the jazz and bebop musicians of that same era. I am also influenced by Japanese designers and artists from that same era. There is a quick, lightness to their forms, abbreviated, yet complete. It is with this visual shorthand that I express my own artistic vision.
As a life-long musician I find it natural to include qualities found in music when painting. Like a popular song I want my artwork to have an accessible beat and a colorful rhythm. I strive to create motion where there would otherwise be stillness. With each piece I ask, ‘can your eyes dance to this?’
3 Julia Paige In Her Strength Always Together, Never Apart
Dream Weaver
As a painter and an artist I am an expressionist, innovator and weaver of the imagination. In developing all of my unique art works, I am devoted to exploring and expressing a divine connection throughout all of the subjects my collections from my expressionist/ representational work to my mixed media and in current development my collection of large scale abstract paintings.
My personal story exists in each piece of art I produce. My curious nature led me to exploring multiple mediums working in acrylics, oils, cold wax and encaustic work as well as in textiles and design. I have been fully engaged in building my artistic practice for several years and consider myself an emerging fine artist as my current focus and with an absolute dedication is to become a master painter and artist, skilled in techniques, and expression of subject. I intentionally show up everyday in my studio to paint, create and make art.
My creative process in painting is an intricate balance between intuition, intention and craft. Through exploring multiple layers of color combinations, textures and mark making, organic forms and patterns seem to unveil and reveal themselves on my canvas and a bit of magic transformation occurs, where intuition meets innovation. It is in this vein where my paintings are crafted. I am in a
process where I am refining my voice and expressing my unique and individual way of painting.
4 Yuyang Zhang all i want for christmas is reciprocation
Yuyang Zhang’s work reflects his lived experience both as a chronically online queer Chinese through the lens of pop culture ephemera. Built upon daydreams and nightmares, his work stages melodramatic scenarios by weaving together imagery, iconography, text, and personal items. Each piece appropriates and reconfigures familiar pop culture artifacts, transforming them into queercoded camp. By leaning into excessive gestures and layered absurdity, masking vulnerability in vibrance, Zhang’s work disarms the viewers while questioning the power and agency that govern queer diaspora’s existence.
5 Omi Hasija The Wall
I contemplate the disconnect between our structured experience within the beauty of our natural world.
Rishi Kesh
This drawing is a tribute to my memories of my father.
Repose
I study and aim to capture the human form in its natural beauty.
6 Erin E. Andy Dissolving
I wanted to convey what I felt in a moment of despair and depression. I felt like I was drowning and dissolving like ink in water. I needed to create this digital piece to process my tumultuous state of mind. I wanted to express the moment I felt like dissolving into nothingness.
Element of fashion- Water Hanbok
My original concept was a contrasting hanbok using pastel colors for the jeogori (top) and bold colors for the chima (skirt) for the hanbok. However, I opted to change course when I realized the chima didn’t have movement like I intended with the basic shapes available. So, using the digital tools available to me, I explored the various water shapes to make the chima and additional pieces to tie everything together. I felt water, with its limitless forms could give the hanbok movement and impact I desired. The beauty of hanbok should not be relegated to cloth alone.
Element of fashion- Feather Qaspeq
My concept for this piece was incorporating Yup’ik traditional qaspeq with the element of wind. However, since wind cannot be seen, I opted to use feathers in place of it. I wanted to convey movement as well as a sense of impermanence by using feathers for the traditional qaspeq, since the people were originally semi nomadic. My idea for creating this digital piece was born from my desire to honor my husband’s tribe and finding a way to show my appreciation for the Yup’ik people.
7 Nicolai Trung
Missionary
69
There is a poem about intimacy that I wrote in Vietnamese. But I am unable to share because of the politics of surveillance. Where I am from, it is still a taboo to curate arts that arouses the erotics, let alone the queers. Selfcensoring is an act of preservation. How can I still convey the poem in the absence of self-expression and identities?
Mourning the loss of colored queer erotics, the queer loneliness epidemic, I need to capture intimacies.
A photo can seize a moment, but can it hold collisions of worlds, fluids, and
bodies? If a photo can bear such impact, then it can contain a poem about intimacies. Vice versa.
To not be captured in Vietnamese, I write in English about capturing a poem in Vietnamese. The cycle repeats. Cruel optimism. The dilemmas of border crossing.
How many intimacies do you see?
8 S. La Riccia Wilson’s Dahlias
9 Barbora Bakalarova
The Stranger Echoes of Great Minds’ Solitude
I enjoy creating images. My work, just like myself, is continuously evolving.
10 Mohini Iyer Sucker Dance
Jelly Rain Koi Tales
These are a part of series of works centered on sea-creatures and inspired Asian art styles. Here I explore the relation between the shapes of sea creatures, their natural environment and material objects that belong in the human world and the world of video-games. This blending of the organic and the stylized is very interesting to me.
11 Teresa Hsu Crocuses in Spring Barn
Multnomah Falls
Hi, I am Teresa Hsu from Taiwan. I have lived in Eugene for 20 years. I use sumi ink and watercolor paint my artwork. Now I am a local artist. If you are interested in my artwork, meet me at Saturday Market.
12 Daina Paden Wild and Free
13 Phyllis Helland ...winter is lifting ...and then light began to break through ...swim, fly, anything
Sometimes I hear a piece of music that moves me to paint.
One such piece is the Adagio from Sonata No.1 for Solo Violin by Bach, as played by Eugene’s Lisa McWhorter. Lisa’s playing of that work is so plaintive, so layered, so bleakly beautiful.
These paintings, layer upon layer, are my heart-felt response to that Adagio.
14 Sue Matsu
In a Glass Case
This guy lives upstairs in a glass case. Both horse and rider were manufactured from natural fibers. A continuation of an exploration of traditional Japanese symbolism in toys, the artist captures the nature of relationship between ancient story and eternal spirit.
15 Kenji Shimizu
Portraits of Oregon: This is Our Community
I am passionate about capturing the feel and emotion of people in artistic portraits. This passion started when I visited the Otsuka International Museum. There, famous paintings and works of art from all over the world are recreated brush stroke to brush stroke on ceramic in their original sizes. I saw how the painters made light fall on the subjects, and how every piece has stood the test of time and tells the history of the era and its subjects. I am passionate about creating a legacy for each of my subjects as well.
I am currently working on a project to showcase our beautiful community by highlighting the people who live here. The goal of this project is to encourage and celebrate everyone in our community. Through this project, I want to highlight the richness of this community and celebrate all of us. In doing so, I hope to encourage the community to learn about each other to be more curious, more empathetic, kinder, and closer together.
16 Jesse Gottesman A Needle Hidden in Cotton
17 Susan Detroy Memories
‘Memories’ is an excellent example of my layered creative building using digital and analogue techniques. The piece integrates historic, memorialized ephemera as well as edited digital captures. I am a visual storyteller with an extensive history in photography. I developed my visual language in childhood, avidly viewing magazine photographs and movies. In my artistic life time I have produced work as an printer, photographer and video artist.
In 2015 responding to internalized aging messages, I initiated my ten year ‘Portrait of a Woman’ self portrait project. In 2020 I expanded my tools, leaning digital media editing. The 40-minute commissioned documentary ‘In The Now’ laid the ground work for ‘The Corona Diaries’ series. I continue generating meditative films about biking, walking, plants and florals.
My career is a mix of old style analogue and current digital productions. My self portrait project newly includes the Planetary Sisters series utilizing my face with aging AI women.
I continue my deep video exploration in self portrait story telling and love for earth, combining my lived life with natural and cosmic elements. I hope to lead viewers on intriguing visual journeys.
I offer a feminist, woman-affirming perspective within a inventive and intriguing artworks portraying earth and self love. - Susan Detroy 2025
18 Paul Dix Mountains of Guilin, People’s Republic of China
The photo captures a scenic area of rice paddies and limestone peaks in southeast China.
19 Kathy Hoy Landscape
Boats on the Ocean
Peony flower and Bird
Kathy P.I. Hoy was born in China near Hangzhou. At age 4, she moved to Taiwan with her family. She graduated from Taiwan Normal University in 1965. While in college, she studied Chinese painting from Mr. Huang Jun Pi, a famous traditional Chinese brush painter, for five years before moving to Eugene, Oregon for graduate school. In 1969, she graduated from the University of Oregon with a Masters in Fine Arts.
For thirty years, she taught Chinese painting at Lane Community College in Eugene. Her work has been displayed at the Hult Center and Jordan Schnitzer Museum in Eugene, Portland State University, and the Spokane Art Museum. Today, she practices her craft in her free time between visits with her grandchildren. Her other interests include folk dancing, Chinese cooking, and Tai Chi.
20 Melissa “MiMi” Nolledo
The Wealth Gap
We live in unprecedented times, marked by profound divisions within our society. This toxic political climate can be overwhelming, but art has emerged as a vital therapeutic outlet for navigating
these challenges. It is a powerful instrument that not only raises awareness of what divides us but also highlights the threads that bind us together. Through my work, I have found that art can serve as a refuge, a healing space where emotions can be expressed and processed. It allows for introspection and encourages dialogue in a world often fraught with hostility.
Salt Lake Moon
Family
Orbit
We live in unprecedented times, marked by profound divisions within our society. This toxic political climate can be overwhelming, but art has proven to be a vital therapeutic outlet for navigating these challenges. It is a powerful instrument that not only raises awareness of what divides us but also highlights the threads that bind us together. Through my work, I have found that art can serve as a refuge, a healing space where emotions can be expressed and processed. It allows for introspection and encourages dialogue in a world often fraught with hostility.
“Family Orbit” is my personal exploration and interpretation of the intricate dynamics within a family of Asian and Filipino descent. This abstract piece attempts to convey the circular connections that bind us, reflecting the love, support, and also the idiosyncratic nature that shapes the Pinoy’s unique family unit. The bold colors and organic forms represent the energy and warmth that circulate among us, capturing the essence of our shared experiences and the strength of our bonds. Created in Salt Lake City and reworked to completion, this artwork embodies the journey of connection and resilience that defines a Filipino family.
21 DeWitt King V
DeWitt’s Rainbow Puzzle
Fire Truck for Tito Nicolo
Flowers for Lola Blanca
DeWitt King V is the son of Monica King and DeWitt King IV, grandson of Melissa “MiMi” Nolledo and Roger Haney. This aspiring young artist is almost 4 years old and loves to paint with his Grandma Mimi.
22 Twyla Bohrer
Pretty in Pink
Peonies and Melodies
Peony Garden
I am an artist, working in photography. I currently live and work in Eugene, Oregon. I have always loved art and being creative. In 2020 I wanted to find something that I could do at home that would be creative and make me feel happy. So, my husband surprised me with a Nikon P950 camera that summer for our anniversary. That is when I discovered my passion for photography. I love taking photographs of animals and scenery. I want my photographs to evoke the same sense of joy and happiness in those who view them as they do for me. Being able to share my art and love for nature is a dream come true. I don’t edit any of my photographs, I like to show the beauty of nature as it is. I love being able to share incredible moments in time with the world through photography.
23 M.M. Randolph
“Local Expressions in the Tao of Snake Style”
Year of the Wood Snake, Series #1
“Dreaming of East Meets West, set #1”
“I am traditionally a graphic designer by trade, but enjoy being a community artist.”
24 Zoe LeCompte Shanghai Reflection
I was waiting on the steps outside the Shanghai Museum. I turned to my left and saw the amazing reflection in the sloped glass. The juxtaposed lines were such a welcome surprise.
Stairs and Stripes
I was exploring our hotel in Beijing and went down the stairs to look at some painted folding panels. As I turned to leave, this wonderful scene of stripes and steel made me pause and stare.
25 Renee Mahni Turner
“Awake”
“Ellestra Lumerethra”
I love working in the Mystical. I create from my imagination derived from integrating lived experience. I have been working with dragon energy. I seek to inspire and create a sense of wonder and curiosity in my audience. We work out of The Oblivion Factory in west Eugene.
26 S. La Riccia Hands Arcoss the Universe
Steve La Riccia, a Eugene, Oregon based self- unemployed artist is well-known for his painterly SX-70 Polaroid manipulated photographic work produced from 1979 to 2009. He is a figure in the Eugene art scene, producing the popular Salon des Refus, an art exhibition of refused artists from the Eugene’s Mayor’s Art Show since 1991, and for over 28 years, was the gallery coordinator for the New Zone Arts Collective, an alternative non-profit art gallery.
Since 2011, La Riccia / Steamworks R & D Labs has created interactive and kinetic Steampunk, Dieselpunk & Atomicpunk contraptions cobbled together from antique found objects. Currently, La Riccia is the president of The Museum of Techno Arts, a non-profit that showcases
art with technology or industrial themes, reflecting on the history of human invention, retrofuturism or imaginative machines of the future.
steamworksresearchlabs.com
27 Jerry Ross Experimental
Landscape
I have always been inspired by Chinese landscape painting. My normal stle is “American Verismo”, a painterly impressionism influenced by Italian painting ideas, but in this work I am making a more or less conceptual lanscape that has the feeling of Chinese landscape and the Taoist concept of “emptiness.” We can think of this as the mental state of emptiness ready to look out on the world without pre-conceived ideas. It also refers to the emptiness of the world itself which outwardly seems solid and permanent, but, in reality, is transient and ever changing.
Portrait of Corle LaForce
My portrait of Corle LaForce was sold many years ago but I am exhibiting a print of the original. The subject modeled for me in my studio. She was of VietnameseFrench decent and had an unusal beauty that resulted from this ethnic mix. The work represents my American Verismo style which values drawing in sienna paint and retaining some of the sketch marks in the final result, enmploying the Italian technique of non-finiti, or stopping the painting early to avoid over painting the original sketch.
28 Arun Narayan Toke’ Himalayan Deodar Tree on W. 12th Ave, Eugene
This Himalayan Deodar Tree on W. 12th Avenue, a block west of Lincoln School is worth gazing at. Stand just below the Deodar and marvel at the beautiful maze of its branches.
A
Giant Coastal Redwood on Washington
Street,
Eugene
This very special Coastal Redwood Tree is located on the corner of W. 12th Ave and Washington Street in Eugene. I have seen it hundreds of times on my daily bicycle commute, but it never ceases to surprise me with its beauty and grandeur!
29 Kum Ja Lee Traces
My work explores the mystical relationship between time and its traces in nature and life. I am fascinated by how time flows through the natural world, embedding emotions and memories that transcend temporal boundaries. Cultural motifs such as patterns and characters exist as timeless symbols, linking past, present, and future. These traces hold a universal beauty that allows one to perceive and “read” time. I investigate and showcase an abstract visual language through the interplay of form, materiality, and the relationship between painting and fiber. Using the batik method, I apply paraffin wax and acid dyes to create controlled variations that evoke cultural memories. By layering traditional Korean patterns over images of rock valleys, my work reveals internal and external landscapes shaped by time. This process allows me to express emotional resonance and the presence of the past within the present for viewers.
30 Afsaneh Javadpour
A Model for Solidifying the Direct Relationship Between Distance and Perception (I)
Truth in history is never absolute; what we know is built upon narratives that have been rewritten, censored, distorted, or left untold. What is erased leaves behind an absence, and this absence exposes the fractures of an undiscovered truth.
Just as power shapes the course of war, it also dictates how war is remembered, constructing collective memory in alignment with political agendas. Through erasure, manipulation, and the rewriting of narratives, war is not confined to the battlefield; it unfolds in the selective framing of history, the headlines of news, and the images curated by the media. The media does not merely depict war as it unfolds, it shapes our very perception of it. And in this process, what remains hidden is precisely what we will never know.
In this body of work, destruction is not an act of erasure but an exposure of truth’s instability, a truth that is never fully within reach. Destruction becomes a form of recreation, retracing the voids left by official narratives. The documentation of war has always been a failure, as every account silences another, and every representation obscures reality. History, filtered through censorship and distortion, ceases to be a record and instead becomes a collection of absences and fractures. What remains are only fragments of an unfinished narrative, pieces of what was spoken, what was erased, and what we may never come to know.
I do not seek to retell history, but to search for what has been lost or deliberately overlooked, a form of truth that may never have been within reach. These works do not offer answers; rather, they reveal the impossibility of a definitive one. What we know of war is only scattered remnants of an uncertain truth, altered by suppression, erasure, and manipulation, rendering a complete picture unattainable. Here, destruction is not merely a method but a reflection of history and the media themselves, narratives that were meant to reveal the truth but instead remain fragmented and incomplete.
31 Jen-Jen Hwang-Shum
A Small Drizzle in Early Spring
A Small Drizzle in Early Spring
By Hanyu, Tang Dynasty
A drizzle falls over the capital’s grand avenue,
As fine and nourishing as creamy pancakes.
From afar, the grass blurs into a green haze,
But up close, it’s sparse and scattered.
This is the most beautiful time of the year
Nothing compares to Chang’an adorned with blooming willows.
The Lord is With Us
The Lord is With Us
Deuteronomy 31:8 The LORD himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.
32 Sandi Bonn Flight Plans
Three life stages of growth, together as a family of egrets: birth, nurturing, and flight.
Pintail Ducks
Two pintail drakes in a pond.
Quail Amongst Wheat
A pair of California Quail camouflaged in a wheat field.
33 Kyla Corbett
Sunset Bay
Bob Creek on the Oregon Coast
Navigating in the Cockpit
Inspired by my surroundings, I love to paint colorful and textural subjects that tell a story and connect others to what may be familiar yet still provide intrigue and contemplation. Painting in oils became a passion of mine as a teenager but I did not squeeze my first paint tubes until my late 30’s. For the last seven years, I have traveled throughout Oregon, painting outdoors (Plein Air). I replaced the brushes with palette knives for the majority of my Plein Air painting and have participated annually in several events throughout our area. I enjoy being able to share beautiful Oregon landscapes with others but also enjoy taking time to develop more complicated subjects in my studio.
34 Patti Lomont
Red Flower Silver Phoenix
Two Critters
Copper Phoenix
Working with clay, glass, fabric, musical instrument parts, found objects, metal and wood, I create two and threedimensional narrative ceramic and glass sculpture, jewelry, masks and lights. I have been a glass artist for 40+ years, and in the last ten years have renewed my love of sculpture. Combining a variety of mediums together is a challenging and rewarding pursuit. My sculptures tend to tell stories that are open to interpretation. Working with glass is all about vibrant colors. With ceramic sculpture I gravitate towards earth tones and organic forms. The magical alchemy of applying heat to clay and glass holds many surprises. This sense of being in control and out of control leads me on a lifetime of exploration.
35 Barbara Setsu Pickett
Girdle Book Series 5 Treasures
Girdle books were small portable books worn on a belt during the Middle Ages. Each of the 5 miniature books started with a tiny treasure saved for years in my jewelry box. Instead of a book of prayers, my books are to hold passwords and private thoughts.
Barbara Setsu Pickett and Michael Pickett
Mihara Shibori Studio Scarf Installation
Mihara Shibori Studio makes wearable art in the forms of highly textured silk scarves which stems from the Japanese shibori traditions.
A
Family’s Recollection BookA Family’s Recollection has 3 chapters: Coming to America, Taking Root; WWII Years, Army Service in the 442nd, Minidoka Internment Camp; Post WWII, Starting Again, Building a Future. Cover page is important for the Japanese-American experience.
36 Lisa Michelle Unexpected
Armed with a new box of thread and an unexpected gift of time, this hoop began solely as an excuse to doodle. After only a few lines of stitching were laid down, though, a coral reef emerged and a flourishing underwater scene demanded to fill the hoop.
37 Helen Liu Pleated Linen
University of Oregon
The only academic art museum in Oregon accredited by the American Alliance of Museums, the University of Oregon’s Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art (JSMA) features engaging exhibitions, significant collections of historic and contemporary art, and exciting educational programs that support the university’s academic mission and the diverse interests of its off-campus communities. The JSMA’s collections galleries present selections from its extensive holdings of Chinese, Japanese, Korean and American art. Special exhibitions galleries display works from the collection and on loan, representing many cultures of the world, past and present. The JSMA continues a long tradition of bridging international cultures and offers a welcoming destination for discovery and education centered on artistic expression that deepens the appreciation and understanding of the human condition.
About the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art