The AMA to Present 'No Ocean Between Us: Art of Asian Diasporas in Latin America & The Caribbean'

The AMA | Art Museum of the Americas of the Organization of American States (OAS) will present No Ocean Between Us: Art of Asian Diasporas in Latin America & The Caribbean, 1945-Present, an exhibition that explores Asian migration to Latin America and the Caribbean and its influence on modern and contemporary art. Curated by Adriana Ospina (AMA), and organized in collaboration with International Arts and Artists, this exhibition has been shown at the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts (KIA) (October 23, 2020 - January 17, 2021) and the San Antonio Museum of Art (SAMA) (February 12-May 09, 2021).

No Ocean Between Us was inspired by the AMA's permanent collection, and features approximately 50 important works by Latin American and Caribbean artists of Asian heritage. It demonstrates how these works emerged from cross-directional global dialogues between the artists, their Asian cultural heritages, their Latin American or Caribbean identities, and their interaction with major artistic movements.

No Ocean Between Us is permeated by a common theme of inclusiveness across ethnic identities and geographic backgrounds, a vital element of authentic democracy, as a principal value of the OAS, whose four pillars are democracy, human rights, security and development.

Included in the exhibition are a variety of mediums from paintings, works on paper, sculptures, installations and mixed media works by artists from Argentina, Brazil, Cuba, Guyana, Jamaica, Mexico, Panama, Peru, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago. It will also showcase the work of influential artists such as Wifredo Lam, Manabu Mabe, and Tomie Ohtake, among many others. No Ocean Between Us demonstrates their vital but often overlooked contributions to the creative landscape.

Asian migration to the Americas resulted from labor shortages stemming from the United Kingdom's abolition of its slave trade in 1807. The British, Spanish, and Dutch colonizers in the Caribbean, along with newly independent countries such as Peru and Brazil, brought workers from India, China, Indonesia, and Japan to meet the rising demand for labor. While most of these workers ultimately returned to their countries of origin, many settled in their new homelands, setting in motion the rich and complex histories of assimilation and exchange on view in this singular exhibition.

List of artists

M.P. Alladin

Reiner Asmoredjo

Kereina Chang Fatt

Margaret Chen

Albert Chong

Cisco Merel Choy and Rosendo Merel Choy

Manuel Choy Loo

Flora Fong

Laura Fong Prosper

Tikashi Fukushima

Richard Fung

Soeki Irodikromo

Sri Irodikromo

Hisae Ikenaga

Arturo Kubotta

Wifredo Lam

Manabu Mabe

Suchitra Mattai

Luis Nishizawa

Tomie Ohtake

Hiroyuki Okumura

Kiyoto Ota

Bernadette Indira Persaud

Sunil Puljhun

Dhiradj Ramsamoedj

Samuel Rumaldo Choy

Carlos Runcie Tanaka

Andrea Saito

Kazuya Sakai

Venancio Shinki

Kit-Ling Tjon Pian Gi

Rene Tosari

Yutaka Toyota

Kazuo Wakabayashi

Katarina Wong

Eduardo Tokeshi

No Ocean Between Us has been made possible in part by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities: Exploring the Human Endeavor. The exhibition was graciously supported by the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation.

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