Jim Dong, Nancy Hom, and Leland Wong are three Chinese Americans whose work was part of the San Francisco Bay Area’s Asian American arts movement during the ‘70s and ‘80s. Exhibit, Icons of Presence: Asian American Activist Art. Curated by East Coast professor of art and art history Margo Machida, this show is the counterpart to “Asian/American/Modern Art: Shifting Currents, 1900-1970,” Since the de Young show does not extend through the ‘70s or beyond – the period that witnessed the rise of the Asian American movement and cultural politics – Margo proposed the Icons of Presence show to the Chinese Culture Center.  There is a catalog available for sale.

All three of us were part of Kearny Street Workshop, the oldest Asian American arts organization in the country. Jim was a co-founder, Leland was part of the early years and comes to KSW events occasionally. I came in 1974 and continue to be involved. Will also show the work of a younger artist – Rick Godinez.

Common upon the three of us:

• We saw the social changes brought about by the post-civil rights, women’s, counter-culture, Black power, and Third World liberation movements of the 1960s and ‘70s.

• Our working class parents and ancestors had a common history of discrimination, economic exploitation, and racism, faced by immigrants.

• In the time of opposition to the Vietnam War, of domestic and global struggles for social justice and human rights, and of cultural organizing in African American, Latino, and Native American communities, the art we were creating sought to reclaim and affirm the histories, identities, and achievements of Asians in a society that had stereotyped them through mass media and popular culture (Charlie Chan, Fu Manchu, Keith Carradine, etc.).

• Seeking to foster new creative expressions and to create a distinctly Asian American culture, we started forming new arts organizations such as Kearny Street Workshop.

• We used artistic forms that were accessible to a wide audience – especially silkscreened prints (aka serigraphs), posters, illustrations, and public murals.