Flo Oy Wong tells Asian American truths through art
Exhibit in DeRicci Gallery at Edgewood College

Madison, Wis. (Oct. 14, 2004) – “(ART)iculation: Stories of Ancestry, Identity, and Culture,” an exhibition by California-based mixed media and installation artist Flo Oy Wong, will be displayed Oct. 24 to Nov. 12 in the DeRicci Gallery at Edgewood College, Madison. The artist will give a public lecture on Thursday, Nov. 4, at 4:30 p.m. in the college’s Anderson Auditorium. Both the exhibition and the lecture are free and open to the public.

Flo Oy Wong art exhibition

• Title: “(ART)iculation: Stories of Ancestry, Identity, and Culture”
• Artist: Flo Oy Wong
• Location: Edgewood College, 1000 Edgewood College Drive, Madison
• Exhibition dates: Oct. 24 to Nov. 12, DeRicci Gallery
• Public lecture: Thursday, Nov. 4, 4:30 p.m., Anderson Auditorium
• Reception: Following lecture, until 7 p.m., in the DeRicci Gallery.
• The exhibition and lecture are free and open to the public.
• Contact: Melanie Herzog at 608-663-2881 or mherzog@edgewood.edu.

Work from several of Flo Oy Wong’s major series will be on display at Edgewood College. In “Baby Jack Rice Story,” a series of rice sacks with silk screened images and mixed media embellishments, Wong uses her husband’s childhood to explore the relationships between Chinese Americans and African Americans during segregation in the American south. Another series, “1942: Luggage from Home to Camp,” uses the suitcases of Japanese Americans interned during World War II to recount their individual stories. Recent monoprints, titled “No Rice,” will be exhibited as well.

The exhibition and lecture are sponsored by Edgewood College’s Art Department, Women’s Studies Program, Honors Program, Center for Diversity, and Educational Programming Board. For more information about Wong’s exhibit at Edgewood College, contact Melanie Herzog, Associate Professor of Art History, at 663-2881 or mherzog@edgewood.edu.

A companion exhibition, “re(ART)iculation,” will open on Nov. 3 at UW-Whitewater in the Center Gallery. The UW-Whitewater exhibition dates are Nov 3 - 19. The opening reception will be Monday, Nov. 8, 5:00 - 6:30 p.m. at the James R. Connor University Center Gallery. Flo Oy Wong’s public lecture will be Tuesday, Nov. 9, from 3:45 - 5:00 p.m. in the Greenhill Center of the Arts, Room 30. For more information on the UW-Whitewater exhibition, contact Kim Adams at 262-472-1477 or adamsk@uww.edu.

About Flo Oy Wong

Flo Oy Wong uses photographs, rice sacks, rice, beads, sequins, and suitcases to create art from her life as a first-generation American of Chinese descent. Her visual stories of ancestry, identity, and culture focus on the little-known drama of ordinary people who are an integral part of the United States of America. Too often, Asian American stories have gone untold. In 1995, speaking at the UW-Madison, Wong said, “If you talk to other Asian Americans, if they’re brave enough to admit it, it’s a struggle to hear our voices and find that our voices count.” Although she has spent much of her art career telling her own family’s stories, in this show Wong tells the stories of other Asian Americans, including her husband.

Flo Oy Wong has exhibited internationally, including solo exhibitions at the Japanese American Museum in San Jose, Calif., the Ellis Island Immigration Museum in New York, and the Angel Island Immigration Station in Tiburon, Calif. She has received numerous honors and awards, been granted residencies at various programs across the country, and has spoken about her work to audiences throughout the United States and in China. For more information about Wong and her work, visit www.flo-oy-wongartist.com.

About Edgewood College

Edgewood College is Madison’s only independent liberal arts college, a Catholic school with 2,400 undergraduate and graduate students. It offers more than 40 academic and professional programs, including master’s degrees in business, education, nursing, and other fields, and a doctoral program in education leadership. For more information about Edgewood College, visit www.edgewood.edu or call 800-444-4861.

###

[ Return to Edgewood College Homepage ]