Exhibitions Through the Years
Walking with Lions and Other Chinatown New Year Traditions
In time for the Lunar New Year, Think!Chinatown presented a captivating black and white film photography exhibition by Edward Cheng. The solo show offered an interior view of the vibrant Lunar New Year celebrations in Manhattan's iconic Chinatown over the past two decades.
Between Line & Thread: Connecting the Asian American Arts Centre Collection
As part of 2023 Chinatown Arts Festival, Between Line and Thread featured selected works from the Asian American Arts Centre collection to examine the connections between contemporary and folk art, stripping the works down to their core elements–line, thread, wire, rope, marks, and even text.
A Place for Us: Reflections from Chinatown
To celebrate the publication of the Chinatown Commercial District Needs Assessment, Think!Chinatown presented a photography exhibition featuring 17 photographers from our community. From the grit of Mom & Pop legacy businesses to the joys of reclaiming public spaces, the exhibit touched on the many strengths, challenges and opportunities that lie within Chinatown.
We'll Meet Again
As part of 2022 Chinatown Arts Festival, Think!Chinatown presented new sculptural works by artist Alison Kuo. Drawing from discount stores in Chinatown, family heirlooms and meaningful personal belongings, We’ll Meet Again thread together personal stories, histories, and communities.
HEARTMIND: Selections from the Bob Eng Lee and Asian American Arts Centre Collection
To engage the history of the Asian American Arts Centre and the Asian American arts community, and themes of Asian American identity, Think!Chinatown exhibited a number of historical works by artists who became members of important artist collectives such as Basement Workshop, Godzilla, and Epoxy.
F-Stop in Chinatown: Refining Your Voice Through Photography
In the spirit of continuing Corky Lee's legacy of documenting our community, Think!Chinatown along with the Josephine Herrick Project hosted a free masterclass led by photographers Cindy Trinh & Edward Cheng. Participants’ work from this two-day workshop were then exhibited in a group show.
The Inscrutable Chinese
The Inscrutable Chinese explored the bodies and visage of the Chinese immigrant experience, distilling the intense wonder of seemingly quotidian life into lush, multi-dimensional portraits. Homer Shew’s portraits were an artistic response to the cultural codes and social masks that the diaspora community utilizes to navigate the fractious landscape of American identity.
Between Here and Home
In Between Here and Home, seven photographers — one Chinese, three American-born-Chinese, one who emigrated to Queens from China as a young child, a Taiwanese Canadian, and a Filipina who has worked in Hong Kong — shared their perspectives on various aspects of Chinese life and culture, both in China and in the diaspora, including New York City’s Chinatowns.
Eating Bitterness
Chinese parents often remind their children how important it is to chi ku (eat bitterness), a phrase that means to persevere through hardship without complaint. Eating Bitterness was a meditation on the role of enduring adversity in the psyche of immigrant families, comprising nine artists working across sculpture, photography, painting, and performance.
Thank You, Enjoy
Thank You, Enjoy was a photography exhibition created by Katie Gee Salisbury that highlighted the lives of immigrants who work at Chinese restaurants in New York. The project was inspired by a simple question: If Chinese takeout is so popular in America, why do we know so little about the people who work in the industry?
Come You Back to Maynila Bay
Come You Back to Maynila Bay was a community engagement printmaking project by Karl Orozco that used hand-carved mahjong tiles to retell family narratives of his lola’s underground gambling den in the Philippines. Orozco created a public gambling hall and lead intergenerational printmaking workshops with Chinatown’s youth and elders.
Where Are You REALLY From?
Where Are You Really From? was a research/art project where artist James Chan used secondhand accounts, historical research, photos and unreliable personal memories, Chan attempted to document his family’s history before it is lost forever. The discoveries, family stories, musings, and difficulties encountered during the project were presented in the form of illustrations and paintings.
Think!Chinatown is a place-based intergenerational non-profit in Manhattan’s Chinatown, working at the intersection of storytelling, arts and neighborhood engagement. We believe the process of listening, reflecting and celebrating develops the community cohesion and trust necessary to work on larger neighborhood issues. By building strength from within our neighborhood, we can shape better policies and programs that define our public spaces, celebrate our cultural heritage and innovate how our collective memories are represented.