Dreams in Migrations: AAPI Identity, Diaspora, and Resistance in Contemporary Art

In this special live episode of What's My Thesis?, host Javier Proenza moderates a closing panel discussion at BG Gallery for Dreams in Migrations—the third annual AAPI (Asian American and Pacific Islander) exhibition curated by artist and organizer Sung-Hee Son. This timely conversation assembles a multigenerational roster of artists whose practices interrogate identity, memory, imperialism, and the myth of the model minority through distinct formal languages and lived experiences.

Featuring artists Dave Young Kim, Mei Xian Qiu, and others, the episode moves fluidly between personal narrative and structural critique. Kim speaks candidly about growing up Korean American in Los Angeles, navigating ADHD through drawing, and finding community through both art and street culture. He reflects on his work’s deep connection to place—evoking the layered histories of Koreatown through archival images, signage, and symbolic compositions.

Mei Xian Qiu offers a moving account of displacement, spiritual ritual, and postcolonial trauma. Born into Indonesia’s Chinese diaspora, she discusses her early artistic impulse to create “sacred objects” as a means of processing survival and systemic erasure. Her multimedia works—reminiscent of stained glass and batik—expose the mechanisms of propaganda and the cultural inheritance of violence. Her series Let a Thousand Flowers Bloom revisits China’s Hundred Flowers Campaign with a provocative inversion: a mock invasion of the U.S. staged entirely by AAPI artists and academics.

Together, the panelists explore diasporic kinship, cross-cultural solidarity, and the politics of visibility within the art world. Proenza draws compelling parallels between the AAPI and Latinx experiences, from forced assimilation and linguistic loss to state violence and Cold War geopolitics. The conversation challenges the flattening effects of labels like “model minority,” advocating instead for nuance, specificity, and coalition-building.

The episode concludes with reflections on the power of artist collectives, including the Korean American Artists Collective co-founded by Kim, and a roll call of exhibiting artists whose works are transforming the gallery into a space of resistance, celebration, and shared memory.

Featured Artists in the Exhibition:

Dave Young Kim

Mei Xian Qiu

Bryan Ida

Tia (Otis MFA ‘23)

Miki Yokoyama

Key Topics:

AAPI identity in fine art

Postcolonial trauma and Chinese-Indonesian history

Korean American experience in L.A.

Propaganda, memory, and resistance

The myth of the model minority

Artist collectives and community organizing

Explore how contemporary AAPI artists are reshaping cultural narratives and reclaiming space through radical aesthetics and collaborative practice.

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