Presented in partnership with the Asian American Arts Alliance, this group exhibition explored how Asian American Pacific Islanders as a diverse and varied community can unite in the face of adversity and discrimination.

It featured women-identifying artists who share a love for contemporary art and traditional craft. Their work delved into the idea of “soft solidarity,” a kind of loose unity unconstrained by background, location, or socioeconomic status, and how seemingly contrasting attributes can exist simultaneously and in harmony — softness and strength, pliability and power, delicacy and danger. 

"Soft Solidarity" was on view at two sites: Chelsea Market, May 14 to June 6, and Pearl River Mart SoHo Gallery, May 18 to August 28.

Participating artists

aricoco is interested in how human communities might form and thrive without centralized leadership and the privilege of power. She hand-sews and weaves protective garments for the female body in imaginary matriarchal communities that are characterized by cooperative brood care and division of labor. Her costumes and family “crests” reference traditional Japanese kimono and samurai fashion, and are inspired by the altruistic characteristics of eusocial insects like ants, where a fertile Queen is dependent on sterile Workers for her existence while the colony depends on her for its collective reproduction. (Learn more in her interview.)

Suejin Jo creates abstract swaths of color and shape across canvas with oil and acrylic paint. Her painting process is inspired by the "inlay" process of Korean potters from the 11th century. Helen Harrison of The New York Times described Jo's painting as having “the character of an ancient wall painting." Her gestural brush marks, drips and blots vibrate against each other with soulful yet fresh colors. Like the Lascaux cave paintings, her soft forms and curvilinear lines spark the imagination and evoke moods reflecting on the sorrows and joys of the pandemic.

Joyce Yu-Jean Lee (curator) is an experiential artist and Assistant Professor of Art & Digital Media at Marist College. She works with video, digital photography, and interactive installation that combine ​social ​practice with ​institutional ​critique. (Learn more in her interview.)

Natalia Nakazawa weaves tapestries and paints the silhouettes of historic masks and vessels that incorporate public domain images from the online archives of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Her vessels serve as a metaphor for the human body, both historical and contemporary, layering imagery that questions national identities and reframes the global trade of prized porcelain and exotic silk from the East to the West. (Learn more in her interview.)

Sui Park creates three-dimensional biomorphic forms from man-made materials which she calls “Wiggling” series. She repetitively links together plastic cable ties into porous, loose networks that resemble spiky clouds, simultaneously awe-inspiring yet threatening too. These forms represent potential transformation or evolution — wiggling the status quo towards change, an apt visual metaphor for both hostile stereotypes and inclusivity of individuals within a community.

Lu Zhang reinterprets traditional Chinese vessels such as an incense holder and oil lamp with contemporary narratives about the hidden desires of women. Her intimate ceramic works celebrate iconic female body parts too: a pair of healing hands taking a pulse, a long black braid on the backside of an anonymous head, a pair of fiery red breasts and a miniature person suspended in an inverted frog yoga pose from the ceiling. Her whimsical sculptures draw viewers in to examine how female identity is expressed and characterized yet also objectified and commodified. (Learn more in her interview.)

Accompanying materials

• Press release
• Interview with curator Joyce Yu-Jean Lee
• Curatorial statement for Pearl River Mart Gallery portion
• Highlights of the artworks