Inspired by the bedroom featured in GRAMMY Award-winning Filipina-American artist Olivia Rodrigo’s “good 4 u” music video, this exhibit showcases artwork by Asian-American creatives, using the “Asian American bedroom” as a platform to present art that, while not as prominent in standard art spaces, still demonstrates undeniable craft and aesthetic that deserves recognition by a community who understands.
Curated by Adrianne Mallari and Aitana Mallari for TARO Magazine
GAMBINO (2022) DIGITAL OIL
Music has played the biggest role in my development as both a person and an artist. When it comes to subject matter, I like to illustrate the musicians who inspire me the most. All work is done digitally with painting techniques used by oil painters.
MICHAEL KONG AKA PILLOWJAR
Chinese and Cambodian
Michael Kong, also known as pillowjar, graduated from ASU in December 2020 with a B.A. in English Literature and a minor in Film Studies. His work is done digitally in Photoshop with techniques used by oil painters. His work is heavily influenced by musicians and aims to provide visual representations for the unique sounds of each artist.
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Ceramic Clay, Porcelain, Plaster Slip Cast Molds
I draw inspiration for my pieces through my Chinese heritage. The pieces on display have been created through wheel throwing, handbuilding, and slipcasting. Particularly, the plaster molds are where I do porcelain slipcasting. The porcelain pieces are my most recent works. This display includes the molds for a current work in progress: a porcelain terra cotta army.
Elliana Raines
Chinese
Elliana Raines is a senior at ASU majoring in finance and economics. She has completed a minor in Chinese and is a full time commercial real estate agent. She takes ceramic classes as her creative outlet. In addition to ceramics, Elliana also informally refinishes furniture and designs longboards.
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idle (2022) digital art
Part of my shoujo anime collection. I wanted to elicit a sense of disordered nostalgia with this piece, so I made the main subject ponder pensively in the passenger seat with all of her belongings scattered in the car. Although she appears to be moving on (and away) physically, her mind stays trapped in the joys of yesterday.
Rizza Apostol
Filipino American
Based in Phoenix, Rizza Apostol (aka MAYARI) is a self-taught illustrator with no formal training in the fine arts. Despite this, she has been honing her craft for nearly 20 years and hopes to develop some sort of consistency in her artistic choices. MAYARI’s lack of commitment and crippling indecisiveness has allowed her to pursue a wide variety of art forms and styles, ranging from hyperrealistic portraits on paper to vintage anime inspired illustrations on screen.
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AZNA Hoodie (2020) DTG Printed Cotton Hoodie
Inspired by AZNA’s Asian American origins, this design features a snake wrapping around the AZNA dance logo with chrysanthemums framing both sides. In the Chinese zodiac, snakes are representative of longevity and good luck. Chrysanthemums also symbolize longevity as well as love, joy, and devotion. AZNA is an organization driven by passion and devotion to dance – the design is meant to honor that and wish the club (and its members’ love for dance) a very long life.
Abby Tribiana
Filipino
Abby Tribiana is a Filipino artist and designer based out of Phoenix, Arizona. She works primarily in digital illustration and design, focusing primarily on pop culture in her pieces. Her traditional works are primarily in graphite and acrylic, centering on studies of the human anatomy. Other works include animations, apparel designs, fun little comics, and even tattoos.
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idle (2022) digital art
The inspiration for this art piece came to me during a visit to a local artist pop-up event. After taking pictures of a light pink “love” sign and a quirky red-lettered tote, I noticed that the combination of its colors and content had potential to be something more.
Kaitlynn Le
Vietnamese
Kaitlynn Le is currently a junior year at Arizona State University studying Interior Design. She aspires to one day design a cozy cafe filled with a beautiful array of personally baked goods, and create a welcoming atmosphere through her design. Aside from working towards this dream, in her free time she puts her passion towards creating art—varying from traditional and digital forms. Her art style is currently an ever-changing one, encompassing different styles of soft, vibrant, and unconventionally dynamic pieces using both 2D and 3D mediums. The source of her style is inspired by the feelings of childhood nostalgia & the spontaneous inspirations from her everyday experiences. As she continues through her journey as an artist, she hopes to incorporate more of the present moments in her life into her artwork, and ultimately inspire others to find enjoyment in the overall simplicity that is the creation of art.
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Giraffe (Neon Animals Collection); crocheted yarn, fiberfill stuffing
One of the first crochet creations I’ve made since rekindling my love for crocheting. I utilized this bright neon yarn simply because it was the only yarn I had on hand, but I loved its fluorescence and went on to crochet multiple other animals in its likeness.
Alexis J. Kim
Korean American
Alexis J. Kim is a junior at Arizona State University and is majoring in Biological Sciences with the intention of pursuing dental school. She is a full-time student, but enjoys crocheting and singing in her free time. Alexis prioritizes her student life, in addition to cultivating a safer, more welcoming community for her fellow Korean Americans.
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Seeing The Light (2021), Digital Photography
Seeing The Light is a set of photos that showcases a stylized photography lighting to create a unique look to its images, using equipment such as ocean light projectors and traditional projectors. In this piece, I wanted to create a moody portrait scene that highlights the subject’s eyes in interesting ways using an experimental lighting setup that projects messages and spotlights onto the subject. It was inspired by a piece called “Shadowplay” by John Edmark—which is an installation in Wonderspace AZ that uses motion sensors and projectors to create an interesting ‘shadow play’ when a person walks in front of it.
Miguel "Miggy" Fajardo
Filipino
Miguel “Miggy” Fajardo is currently an aspiring product designer studying Industrial Design at Arizona State University. On the side, he is a passionate creative that uses a plethora of mediums such as photography, digital design, & videography to create his art. His early hobbies in illustration & graphic design has heavily influenced his main medium of photography, allowing him to create stylized photographic pieces with a unique look. As of recent, many of his inspirations comes from the look of analog film & cinematic stills from movies, as well as fashion editorial shoots. With all of these styles combined, Miggy uses different aspects of these inspirations and incorporates them into his own unique and ever-changing style of photography & design.
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Krita software, Canon EOS 4D, 0.5 Pencil
Blending cyberpunk inspiration with modern photography, “Yunno” is a digitalized art piece by Aren. The main inspirations of this piece were the technological advances and globalization of Shanghai China in the past decade and a cyberpunk-manga style.
Allen Pan AKA AREN
Chinese
Allen Pan or Aren, is a music-based content creator studying Computer Information Systems at Arizona State University. He has previously won art competitions at Phoenix Chinese Week, while studying under Diana Wu. Aren’s ultimate goal is to create art and music with modern technology that inspires a new generation of creators to look towards the future.
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Human Claw Machine (2022), digital art.
Hii this is an illustration of my cat “picking” his human. He is a Russian Blue and being attached to one pet parent in particular is his personal trait, which is meee. Thank you!
Nhi Phan aka nhidaphan
Vietnamese
Nhi Phan is graduated from Arizona State University with a Bachelor’s degree in Graphic Design.
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Mountain Demon (2021) Digital
Xiao is a mountain demon from the video game, Genshin Impact. There are tons of great character design in this game, but I think Xiao is the most beautiful character and he has such a tragic backstory, so I wanted to draw him.
Tiana Do
Vietnamese
Tiana Do is a Digital Culture student at ASU. Her art is heavily inspired by the sci-fi and fantasy genres and she enjoys expressing herself and her passions through digital art. Right now, Tiana is studying worldbuilding and how to create a bright solarpunk future to combat the dark and dystopian futures that most people think about.
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idle (2022) digital art
A custom mechanical keyboard (Bliss with GMK Froyo)
Jarod Huynh aka opalit
Vietnamese
Jarod Huynh, AKA opalit, is a senior at ASU studying Computer Information Systems. As a hobby, Jarod has been deeply involved in the custom mechanical keyboard hobby, even having his own services in keyboard building and maintenance.
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idle (2022) digital art
This piece depicts Cathedral Rock, a natural sandstone butte in Sedona, Arizona. I focused on depicting depth by creating a distinct foreground, middle ground, and background. I used negative space to also provide the sense of a distant night sky. Additionally, I focused on textures of the various natural features, including the rock layers and trees.
Candice DeCuna
Filipino American
Candice DeCuna is studying Biological Sciences (Neurobiology, Physiology, and Behavior) at Arizona State University.
a metamorphosis of sorts (2022), digital
Ever since being diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder, I have become hyper-aware of my relationships with others. With a mental illness that is more often than not demonized, it is hard for people to not assign the negative connotations to me as a person. This can scare someone off or make them want to “save” me. I am left in a whirlwind of doubt and spiral into questions. Is it mistrust or intuition? Do you want to help or just be a hero? If I can’t be saved, does that make me the villain?
AJ Wilson
Filipino American
AJ Wilson is currently a junior at Arizona State University pursuing a BA in Art Studies with a minor in Business. As a person who deals with many intersectional identities, Wilson has found that the most valuable and concise way to understanding yourself and your identity is through artwork. These identities we collect along the way of discovering ourselves is not to separate ourselves from others. But rather, to show that we are connected in ways that may not always be visible to each other. This is what fuels them as an artist and has led them to many different mediums of art. This is in the form of running a photography business since they were fifteen to now pursuing a career as a museum curator.
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Tarr (2021), Procreate
Inspired by a DTIYS
Madison Apoderado
Filipino
madi is a casual hobby artist
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