A PLACE OF HER OWN
November 19–December 11, 2015

SOMArts Cultural Center presents A PLACE OF HER OWN, curated by Cynthia Tom, in partnership with PLACE & Co. and Asian American Women Artists Association

See the dreams of women brought to life through soul-inspiring sound sculpture, a forest of giant intuitive paintings, and an enormous landscape of hand-built chairs and ladders. A PLACE OF HER OWN, November 19–December 11, features more than 30 artworks and large-scale installations that offer courageous visual answers to the question, “If you had a place of your own, what would it be?”

At the opening reception on Thursday, November 19, 6–9pm, visitors will have the opportunity to mingle with artists and curators, to learn the story of arts-based transformation and healing that inspired the exhibition, and to join the journey through participation in three self-guided, art-making workstations: *Beliefs That Hold You Back | *Family Patterns | *Aspiration Tree. The opening reception will also inculde a pop-up artists' holiday market, with gifts under $65 on sale.

Learn more about the exhibition, exhibiting artists & related events » http://www.somarts.org/aplaceofherown/

Curators: Cynthia Tom (Lead Curator) Maggie Yee, Manon Bogerd Wada, Irene Wibawa, Adrienne Yan
Curatorial Associates: Susan Almazol, Sigi Arnejo, Reiko Fujii

PLACE was named Best Shows To See 2015, by The Culture Trip out of London.
A PLACE OF HER OWN is listed alongside the Ai Wei Wei and David Bowie Show

Discover the article here: The Best Exhibitions Of 2015

"Women visual artists responded to the question, ‘If you had a place of your own, what would it be?’ in an exhibition rooted in healing and transformation. This visual art exhibition featured more than 30 artworks and large-scale installations that excavate the vibrant dreams and hopes of women. A Place of Her Own amplified the voices of 20 women artists with diverse cultural perspectives ranging in age from 24 to 89 years old. Exhibited artworks — marked by a saturation of color, imaginative use of materials and visual storytelling — highlight the personal, yet universal, journey to seek out and claim a place without external rules or expectations. Accompanying events and interactive installations invited the audience to join the journey."

Our American Stories By Asian American Artists
April 23-September 30, 2014

"My Daughter's Glass Ancestral Kimono" is included in "Our American Stories By Asian American Artists" exhibit, curated by Judy Shintani of the Asian American Women Artists Association

Madeleine Haas Russell Gallery
Rosenberg Library, 2nd Floor
City College of San Francisco
50 Phelan Ave
San Francisco, CA

It's Personal! Tales Visualized by Asian American Women
October 17-November 25, 2012

Los Gatos Art Museum
4 Tait Avenue
Los Gatos, CA 95030

Reiko Fujii will be exhibiting two of her Glass Ancestral Kimonos, a trunk from her family's internment, two videos "the Farm" and "The Journey of the Glass Kimono", and her newest work: "Lost Withdrawn". Six other talented Asian American women artists will also be exhibiting their superb art works.

Opening Celebration
Meet the artists! Enjoy art, libations, and live music!
Saturday, October 20, 5-8 pm

art:inFOCUS Lecture with Linda Choy
"Dreaming in America: Art as an Asian American Journey"
Thursday, November 8, 6-9 pm

Farmily Art Day!
Turn something ordinary into something extraordinary.
Sunday, November 18, 12-3 pm

Curator and Artist Walk-Through
Sunday, November 18, 4-6 pm

For ongoing information visit:
www.museumsoflosgatos.org

Bookworks: Triennial Members’ Exhibit
June 18-August 7, 2011

Pacific Center for the Book Arts
San Francisco Public Library Skylight Gallery, Sixth Floor

At this exhibit, traditional as well as experimental artist books will be displayed. A collaborative book by Emily Lewis-Berry and Reiko Fujii, Wormhole Whiplash and Other Cranial Contortions, will be exhibited and for sale at $575.

Distillations: Meditations on the Japanese American Experience
August 17- September 18, 2010

John F. Kennedy University Arts and Consciousness Gallery, Berkeley, California

Reiko Fujii, Lucien Kubo, Shizue Seigel and Judy Shintani are Sansei (third generation Japanese American) artists who explore the rich, complex interplay of past and present in contemporary Asian American life through an array of media and techniques including collage, assemblage, glass, found objects, painting, photography, video, installation, and performance.

On my performance day, I was honored to wear my most recent photo silk-screened Glass Kimono along with my daughter, who wore her Glass Ancestral Kimono. I also performed “The Egg House wall” and screened three of my short documentaries: “The Farm”, “The Glass Kimono”, and “Beautiful Sadness: Stories from Camp.”

My installation, “They Might Be Spies,” a clothesline with authentic children's clothes from internment camp was an interactive piece asking former Japanese American and Japanese Latin American internees to write down the camps where their families were imprisoned during WWII. They then hung them on the wooden clothesline posts.

Reading the Walls: The Inaba Story
September 10, 2009

Riverside Mayor’s Office, “Race Equality Week”

My mother's father immigrated to the U. S. in 1918. After my grandfather worked for several years picking oranges and being a busboy at the Mission Inn, he married Kiri Kawata and bought a plot of land on the outskirts of Riverside, California in 1924.

"The Farm" documentary, "The Egg House Wall" performance, the readings from The Inaba Family Farm book by family members, the showing of "The Journey of the Glass Kimono," and wearing my silk- screened Glass Ancestral Kimono are all part of the program to honor and tell the story of the Inaba family.

Glass Fashion Show Extravaganza
June 13, 2009

Corning Museum of Glass, New York

Reading the Walls: Riverside Stories of Internment and Return
October 14, 2007

Cesar Chavez Community Center, Riverside, California Sponsored by Riverside Metropolitan Museum