Southeast Asian Contemporary Ceramics is an emerging field which is underrepresented in the American cultural landscape, and artistic community. It is my goal as an aspiring curator to share ceramic work by artists of Southeast Asian descent to an international audience. 
 
This exhibition focuses on female artists of Southeast Asian descent. In connection with this year’s themes of “Rivers”, “Reflections” and “Invention”, the artists in the show are chosen not only by the ancestry background but also their diverse practices. From folk artist who sculpts with clay traditionally such as Suwanee Natewong (Thailand) to Amy Lee Sanford (US/Cambodia) who is a multidisciplinary artist whose performance includes breaking and mending traditional Khmer pots, artists in this show use clay with a different sensibility to bring out diversity in the materiality of clay.

Caught between identifying their sense of belonging in two or more countries, many artists in the show seek inspiration from their family history, national trauma, ancestry cultures to explore the sense of self. Others explore female issues such as painful memories of rape and sexual harassment to narrate female resilience.

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-Soe Yu Nwe

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