Dr. Fletcher Coleman, Assistant Professor of Art History and Museum Studies, The University of Texas at Arlington; Dr. Yukio Lippit, Chambers and Okamura Professor of Japanese Art and Architecture, Harvard University; Dr. Christopher K. Tong, Associate Professor of Chinese Language and Culture, University of Maryland, Baltimore County; Ann Phong, Professor of Painting, CalPoly-Pomona; Louie Palu, conflict photojournalist and documentarian

Dr. Fletcher Coleman, Assistant Professor of Art History and Museum Studies, The University of Texas at Arlington

Solace in Painting: Reflecting on a Tumultuous Century

For information on the exhibition and events, visit https://solaceinpainting.com/

The Gallery at UTA, University of Texas at Arlington, Feb. 3-March 29, 2025 

UNO Gallery, University of Nebraska at Omaha, Sept. 2-Oct. 31, 2025

Contemporary art discourse is often driven by an unspoken interest in trauma. But what of artists whose lives were fundamentally altered by conflicts of the twentieth century, yet who chose to never directly represent their traumatic experiences? Solace in Painting explores how we characterize the artwork of conflicted artists of the Asian diaspora who never produced overt “conflict art.” The first national traveling exhibition organized by UTA, the show features three little-researched diasporic painters—Chao Shao-an (1905-1998), Keisho Okayama (1934- 2018), and Ann Phong (1957-)—brought together through their unusual approaches to painting shared experiences of major conflicts in Asia.

Curated by Dr. Fletcher Coleman, Assistant Professor of Art History and Museum Studies, University of Texas at Arlington, with an exhibition catalogue produced by Scala Arts & Heritage Publishers Ltd.