The “New Milk” exhibition featuring artist Jenyu Wamg 王人玉 opens next week, our upcoming Spotlight show curated by Larry Lee.

New Milk is the magical substance that brings life. Not only life, but also the full force of a new life. The body goes through radical changes--both beautiful and horrifying--to create milk, and then more change reaching its postpartum reality—a new reality. New Milk meditates on this powerful substance and expresses its manifestation in milky, glossy fantasies, with eyes that peer back.

Jenyu is an artist and researcher, interested in temporal and spatial relationships largely due to growing up in a fractured cultural-political environment. Born in Taiwan and immigrating to the United States as a teenager, Jenyu perceives her world in disjunction instead of continuity. She received her MFA in Photography from the University of Illinois at Chicago.

By utilizing photography, video, and sculptural objects, Jenyu interrogates the gap between thinking and feeling. In pursuit of such gap, her work concentrates on the moments that show the vulnerable body, the traumatic body in the psychology of the 'everyday.' Jenyu's projects provide indexical content where she constructs and magnifies moments of dissonance and resonance.

Her other projects include writings published in criticism websites Chicago Artist Writers and LA-based art blog Temporary Art Review, and curating an exhibition on pluralism in contemporary Asian visual culture, titled Plural Vision, at the Gene Siskel Film Center.

Sunday, September 20, 2025 | 2:00 PM - 5:00 PM
CAMOC FL4 | 238 W 23rd St, Chicago, IL
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Featured Work:
Everything Everywhere All At Once 媽的多重宇宙(diptych) 2025,
poplar frames, resin casts, Dell monitors each 24", media player

Join us for the closing reception of “Finding Our Way (through a triple double)” featuring an artist talk by Dan S. Wang on the Syntax of History.

In his talk, Wang will trace themes of mobility, belonging, and transnational identity through a personal lens. Framed as a reintroduction to Chicago after years away, Wang will reflect on his lifelong cycles of movement and return, weaving them into the larger fabric of his family’s diasporic history.

Dan S. Wang (@‌type_rounds_1968) is an artist and writer whose practice began with letterpress printing and evolved to include drawing, sculpture, and video. He co-founded Chicago’s Mess Hall and has exhibited nationally and internationally, with recent solo projects in Los Angeles, Montreal, and at Dartmouth College, where he was the 2025 winter Artist-in-Residence. Wang co-edited LASTGASPISM: Art in the Age of Survival, named one of Hyperallergic’s top 20 art books of 2022. He splits his time between Chicago and Los Angeles.

Sunday, September 7, 20252:00 PM - 5:00 PM | Talk starts at 3:00 PMCAMOC FL4 | 238 W 23rd St, Chicago, IL

Interactive performance by Irene Hsiao in collaboration with dancers Amanda Maraist and Darling Shear, musicians Paige Brown and Hunter Diamond, tai chi master Peter Wong, visual artist Young Kim, and storyteller Penny Li.

How do everyday objects like advertising from the 1800’s help shape ideas about race we live with today? Join guest curator Lenore Metrick-Chen for an in-depth alternative “walkthrough” of Race Making.

This event begins in the main gallery, where visitors will explore the show independently and photograph a card or artifact that resonates with them. Then we will convene upstairs in the Reading Room, to dive into the history, inscriptions, and meanings embedded in the selected cards.

Whether you're curious about media history, cultural identity, or just want to see what can be uncovered in the margins of print ephemera, this is a rare chance to hear directly from the curator and join a thoughtful, open exchange.

This event is free and all are welcome.

Is your garden as healthy as it looks?

Soil can tell a deeper story. Join us for a bilingual workshop to explore the environmental history of Greater Chinatown and its impact on the Asian American community.

In this workshop, you will:

🌱 Learn about soil contamination in Greater Chinatown neighborhoods
🌱 Discover safe gardening practices to protect your health
🌱 Connect with Asian American and environmental justice communities in Chicago
🌱 Take home free Asian vegetable seeds to start your own garden

Presented by Chicago Asian Americans for Environmental Justice (@‌chicagoaaej), this workshop will be taught in English and Cantonese.

We are welcoming friends, family, and members of the community to join CAMOC in celebrating Ed at the museum. Ed’s family will help us memorialize his life, work, and commitment to the museum with a glass brick dedication. Light refreshments will be served.

Showing this August, we are pleased to share our upcoming Spotlight Artist: Dan S. Wang with Finding Our Way (through a triple double), curated by Larry Lee (@‌lardamang).

This exhibition explores themes of mobility, belonging, and transnational identity through a personal lens. Framed as a reintroduction to Chicago after years of living elsewhere, Wang reflects on his lifelong patterns of movement and return, connecting them to his family's diasporic history.

Rather than honoring blood ancestors, he pays tribute to three “chosen ancestors” of Chinese America—Grace Lee Boggs, Wing-tsit Chan, and Martin Wong—each of whom embodied hybrid identities and crossed cultural, intellectual, and geographic boundaries. Their influence forms the conceptual foundation of the show, which embraces ambiguity, layered meaning, and the ongoing search for place and self within overlapping worlds.

Dan S. Wang (@‌type_rounds_1968) is an artist and writer whose practice began with letterpress printing and evolved to include drawing, sculpture, and video. He co-founded Chicago’s Mess Hall and has exhibited nationally and internationally, with recent solo projects in Los Angeles, Montreal, and at Dartmouth College, where he was the 2025 winter Artist-in-Residence. Wang co-edited LASTGASPISM: Art in the Age of Survival, named one of Hyperallergic’s top 20 art books of 2022. He splits his time between Chicago and Los Angeles.

Sunday, August 3, 2025 | 2:00 PM - 5:00 PM
CAMOC FL4 | 238 W 23rd St, Chicago, IL

Join us next week with Susan Blumberg-Kason as she discusses her book “When Friends Come From Afar: The Remarkable Story of Bernie Wong and Chicago’s Chinese American Service League.” The afternoon will feature a conversation with longtime civic leader CW Chan, moderated by Grace Chan McKibben, Executive Director of CBCAC. At once intimate and broad in scope, this book traces one woman’s life to reveal the story of a vital Chicago institution.

📅 Saturday, August 2, 2025, 2:00 PM - 4:00 PM

📍CAMOC FL4, 238 W 23rd St, Chicago, IL 60616

Born in Hong Kong, Bernie Wong moved to the United States in the early 1960s to attend college. A decade later, she cofounded the Chinese American Service League (CASL) to help meet the needs of the city’s isolated Chinese immigrants. Susan Blumberg-Kason draws on extensive interviews to profile the community and social justice organization. Weaving Wong’s intimate account of her own life story through the CASL’s larger history, Blumberg-Kason follows the group from its origins to its emergence as a robust social network that connects Chinatown residents to everything from daycare to immigration services to culinary education. Blumberg-Kason also traces CASL activism on issues like fair housing and violence against Asian Americans during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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📝 Susan Blumberg-Kason (@‌susanbkason) is the author of When Friends Come From Afar (2024 Zibby Awards winner) and Bernardine’s Shanghai Salon (2023 Zibby Awards finalist). A regular contributor to Asian Review of Books, Cha, and World Literature Today, her work has also appeared in the Los Angeles Review of Books and PopMatters.

🏅Grace Chan McKibben (@‌grace4mom) is Executive Director of the Coalition for a Better Chinese American Community (@‌cbcacchicago), focusing on civic education and leadership in Chicago’s Chinatown. With a background in higher ed, government, and policy, she has earned honors including the University of Chicago Alumni Diversity Award, the Mayor’s Medal of Honor, and Crain’s 2025 Notable Leaders in Philanthropy.

📢 CW Chan 陳增華 is a retired entrepreneur and longtime civic leader with over 50 years of service to Chicago’s Chinese American community. He founded or led major organizations including CASL (@‌caslmedia), the Chicago Chinatown Chamber of Commerce (@‌chinatownchamber), and CBCAC. His leadership has advanced civic engagement and helped make Chicago’s Chinatown one of the most thriving in North America.

Interactive workshop on The Traditional Art of Chinese Stilts led by Carol Ho & Lewis Choy of Art Home

The Chinese American Museum of Chicago and Nothing Without a Company proudly present the play reading of Ada Cheng’s solo performance.

We’re excited to invite you to an After Hours Pride event – Passing Through the Same House: LGBTQ Animated Shorts, highlighting the work of queer Chinese and Asian animators based in Chicago, on Friday, June 27, from 6:00 PM to 8:30 PM.

This special evening will feature a selection of animated short films curated by Jonni Peppers, followed by a conversation with participating artists Charlotte Hong Bee Her, Stella Chen, Shirley Zhong, and Elaine Yue.

Historian Mian Chen will moderate the discussion.

Featured Artists: Stella Chen, EXYL, Sherry Xie, Elaine Yue, Xingpei Shen, Asia Miller, Shirley Zhong, Jordan Wong, Vivian Hu and Charlotte Hong Bee Her

Jonni Pepper-GoLions (Joan-ee Pepper Go Lions) is an award-winning animator and filmmaker from Los Angeles, currently based in Chicago. She is the lead animation programmer at Slamdance Film Festival and founder of Transfiguration International Film Festival, a traveling film festival focused on underrepresented voices in film and animation.

Mian Chen is a historian from Northwestern University. His research focuses on transnational history, sexualities, and media.

*This event is funded in part by the DCASE NAP grant.

China officially ended its international adoption program on August 28, 2024, marking the close of more than three decades of transnational adoptions that began officially in 1992. During this period, over 160,000 Chinese children were adopted abroad—more than half by families in the United States, many of them placed in rural or predominantly white communities.

Join us for an in-person and personal conversation, storytelling session with two incredible artists—both queer Chinese adoptees—as they share their personal journeys, creative work, and reflections on identity, belonging, and adoption.

Artists Bio:

Katherine (Kai) Plier

Katherine Plier, also known professionally as "Kai," is a multifaceted artist and community organizer based in Chicago. She is renowned for her dynamic roles as a pianist, vocalist, and arts leader, seamlessly blending her musical talents with a deep commitment to social impact.

Chun An Huai

Ān is a jeweler whose work explores their experience as a queer Chinese American adoptee, blending traditional Chinese aesthetics with contemporary jewelry design.

CAMOC is pleased to welcome its next Spotlight Artist, Ariel Zhang, with Distant View Nearby.

In this installation, painting becomes an act of quiet construction, tracing the invisible ways architectural spaces shape how we build, dwell, and belong. The artist’s work moves beyond capturing exact places, instead tracing what lingers: “the shift of light across a surface, the feeling of texture when leaning against a wall—the quiet impressions that remain long after the space is gone.” In constructing these spaces, the artist reminds viewers that dwelling is not just about inhabiting a place, but about being shaped by what we create and what we choose to carry.

Ariel Zhang (@‌arielzhang_studio) is a Chicago-based interdisciplinary artist working across painting, installation, and sculpture. Her practice explores the spatial and psychological dimensions of architecture through geometric forms and fragmented compositions. Zhang earned her BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago after studying German and Economics, and has exhibited in Chicago, São Paulo, St. Louis, and Annapolis.

CAMOC’s ongoing Spotlight Series, curated by Larry Lee (@‌lardamang), exists to showcase the dynamic array of Chinese American artists working in the vibrant world of contemporary fine arts in Chicago and beyond.

This exhibition will run from May 4th to June 8th, 2025.

Explore 19th-c. ad trade cards & Chinese identity in "Race Making". Join us Sat. for the reception + curator talk with Lenore Metrick-Chen!

We’re excited to share this off-site program as a part of EXPO ART WEEK, in celebration of the city’s incredible contemporary arts ecosystem.

This Sunday, April 27, curator/writer Cristobal Alday and gallerist Francine Almeda of Tala Chicago will be helping us close out the current Spotlight exhibition, Looking Out, with the show’s artist Jiaming You.

Together, they’ll reflect on building creative networks and community care across Chicago’s BIPOC art scenes.

Join us for this special panel discussion, “Walking the Joint Path”
Sunday, April 27 | 3–5 PM, CAMOC, FL4

CAMOC invites you to attend the 24th Benefit Dinner: Celebrating 20 Years Strong, Building 20 Years More! ✨

This year marks the Chinese American Museum of Chicago’s 20th year. Join us as we celebrate together and raise critical funds necessary to continue to do the work we do.

We look forward to seeing you and the CAMOC community over a traditional full-course Chinese banquet dinner, live performances, raffle prizes, silent auction, dessert bar, live DJ, dancing, and more.

🎉🍾🪩🥂💃🎤🎊

More information on how to purchase tickets, become a sponsor, or place a color print ad order can be found with the link in our bio.

Thank you for supporting the museum and Chinese American stories! 💝

Saturday, April 5th, 2025
6:00 PM - 10:00 PM
Doors open at 5:00 PM
New Furama Restaurant

A heartfelt thank you to all our auction sponsors for making this event possible:

Show your Pride in Chicago's queer Asian community here in the heart of Chinatown ✨

CAMOC is pleased to present Spotlight Artist, Jiaming You with “Looking Out.”

This exhibition explores the act of looking, something often done subconsciously, but a conscious drive for the artist. Figures in the work look into the picture as an act of personal revelation. Rather than obscuring faces to challenge stereotypes, now “their existence does not depend on being the subject of someone’s gaze,” and the work highlights their autonomy. Filling silhouettes with images of places and patterns, this show challenges the classic “figure-ground” relationship, inviting reflection on how self-presentation is shaped by social context.

Jiaming You (@‌jiamingyou_studio) is a Chicago-based painter and installation artist with an MFA from SAIC (2022) and a BS from UW-Madison (2018). A recipient of the Carrie Ellen Tuttle Fellowship, Jiaming has exhibited in Los Angeles, New York, Shanghai Art021 2024, and featured in Soft Lightning Magazine, Emerge Magazine, CanvasRebel, Sina News, Artdaily, New City, Art Insider, and Chicago Reader.

CAMOC’s ongoing Spotlight Series, curated by Larry Lee (@‌lardamang), exists to showcase the dynamic array of Chinese American artists working in the vibrant world of contemporary fine arts in Chicago and beyond.

RSVP for the opening reception on Sunday, March 9, 2-5 PM.

This exhibition will run from March 9th to April 13, 2025.

CAMOC Workshop: Undisclosed Perspectives – Approaching Photography with Intuition
Sunday, Feb. 23 | 3–4 PM

Join us for the Spotlight Series closing on February 23, featuring a special workshop by the artist, Linye Jiang. 📸 ✨ Explore photography beyond technical precision through interactive exercises spanning portraits, landscapes, and self-portraiture. How do we connect with subjects, environments, and ourselves in a way that feels intuitive and natural? Inspired by Undisclosed Location, this session invites you to explore photography as an organic and personal practice that values presence, observation, and emotion over perfection

There will be three interactive exercises:
📷 Portraits – Building trust, letting moments unfold naturally, and capturing presence
🌿 Landscapes – Observing light, embracing stillness, and lowering expectations for more authentic compositions
🤳 Self-Portraits – Using available surroundings, experimenting with timers, and expressing identity

*No professional equipment needed. Just bring a phone, camera, or whatever you like to capture images with.

RSVP for this FREE workshop with Linye Jiang (@linye.j) on the final day of the show!

From Disney’s Bambi to Hallmark greeting cards, explore the artistic legacy of the pioneering Chinese American artist Tyrus Wong.

Join CAMOC on Saturday, January 25, from 2:00 to 3:30 PM in the FL2 gallery space for a screening of Bluff City Chinese, A Documentary Film, followed by a panel Q&A.

Runtime: 45 min

Genre: Documentary Feature

Language: English

Bluff City Chinese is a powerful documentary following the intertwined journeys of two Chinese-American storytellers from different generations, who come together to recover and share the untold history of Chinese immigrants in Memphis, Tennessee. Directed by Thandi Cai (Anna) and featuring their mentor and Delta Chinese elder, Emerald Dunn, the film dives into the layered and challenging process of reconstructing a community’s history from the ground up. Set against a backdrop of social and racial tensions, Cai and Dunn work to build an authentic record of Memphis’s Chinese community, navigating profound questions of identity, belonging, and intergenerational understanding along the way.

The story begins with parallel narratives: Emerald Dunn’s extensive historical research, which has documented Chinese experiences in the South, and Cai’s own return to Memphis in 2020. Brought together by the Chinese Historical Society during a time of increased anti-Asian sentiment nationwide, they share a sense of urgency to reclaim the voices of the past. Drawing on Dunn’s independently gathered archives of photographs, genealogical records, and news clippings, they embark on a journey beyond personal discovery, inviting others from the Chinese Memphian community—ages 15 to 92—to share their stories. These conversations result in 28 collected oral histories, forming a rich 150-year long patchwork of stories and to spin a tapestry of memories, hopes, and dreams.

The two storytellers then take the audience to explore the untold narratives of Chinese settlers in the Mississippi Delta. By guiding viewers through their journey, from the Main Library to historic Elmwood Cemetery and everything that happened in-between, this film invites you to reflect on the past, connect with the present, and consider the future of Chinese-American heritage in the American South.

By telling this history, Cai and Dunn forge an intergenerational bond that bridges distinct upbringings and perspectives, shaped by shared experiences of fear, hope, and pride as Chinese Americans in Memphis. Reflecting this diversity, the documentary team includes first- through fourth-generation Chinese Memphians, all dedicated to capturing the community’s complex and evolving identity.

At its core, Bluff City Chinese is a tribute to the Chinese Memphian community—a powerful testament to how storytelling, tradition, and a shared vision for the future can bring generations together. As Cai and Dunn explore what it means to preserve their community’s legacy, they reveal the resilience of a people reclaiming their narrative, ultimately offering an inspiring call for unity, identity, and the passing of wisdom from one generation to the next.

Learn more:
https://bluffcitychinese.com/

https://www.instagram.com/bluffcitychinese/

CAMOC is pleased to present the first Spotlight Artist of 2025, Linye Jiang with Undisclosed Location.

In this installation, Jiang’s work is a love letter to photography, focusing on overlooked, peripheral details in the landscape rather than grand, iconic scenes—poetic fragments that feel personal and familiar. By stepping into the frame and re-photographing their own work, the artist challenges the invisibility often expected of photographers, occupying the space between observer and participant. “Undisclosed locations—private, unmarked, and unseen—exist because I chose to withhold them,” and offer here a quiet inquiry into absence, visibility, and the complex relationship between self and landscape.

Linye Jiang (@linye.j) is a lens-based artist whose work explores gender roles, human complexity, and the intersection of societal culture with personal experience. With a focus on pushing the boundaries of photography, Linye integrates the medium with sculptural forms and performance, creating immersive installations. Her work draws from personal narratives, this intimate connection infuses her work with authenticity and emotional depth. Based in Chicago, Linye actively engages with the local and international art communities through exhibitions, collaborations, and educational programs.

CAMOC’s ongoing Spotlight Series, curated by Larry Lee (@‌lardamang), exists to showcase the dynamic array of Chinese American artists working in the vibrant world of contemporary fine arts in Chicago and beyond.

RSVP for the opening reception on Sunday, January 19, 2-5 PM.

This exhibition will run from Jan. 19th to Feb. 23rd, 2025.

Join us on December 8th, 3–5 p.m., for the closing reception of UNGROUND by C. C. Ann Chen. The event features an artist talk with Larry Lee, Annie Morse, and Holly Cahill, exploring the evolution of landscape and its resonance with contemporary times, inspired by C.C. Ann Chen’s sailing journeys in the North Atlantic.

Panelists:

Larry Lee: A multimedia artist, art historian, and educator. He curates the Spotlight Series and teaches at the SAIC, DePaul University, and Columbia College Chicago.

Annie Morse: An independent art educator and curator with deep roots in Chicago’s art community. Formerly Assistant Director for College and Professional Programs at the Art Institute of Chicago, she has worked with Hyde Park Art Center, 3Arts, and others. She holds advanced degrees in 20th-century art history and library science, and her recent curatorial work includes exhibitions for the Chicago Cultural Center.

Holly Cahill: A visual artist and curator whose work draws on natural phenomena to explore themes of growth, transformation, and embodied experiences. Her art has been exhibited at Hyde Park Art Center, Secrist|Beach, 65GRAND, and Epiphany Center for the Arts. As a member and director of Tiger Strikes Asteroid Chicago, she has led innovative curatorial projects, including a forthcoming 2025 solo exhibition of C.C. Ann Chen.

Join us for the reception of our newest exhibition with Thandi Cai. The event opens with an altar ceremony and a community Show-n-Tell. Enjoy art, tea, snacks, and stories. To share at the Show-n-Tell, bring any object that represents kinship/connection to you.

2:00 PM: Altar Ceremony
3:00 PM: Community Show-n-Tell

City of Light, City of Shadow - a photo-series by Chien-An Yuan - is coming to a close. The event will feature a live concert performance and artist talk by Yuan, accompanied by musicians Jeff Chan and Jon Monteverde.

The trio will begin with an immersive, improvised performance against the backdrop of the exhibition on the museum’s fourth floor. They fuse electronic music with traditional instruments—saxophone, bass, and digital soundscapes— to create a rich, atmospheric sound that echoes the emotional depth of Yuan’s featured visual work.

Following the performance, Yuan’s artist talk will explore the inspiration behind his work, which looks to redefine AAPI iconography by challenging stereotypes and offering a multifaceted portrayal of his subjects.

CAMOC’s ongoing Spotlight Series, curated by Larry Lee, exists to showcase the dynamic array of Chinese American artists working in the vibrant world of contemporary fine arts in Chicago and beyond.

Join us in imagining life in Honolulu Chinatown circa 1900 with poet Wing Tek Lum.

He will be sharing his latest work, “The Oldtimers,” which reflects on the forgotten bachelor society of sojourners and settlers in Hawaii—their work, their diversions, their challenges amidst plague and fire, and the perseverance that helped shape the America we see today.

Lum’s poetry revives archival voices with emotional depth and historical consciousness, lighting on the experience of displacement, hard labor, isolation, familial bonds and obligations, heritage and adaptation amidst the islands’ rapid growth.

This event is brought to you by our partnership with Chicago Park District, Field Museum, and The Nature Conservancy

Come celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival 2024! 

Join us on Sat, Sep 21, 2024 at 5:00 PM at the beautiful Set in Stone Gathering Space in the Burnham Wildlife Corridor.

Get ready for an evening celebrating the Harvest Moon with music, live performances, delicious Chinese mooncakes, bubble tea, fun activities, a lantern procession, and much more. Don't miss out on this opportunity to learn and join us for this important holiday in Chinese culture celebrating friends and family!

The Chinatown Museum Foundation will be reflecting, setting new goals, and taking feedback from our members and supporters.

10:00 AM - 11:00 AM

Discussion

11:00 AM - 12:00 PM

Lunch