The TV wall at Posvar’s Global Hub flickers quickly through a collection of artworks. In one of them, which is a paper and graphite work showcased on the screen, a little girl presses her face up to her uncle, giggling as she pecks his cheek. Her uncle gives the viewer a small smile. Red paper flowers and a cut-out 二舅 和 我 [“Second Uncle and Me”] decorate the artwork.
“Second Uncle and Me” is one of the 19 works featured in the Asian Studies Center and Asian Student Association’s Asian American and Pacific Islander Art Exhibit. The showcase opened on Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2025, at Posvar Hall’s Global Hub. The artistic presentation marked the closing of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month month after a January-long schedule of events. The artworks presented were by Pitt students Kylie Ye, Eileen Zhang, Emily Xu, Casey Yin, Stephanie Yau, Matt Tang, Joleen Wong, Elizabeth Hudak, Ritika De and Jacky Ho.
Caroline Guo is a junior studying Political Science and Economics with a minor in Chinese. She is the Vice President for External Affairs at ASA, where she runs all the events for Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month and, with her committee of seven students, “bridges the rest of campus to ASA.” While API month is usually celebrated in May, Pitt commemorates it in January to ensure students are able to fully enjoy the programming. This year, API Month featured yoga classes, community organizer panels, professor panels, trivia night, wall climbing and its annual Culture Fair. Its closing event was the API Art Exhibit.
Conversation about the possible exhibition began in May of 2024 when Guo reached out to the Asian Studies Center. As the recently voted VP of external, she wanted to make sure to collaborate with the already existing center affairs.
“At ASC, [Assistant Director for Partnerships and Programming Linda Lieu] had mentioned that she wanted to work on an art exhibit, and I thought that it was amazing. I would love for it to be an ASA x ASC collab, to get a lot of students involved,” Guo said.
Submissions opened in December with the goal of spotlighting creations and artworks from the local API community. It was a surprise for Guo to see friends she did not know were interested in art, submitting their AP art pieces, watercolors they did as a hobby or works from their Studio Art classes at the Frick Fine Arts Building.
“[I would see their submission] and think ‘Oh! So you’re like the most talented person I’ve ever known and you didn’t mention it,’” Guo said.
The External Affairs team at ASA, to make the event as accessible as possible, decided to make the event hybrid.
“A lot of people have their artwork at home, where it’s safe, and to make it more accessible to them, we offered them the option to showcase them on the screen,” Guo said.
Most of the works were viewed digitally, with four physical easels placed along the Global Hub.
Kylie Ye’s work, “Second Uncle and Me,” is one of the works showcased on the big screen. Ye is a sophomore majoring in biochemistry. She works for the Chinese Students Association’s Design Committee and joined the exhibition after a fellow board member encouraged her to. Her graphite-on-paper works are a series she did for her high school AP Art course, and she explained that if it hadn’t been for the exhibition, she wouldn’t have gotten the chance to admire her artworks again.
“I thought it was very eye-opening because these artworks are memorable for me,” Ye said.
Ye explained that she comes from a big family, so her approach to her identity is based on looking towards her loved ones. Her artworks document not just her identity but her love for her family.
“I really like doing art that encapsulates [her love for her family]. I did portraits of my family because I really do appreciate how they have supported me,” Ye said.
Stephanie Yau’s artworks follow a similar vein to Ye’s. Yau is a junior pursuing a neuroscience and psychology major. She submitted still lifes that she worked on back in high school and a recent orchid painting that she had made thinking of her mother. Yau explained that this exhibition was a chance for her to get back into art-making and creative practices.
“I’ve been taking [art] classes for a very, very long time. And then coming here to Pitt, I was really debating doing a studio arts minor, but I ended up not doing it. And I missed that opportunity, but I’m still trying to do more art outside of school,” Yau said.
The other exhibitors and organizers shared the same sentiment. Guo, who doesn’t consider herself an artist, explained how inspiring it was to see all these artworks together.
“I also really love to draw and create things, but I feel like I haven’t had the time to do it in school, especially since it’s my junior year, which is a very notoriously busy time,” Guo said. “I think seeing those submissions has also inspired me to be like, ‘Okay, I should start picking up the paintbrush again and just seeing what I can do.’ I look forward to seeing how they inspire other people at the end.”
Written by Irene Castillo, photography by Kyla Mitchell