The event is part of Global Asias Community Day and will feature workshops and performances by members of Knoxville’s Asian community.

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — On Saturday, visitors at the Knoxville Museum of Art will be able to explore the art and culture of Asian communities. The event is being organized as part of Global Asias Community Day and will feature workshops and performances by members of Knoxville’s Asian community.

They include opportunities to learn about the history of Japanese tea ceremonies along with demonstrations from artists. Visitors will also be able to participate in a hands-on art-making demonstration.

As the event approaches, the art museum is also displaying several pieces of art from notable Asian artists. There are works from Hung Liu on display, whose style developed out “socialist realist” traditions that were taught in China in the first half of the 20th century.

The museum said she faced years of forced labor as well as the dislocation of her family during the Mao era. She later immigrated to the U.S. in 1984, studying art at the University of California.

The artwork from Liu on display in Knoxville is a trio of self-portraits, which show the kind of self Liu felt she inhabited during different stages of her life, the museum said. The portraits reflect notions of herself as a “reeducated youth” who underwent forced labor, an immigrant in a new country and notions of herself as a global citizen.

Her artwork is also accompanied by pieces from the “Global Asias: Contemporary Asian and Asian American Art from the Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and His Family Foundation” collection. It will be on display through April 24.

Anyone who wants to participate in the celebration of Asian arts can register for free online. It starts Saturday at 11 a.m. and lasts through 3 p.m.

The roots of Hung Liu’s representational style can be found in the propagandistic Socialist Realist tradition that…

Posted by Knoxville Museum of Art on Thursday, March 17, 2022