Artwork: Jasmine Chen,
Hot Pepper and Ice Cream (2024),
Oil on canvas, 24” x 36”.

Imagine growing up moving between China and America and living in many different kinds of neighborhoods but with none of them overlapping. That was Jasmine Chen’s experience, and she uses her art to reflect the struggle of trying to make sense of place and identity across time and time zones, cultures, and of course actual physical places and spaces.

Jasmine will be discussing that struggle subsumed into her beautifully evocative paintings this Friday, July 19, 6:30pm, when she presents as the third of four speakers in this Year’s MFA Summer Lecture Series. Her talk will take place in the Lecture Hall of the Design and Media Center, and she will show some of her works, which are in the permanent collection of the Danforth Art Museum and have also been exhibited in galleries throughout New England and beyond.

Being a diasporist artist has changed some, Jasmine points out. With the internet, the ocean no longer establishes a definitive barrier because “it enables a constant partial exposure to people and places from the past.” There’s an upside to that, of course, but at the same time, she says, “accounting for one’s origins and place can be more problematic than ever. My works respond to this condition.”

All MFA lectures are free and open to the broader MassArt community and the public. For more information about the MFA summer lecture series, visit the MassArt Events Calendar.