PULLMAN, Wash. – The Washington State University Museum of Art announces the exhibition “Roger Shimomura: An American Knockoff,” Sept. 19-Dec. 13. An opening reception will beat 6 p.m. Sept. 18, in the Museum of Art/WSU gallery to be followed at 7 p.m. by a talk by the artist in the Fine Arts auditorium. Admission to the museum is free.
The Kansas-based artist’s paintings and prints address sociopolitical issues of Asian America. He does this through a painting style that combines his childhood interest in comic books, American Pop Art and traditions of Japanese woodblock prints, thereby evoking his Japanese ancestry while locating him firmly within modern American artistic developments.
The WSU exhibition focuses on Shimomura’s most recent series, An American Knockoff (2009-present), in which the artist inserts himself as an aging Asian Everyman in various guises, both funny and poignant. He does this as an imposter in or a battler against a host of ironic, stereotypical settings: punching at a gaggle of Disney cartoon characters, joining Chinese Mao-era brigades, attacking Japanese stereotypes and assuming identities of such iconic American figures as Superman, George Washington and Dick Tracy.
Funding for the exhibit has been generously provided by the Jon and Mary Shirley Foundation, Samuel H. and Patricia W. Smith Art Endowment, Cleve and Judith Borth, Greg Kucera and Larry Yocom, Patti Hirahara, Members of the Museum of Art, Washington State Arts Commission, and the National Endowment for the Arts.
The Museum of Art is located on Wilson Road across from Martin Stadium in the Fine Arts Center on the WSU Pullman campus. Gallery hours are Monday – Saturday, 10 am. – 4 pm., open until 7 pm on Thursdays and closed on Sundays. For more information please contact the museum at 509-335-1910 or visit our website at http://museum.wsu.edu.
Contact:
Debby Stinson, Museum of Art/WSU, 509-335-6282, debby_stinson@wsu.edu
Anna-Maria Shannon, Museum of Art/WSU, 509-335-6140, annamshannon@wsu.edu
Cynthia King, WSU News Services, 509-335-4668, cynking@wsu.edu