Volume 14.10: The Healing Journeys of the Feminine – CAAM Home, by Ravi Chandra MD 9/26/2019
Hungry Ghosts exhibition at Marin Museum of Contemporary Art Aug 10 - Sept 15, 2019
Curated and produced by Cynthia Tom and Maggie Yee for A PLACE OF HER OWN
"The artists of Hungry Ghosts shatter stereotypes and transmit healing through their work. They are shamanic voyagers to the underworld of personal and cultural wounds, emerging with the medicine of artistic insight.
Tom's work, Flying Lessons. Inquire Within, is a triptych of canvases depicting monochromatic jar like dress forms that finally ascend into light and wholeness. It evokes the tens of millions of girls missing in China, India and elsewhere due to female infanticide, abandonment and gender oppression.
Here there is space to imagine a world where girls and women can see their own value and be seen as valuable by all. -Ravi Chandra, Psychology Today/Center for Asian American Media.
2019 Cynthia Tom, Painter & Community Organizer
Beyond The Studio posted a wonderful interview podcast. Cynthia shares deeply about life, purpose, art, spirituality, healing, history, A PLACE OF HER OWN and wishes.
to listen online (scroll down the page)
https://www.beyondthe.studio/episodes/2019/2/13/s02-e09-cynthia-tom
or download itunes
https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/beyond-the-studio-a-podcast-for-artists/id1246868105
About https://www.beyondthe.studio/
Beyond the Studio is a podcast that focuses on the behind the scenes work of visual artists—how they're supporting and sustaining themselves and their creative work. It features candid conversations about their business practices, time management, financial planning, and how they're navigating the unique challenges of making a living, creatively. Artists are inherently resourceful, resilient, and ambitious, with a unique and diverse set of skills. We want to know how they're connecting the dots in their own life, and demystify the process. We believe that by sharing these stories openly and honestly, artists will feel more empowered and become better equipped to live out their own creative life's work.
Beyond the Studio is co-hosted by San Francisco-based painter and muralist Nicole Mueller and Baltimore-based fiber artist and founder of Close Call Studio, Amanda Adams.
2018 BUZZ FEED.com
10 Asian American Female Artists You Should Know
Visual artists of AAWAA are bringing awareness to Asian-American culture and feminism. Engage with the work, and see how each artist's activism, perspective, and creativity is transformed into expressions of fine art.
Cynthia Tom uses her work to explore issues of gender, equality and the human mind. Her unique paintings reflect the vibrancy and the passion of the artist. As a third generation Chinese American, she is passionate about social justice and playing with the accepted norm. A seeker and philosopher about women’s issues, her work is known to some as Cultural Surrealism and often portrays minority women in extraordinary situations.
She is also founder and director of A Place of Her Own, an arts healing residency providing trauma-informed transformation for women. Cultural surrealism, intuitive, and powerful are often used to describe her paintings and mixed media installations. She lectures on women’s issues, feminism, Asian American women in the arts, and her work. Cynthia has won numerous awards for her art and leadership.
2018 Surreal Artist Cynthia Tom resonates the season with soul at Open Studios.
As the year slides to its conclusion, the season of autumn is a special one for artists, especially for this reporter who began a journalistic venture more than 25 years ago, covering the Open Studios event in San Francisco’s Sunset District.
Among my first articles about artists in the neighborhood at that time for The Sunset Beacon Newspaper, back in the fall of 1993 was surrealist Cynthia Tom. Her work was then and still is in my mind a touchstone. Back then, I was entering my 30s and her work, as I now realize, opened a door to me. My article about the Open Studios via ArtSpan was my third article or so, for the Sunset Beacon which serendipitously brought me to it.
2018 - Art and Cultural Archives of California, Special Collections
California Ethnic and Multicultural Archives
UC Santa Barbara Library, Department of Special Research Collections
Guide to the Cynthia Tom papers CEMA 184 Mari Khasmanyan and Chelsea Lumidao, 2018.
[email protected] URL: http://www.library.ucsb.edu/special-collections
https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/c8hh6rhf/
2018 Publication: Academic Textbook
Local Invisibility, Postcolonial Feminisms: Asian American Contemporary Artists in California
Authors: Fantone, Laura
- Provides insight into a rich yet understudied population in American art history
- Explores the nuance of how Asian American identities have changed throughout the twentieth century to the present
https://www.palgrave.com/us/book/9781137506696#aboutAuthors
ERA 21 MAGAZINE www.era21.cz – January 2016, Issue #1 ERA 21, vol. 1, Czech Republic Magazine
- Articles about the transformation of women role in public space + some positive examples of urban spaces / interventions based on gender mainstreamig…) we'd like to present your project A PLACE OF HER OWN. We preview 2 pages including a short description of the project + several images of selected projects + CV of their authors.
- Zuzana Moravkova ERA21 editor-in-chief
- http://www.era21.cz/novinka_E.asp?NEW_ID=104
*2016 Digital Journal: Op-Ed: Marin gallery features surrealist's work about Human Trafficking
When this reporter asked Morvitz what was it about Cynthia's work that caught Gallery Route One's attention? Morvitz mentioned Cynthia's surrealist skills and command of a complex subject. "We were impressed by the strength of her work across different media and glad that she will be creating an entire installation,within our space. While two-dimensional artwork can be extremely powerful, a surrounding installation gives the visitor an enlarged, immersive experience. Cynthia is planning to be in the gallery at the reception and closing and her commitment and the strength of her personality will also be an important aspect of this presentation."
Morvitz then paused in all the describing and pointing out. And then she said, "but the way our series works is for us to step back and let a powerful artist like Cynthia, who has an important message speak for herself."
2016 Point Reyes Light House: Art to transform the soul
By Peggy Day 10/27/2016
http://www.ptreyeslight.com/article/art-transform-soul
Issues of social and environmental justice permeate the exhibits at Gallery Route One in Point Reyes Station, where there are only a few days left to see eclectic and inspirational collections.
The Project Space is flowing with umbrellas and pillows, an ancestral Chinese wedding outfit and elements of one family’s painful history. Cynthia Tom, a San Francisco-based social justice activist and artist, assembled “Stories to Tell: Discards and Variances,” to relate stories of human trafficking from a Chinese-American family’s perspective.
The exhibit weaves art and stories from three generations into one astonishing experience.
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Cynthia Tom Addresses Trauma/Trafficking in Asian American Women’s Lives Marin Independent Journal – Vicky Larson |
The struggles of Asian women wasn't something the 55-year-old San Rafael resident thought much about until she was in her early 30s and asked herself why, despite a successful career as a pharmaceutical salesperson, she always picked abusive, loser boyfriends. Then she learned some startling information about her family; most had been bought and sold, and horribly mistreated. Her China-born father was sold to Chinese Americans and brought to America when he was a year old. Her maternal grandmother was sold to her grandfather, an opium addict and gambler, and treated like a servant, who left her and their seven children penniless when he died.
"I also found out that my grandfather kept trading my mom for opium from the ages 9 to 12," she says. "That sparked it."
2015 Curatorial Press for A PLACE OF HER OWN
https://jonfarreporter.tumblr.com/post/173549489951/an-innovative-womans-art-exhibit-is-a-place-of
An Innovative Women’s Art Exhibition is A PLACE OF HER OWN by Jonathan Farrell
https://www.nichibei.org/2018/05/finding-my-own-place-through-art/
Finding My Own Place Through Art by Tomo Hirai
SF/ARTS Monthly: Women Artists Explore a Sense of Place
Yueqi Chen ‘A PLACE OF ONE’S OWN: interview with Cynthia Tom’
n.paradoxa: international feminist art journal vol. 39 (Jan 2017) Organising/Organisations pp.80-85. http://www.ktpress.co.uk/nparadoxa-volume-details.asp?volumeid=39
Excerpt. To read the full article the publisher asks that interested parties purchase a pdf of the article and or the journal itself.
2015 Curatorial Reviews for A PLACE OF HER OWN. Cynthia Tom founder|director|curator
SOMArts Curatorial Fellow Awardee 2015 – A PLACE OF HER OWN: http://www.somarts.org/aplaceofherowninterviews/
New York Times – SF Arts Monthly: SF/ARTS Monthly: Women Artists Explore a Sense of Place
These works, which combine storytelling and recycled objects, grew out of a residency/workshop program where participants explored, through making art, their inner lives, identity issues, personal trauma and yearnings.
“The show is about a metaphoric space where you’re the one who’s in charge,” says exhibition curator Cynthia Tom
The Daily Californian: The Daily Californian: Female artists find expressions of home in ‘A Place of Her Own’
"Never pedantic, “A Place of Her Own” is an important exhibition. It serves as a platform for presence as well as a surreal space of dreaming for a demographic of women whose voices are seldom heard within the pristine walls of the art world. Its power lies in its very abandonment of power — all in the name of meditation and healing." Stacy Nguyen [email protected]
The Bay Area Reporter: The Bay Area Reporter: Women's work
To have a place of one's own is to have a refuge, somewhere safe and secure, a space to create, think, dream, to be oneself and to be free. It can be an actual physical place, either yearned for or retrieved from memory, or a state of mind. It's a compelling, often loosely construed concept that means different things to different people, and claiming one's place or retreating to it, particularly for women, can be a radical act.
CULTURE TRIP, Britain 2015 TOP BEST Global Shows-www.theculturetrip.com
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ALICE 97.3
A Place of Her Own Art Exhibition
o http://radioalice.cbslocal.com/tag/cynthia-tom/
Asian American Women Artists Exploding Stereotypes, Psychology Today 2011
Model Minority, Shy, Exotic, Quiet, Oriental, Brilliant at Science and Math…. These are common stereotypes about Asian Americans that, when left unchallenged, can lead to misunderstandings, discrimination, and the continued invisibility of this group. Exploding these myths and imagining the larger space Asian Americans can inhabit in the American psyche are the focus of this multi-media, multi-disciplinary arts exhibition.
Curators: Inson Choy and Cynthia Tom, Juror: Jay Xu (Asian Art Museum), Panel: Julie Soo
2015 Artist Uses Art Exhibitions as Vehicles of Healing
This coming November 19, SOMArts Cultural Center will present "A PLACE OF HER OWN, curated by Cynthia Tom, award winning recipient of the 2015–16 Commons Curatorial Residency at SOMArts Cultural Center, in partnership with Asian American Women Artists Association.
This unique exhibit which will include the works of other women artists, is something that Cynthia has been cultivating and nurturing passionately. Even when she finds funding, Cynthia often must go the distance to bring to life the hidden truths and realities she discovers.
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Cynthia Tom’s Journey to Find Her Past, SF Chronicle by Stephanie Wright Hession |
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http://www.sfgate.com/art/article/Artist-Cynthia-Tom-s-journey-to-find-her-past-3475719.php
"It all starts with a quirky, slightly sick sense of humor that runs in my family," says Tom of the beginnings of the Circus Series. "My dad is the impetus. One of the things that tied us together was watching 'Monty Python's Flying Circus' as a family way back when." "JoeSam was a neighboring artist at Hunters Point Shipyard, an African American artist of great note. He became a mentor for my ethnic artistic path," Tom says. "JoeSam told me that I would never be at my best if I didn't explore my identity with my work; and he, of course, was right. It has led to the creation of art around my grandmother, mother and father, learning their history and in the process gaining a deep understanding of my motivations and emotional sludge, which I have since overcome."
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2015 Artist Uses Art Exhibitions as Vehicles of Healing
This coming November 19, SOMArts Cultural Center will present "A PLACE OF HER OWN, curated by Cynthia Tom, award winning recipient of the 2015–16 Commons Curatorial Residency at SOMArts Cultural Center, in partnership with Asian American Women Artists Association.
This unique exhibit which will include the works of other women artists, is something that Cynthia has been cultivating and nurturing passionately. Even when she finds funding, Cynthia often must go the distance to bring to life the hidden truths and realities she discovers.
CulturalSurrealism: An Interview with Cynthia Tom written by // jason beresini
http://journal282.ninja/cultural-surrealism-an-interview-with-cynthia-tom/
“Acrylic on canvas, acrylic on anything,” says Tom in regard to her medium. “Wood, chairs, clothes, food. But I also do mixed media.”
Indeed, Tom’s work frequently seems to find itself outside the boundaries of a canvas. Apart from her furniture paintings, Tom also creates miniature boxed dioramas—found object constructions often depicting scenes of empty domesticity. Tom’s creativity has, quite literally, no borders.
This is not to say, however, that Tom is resistant to the canvas. To the contrary, Tom’s traditional paintings are perhaps her most well-known artistic endeavor, having been exhibited in both the Legion of Honor and the de Young Museum of Fine Arts. Calling her style “Cultural Surrealism,” Tom’s paintings frequently depict Asian women cast against surreal, dream-like environments. For Tom, this subject matter comes from a place of intuition.
Review: Surrealist painter celebrates 20th year with Open Studios
Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/360847#ixzz4HiLJC0nr
… her work changed through the help of a fellow artist named JoeSam. He become her mentor as he saw something more to her work. "JoeSam told me that I would never be at my best if I didn't explore my identity with my work; and he, of course, was right."
JoeSam remembered those days as he said, "yes, Cynthia's work then was whimsical." "I told her to be more cognisant of who she is and not to be afraid to go back into the history of her family."
…."I think Cynthia's work will continue to grow more and more," he said. "Cynthia will continue to go beyond what people have come to expect from her, especially as an Asian woman." JoeSam, who described himself as a conceptual artist, said he understands how difficult it is to try to create imagery from abstract thoughts and complex feelings. "To step back and look at all these complex things an artist has to study and be honest with what is uncovered, about the subject whether it has to do with internment, abusive situations, cultural issues," etc. he noted.
"And, Cynthia is not alone," he added. Look at all the work she has done with the Asian American Women Artists Association," he said. "Cynthia is in the company of some very serious, dedicated and established women artists." And, like her they look deeply at the issues and concerns facing Asian women."
YBCA video DAILY LIVES, curator Abby Chen (Yerba Buena Center for the Arts)
Cynthia Tom’s Discards & Variances in group show.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5w9C1AsHAOM&feature=player_embedded
http://www.ybca.org/daily-lives
