Ogden Contemporary Arts is proud to present RECLAMATION, an exhibition featuring artists Lani Asunción, Camille Hoffman, and Kill Joy, and curated by Kasey Lou Lindley. This project brings together Filipino/Filipinx-American artists working at the intersection of social and environmental justice, addressing Indigenous and land exploitation and its effects on diasporic communities.

Lani, Camille, and Kill Joy are influenced by Filipino-American relations, specifically the American colonial period in the Philippines, which spanned the first half of the 20th century and followed more than 300 years of Spanish colonial rule. After the Spanish-American War in 1898, the US purchased the Philippines from Spain for 20 million dollars, equaling about $1 per Filipino. This acquisition was accomplished through militaristic force that was part of larger US expansionist initiatives in Cuba, Hawaiʻi, Guam, and Puerto Rico. Though the Philippines was established as a US protectorate in 1935, meaning Filipinos were US nationals by law, they were not afforded the same rights or privileges as US citizens. US expansionism in the Asian Pacific region spurred widespread diaspora – today 4.1 million Filipino-Americans comprise the second-largest Asian American ethnic group in the US.

RECLAMATION seeks to create a socially-conscious space to reflect on US imperialistic history while offering counter-narratives that center marginalized people and stories. The exhibition’s three artists work to reclaim identity – through memory, personal history, and community activism – and to align contemporary diasporic experience with pressing socio-cultural issues.

Learn more about this exhibition at https://ogdencontemporaryarts.org/reclamation-lani.../

RECLAMATION is made possible by: Weber County R.A.M.P., George S. and Dolores Doré Eccles Foundation, The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Utah Arts & Museums, Ogden City Arts, Utah Office of Tourism, and Rocky Mountain Power Foundation.