Dallas-based non-profit ATG Against The Grain Productions is proud to announce its 9th Annual Fashion for a Passion Exhibiting Artists. The roster of talented Asian American artists who practice a variety of media, includes a mix of emerging, established and 2017 Against The Grain Artistic Scholarship finalists. Fashion for a Passion, which serves the organization’s mission to support and provide a platform for emerging Asian American artists, will take place Saturday, Nov. 11, at new venue sixty five hundred near Love Field Airport.
Guests of Fashion for a Passion will have the opportunity to bid on each artist’s work through a silent auction. Proceeds from the silent auction and tickets to the event will benefit ATG’s supported orphanages and underprivileged children in Asia, artistic and leadership scholarship fund and community outreach programs.
This year’s Fashion for a Passion emcees include veteran Ben Smithee (CEO of The Smithee Group and past panelist for Against The Grain’s leadership-focused event Groundbreakers Speak) and Hillary Kennedy (Emmy Award winning Host and style blogger).
Introducing our 9th Annual Fashion for a Passion Exhibiting Artists:
Color Tales by Uyen Vuong
Uyen Vuong was born in Nha Trang City, Vietnam. She grew up in a tailoring/design school, within walking distance to the beach. Her creativity seed was planted by her parents at a young age. With leftover fabric, her father meticulously crafted unique patchwork garments for her wardrobe. She sported them with pride knowing that every piece was one-of-a-kind and made only for her. Uyen’s love for colors, contrast and asymmetry stemmed from her
extraordinary childhood. Her appreciation for unique art was what drew her to marble painting. Her work is inspired by vivid memories of sandy beaches, deep blue ocean, golden rice fields, high cliffs, waterfalls and natural lakes hidden in tropical forests. Most important were memories of her hardworking parents and endless summers roaming in nature with her brothers. This was where Uyen’s Color Tales began. It was her way of expressing her deepest thoughts and bringing her fondest memories to life.
Mai-Phuong Bui *
Mai-Phuong Bui, or MP, is a Vietnam-born graphic designer and artist based in Richmond, VA. Her focus is on thinking and making design about places of maximized comfort as well as of maximized discomfort, sometimes a hybrid of both. From themes of home, a sense of belonging, nostalgia, longing, cohabitation, displacement. MP is also a fan of typography and language, from written, verbal or visual, as a vessel of culture. Apart from design, she works on illustration and struggling with characterization of original characters.
DJiun Wang
As a first generation Taiwanese American, DJiun Wang grew up between two worlds. His relationship with both East and West has influenced his identity, shaped his perspective and inspired many of his defining works. It is this cultural and personal tension that creates compelling stories, which he infuses into his art, design and photography.
Born in Virginia Beach, Virginia, DJiun studied visual and performing arts. At 18, he moved to New York City to pursue design and photography, where he collaborated with some of the most pioneering designers at Parsons School of Design, studied retail strategies at Columbia Business School and was mentored by some of the most influential creators in the industry. His work has spanned from luxury swimwear for Prince & Bond to branding design for Voyce Global, and concert material for Carnegie Hall to digital graphics for Parsons. His photography portfolio includes publications such as Vogue, Elle, Nylon and Out Magazine; he also had the opportunity to shoot for Tiffany & Co, New York City Ballet and high fashion designers such as J Mendel and Lanyu Couture. He was also an ATG Artistic Scholarship Winner and will be showcasing his clothing line at the 9th Annual Fashion for a Passion.
Tina Ngo
Born and raised in Dallas, Texas, Tina Ngo has always had passion for performing and visual arts that can have an inspirational effect on people through storytelling. Ever since junior high school, she was in choir, dance and art classes that sparked her imagination and creativity. Involvement in cultural food and fashion and putting on charity programs through the Vietnamese Student Association at SMU and the Asian Association Groups at work to help celebrate and bridge the gap of cultural understanding.
Her concentration focuses on acrylic on canvas and string on a piece of wood that can transform the visual eye depending on the distance on which it’s viewed. She has been recognized with various art awards, including Business Council for the Art’s On My Own Time 2017 first place winner in Mixed Media for string art and 2015 Third place winner on Works on Paper for copper ink printing. She actively participates in Arts leadership Council through work to further support the arts community in the corporate workplace.
Serena Shen *
Serena Shen is an art activist, currently in her first year at New York University. She is majoring in Art, Design and Psychology at the Gallatin School of Individualized Study. Her art and activism have always been inspired by a zeal for resistance; she stands for not only API issues and identities, but in solidarity with other issues plaguing other communities of color and marginalized groups. She has been practicing art for nearly eleven years and design for two. She currently works with two friends to make resistance art that is intended to be held up in protest, and the profits they make from selling their designs are donated to support the ACLU. “Resist” is a piece of particular significance–one she created in response to the massive rise in hate crimes after the 2016 election. Serena hopes to continue to spread her message of resistance through future works, and ultimately harness art and psychology to help people. To follow her work, she can be found on Instagram as @serene.art and @theartivists.
*2017 ATG Artistic Scholarship Winner
About ATG Against The Grain Productions, Inc.
ATG Against The Grain Productions, a Dallas-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, promotes Asian American cultural awareness through compelling media projects and raises funds for international orphanages and underprivileged children. In addition to hosting outreach events, it also awards annual scholarships to exemplary Asian American student artists and leaders. ATG produced the feature documentary, Operation Babylift: The Lost Children of Vietnam, which has screened at more than a dozen film festivals nationwide and received the Audience Choice Award for Best Feature Film at the Vietnamese International Film Festival and the Documentary Audience Choice Award from the Philadelphia Asian American Film Festival. For more information, visit www.AgainstTheGrainProductions.com or www.TheBabylift.com.
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www.AgainstTheGrainProductions.com/Events/FFAP
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