FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Steph Gancayco
press@aawaa.net
Self Portrait with Jasmines, Sweetpeas, and Woman and Child (detail) by © Fatima Ronquillo
SAN FRANCISCO, CA, APRIL 24, 2025 — Asian American Women Artists Association (AAWAA) presents Brown Palms, Yellow Balms: Reinventing Caregivers of Color, opening April 24, 2025, at SOMArts Cultural Center in San Francisco. Co-presented as part of the Asian Pacific Islander Cultural Center (APICC)’s 28th annual United States of Asian America Festival, this visual art exhibition features thought-provoking works by over 50 artists exploring caregiving as an act of resistance, resilience, and radical love through the lens of AAPI cultural heritage, history, and socio-political landscapes.
Why stage such a show in a political climate that mandates against exhibitions promoting race and women? Because caregivers—the ones who open a newborn’s eyes and close the eyes of the dying—are overwhelmingly female, disproportionately people of color, and deserve a voice.
The exhibition unfolds in ever-expanding circles, mirroring the Buddhist Metta practice—beginning with the body as the most intimate site of care and spiraling outward to embrace family, community, collective archetypes, deities, and the environment. Care for the body is represented by Pinaree Sanpitak, one of Thailand’s most internationally-acclaimed artists, who anchors the show with her iconic soft ‘breast stupa’ sculptures, symbolizing the body as the primal source of nourishment. Gericault dela Rose pushes the body dialogue further with ceramic ling-lingo sculptures—pre-colonial Philippine fertility symbols —that double as a provocative commentary on gender and sexuality. Fatima Ronquillo’s delicate rendering of hands offering a balm of fragrant flowers—a gesture both tender and powerful. Ronquillo, a self-taught Santa Fe-based artist, has garnered a devoted following and waiting lists for her work. Brown Palms, Yellow Balms marks her highly-anticipated Bay Area debut.
Family as a wellspring of care is poignantly represented in multiple works. Diana Li drapes a sculpture in their father’s shirts, a deeply personal homage. Terry Tsu’s towering woven obelisk—crafted from her mother’s garments—is a labor of grief and devotion that took over a year and 1,500 hours to complete. Famed muralist Allison Hueman’s massive 16-foot woven painting, Shroud of Turon, transforms the gallery into a sacred sanctuary honoring her brother’s passing. (As a playful nod to the title’s pun and the artist’s cultural heritage, the beloved Filipino dessert turon will be served at the opening.)
Honoring caregivers in both personal and historical contexts, several pieces spotlight the often unseen labor of nurses and domestic workers. Bay Area visual artist Johanna Poethig collaborates with Anecita Calilao, her own family caregiver, to weave a deeply personal narrative into her work. Xyza Cruz Bacani, a second-generation domestic worker turned award-winning photographer and Pulizter grantee, contributes a stunning portrait of caregivers as they’ve never been seen before—parading in a beauty contest on their day off.
Paying tribute to community caregivers are Jenifer K Wofford’s portraits of the pioneering women of the Filipino Women’s Club of Watsonville, the earliest known organization of its kind in the country. Environmental caregiving emerges through Pallavi Sharma’s installation, an evocative meditation on caste, class, and environmental justice. A mesmerizing concentric circle mandala by Nancy Hom—an iconic presence in AAWAA exhibitions—echoes these ecological concerns, offering a visual prayer for healing.
Expanding beyond the visual, the opening of Brown Palms, Yellow Balms will feature video projections, poetry readings by Nellie Wong and food rituals by Zara Ahmed, offering audiences a multi-sensory journey through themes of caregiving and cultural preservation.
For a full schedule of events and to RSVP for the free opening, visit aawaa.net/brownpalmsyellowbalms.