CL 22 - December 7, 1941

Is third-generation Japanese American Roger Shimomura a prankster with a brush or a social commentator whose art represents a unique Japanese American style and point of view?

Turns out he's both. And that's why the exhibition, Return of the Yellow Peril: A Survey of the Work of Roger Shimomura, 1969-2007, is as compelling in its message as it is visually captivating.

Shimomura- a painter, performance artist, and distinguished professor of art at the University of Kansasretired in 2004 after 35 years of teaching. His paintings are included in the collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Smithsonian Museum of American Art, and many others.

At Spiva, visitors will see a selection of works that illustrate Shimomura's uniquely bicultural style and penchant for integrating images from ukiyo-e woodcut prints with images from American popular culture. It1s been described as "Pop Art with a Japanese twist." Using humor as a weapon, his artwork moves from ironic constructions of cultural identity to biting denunciations of racial prejudice.

The exhibition's title directly plays on the derogatory color metaphors for Asians- "yellow peril" and "yellow terror"- that have been aimed at Asian Americans since the 1800s. The prejudice behind these metaphors resulted in the relocation of 120,000 Japanese Americans to internment camps following the Pearl Harbor bombing in December 1941. Two year old Roger Shimomura and his family spent the next two years behind a barbed-wire fence at Camp Minidoka in south-central Idaho.

Shimomura began creating art inspired by his experience as a Japanese American after he joined the art faculty at the University of Kansas in Lawrence in 1969. An incident in which Shimomura was labeled as a "foreigner" - though he was born in America and spoke English without an accent - led him to a new artistic direction in 1971.

He first created comic imitations of Japanese art as an irreverent response to such misguided perceptions. Over the years, his artwork evolved from light-hearted satire to serious critiques and from paintings to performance art. His artwork is found in the collections of major museums, including Whitney Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Museum of American Art, Philadelphia Museum of Art, and Seattle Art Museum.

"Spiva Center for the Arts is fortunate to host this important exhibit," director Jo Mueller commented. "The Commerce Bancshares and William T. Kemper Foundations quickly stepped forward as sponsors, and additional assistance from an anonymous Art Center Family and the Missouri Arts Council also played an important role in bringing the exhibit to Spiva."

The Return of the Yellow Peril was curated by William Lew, Ph.D., Professor of Art at Clemson University, South Carolina. The touring exhibition is a program of Exhibits USA, a national division of Mid-America Arts Alliance in conjunction with the Missouri Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts.

The exhibit opens in the Main Gallery June 14 and runs through August 1. A companion Lunch-n-Learn event is scheduled for Wednesday, July 8, from noon to 1 p.m. The public is invited to bring their lunch to a free slide lecture, "Who Put the Pop in Pop Art?"

Spiva-where imagination lives!

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George A. Spiva Center for the Arts
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Email: spiva@spivaarts.org
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