Debra Ollin Qwerty
@debraollin.bsky.social
Associate editorial director at ucsantabarbara.bsky.social, Co-founder of Lum Art Magazine, Board member at Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbara. Writing on research, art and ideas.
Writing about artist Huongngo.bsky.social felt like uncovering a hidden circuit—one that connects labor, migration and creativity in ways we don’t always see. news.ucsb.edu/2024/021652/...
Generational memory and labor, Southeast Asian refugee experience, in new Hương Ngô exhibition
Her latest exhibition, “Hương Ngô: Core Memory” (Sept. 27–Jan. 26, 2025), presented by Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbara (MCASB) and The Riviera Beach House, synthesizes the artist’s reflection...
news.ucsb.edu
March 8, 2025 at 6:08 PM
Writing about artist Huongngo.bsky.social felt like uncovering a hidden circuit—one that connects labor, migration and creativity in ways we don’t always see. news.ucsb.edu/2024/021652/...
Just wrote about Public Texts. The show features 20+ artists using text to challenge perception, critique culture and reflect California’s evolving identity. Barry McGee’s graffiti-inspired work isn’t just meant to be read—it’s meant to be experienced. ow.ly/LEYS50UZNou
California artists reimagine language, state’s identity in new exhibition
“Public Texts: A Californian Visual Language” at UCSB’s Art, Design & Architecture Museum explores how artists use text to challenge perception, critique culture, and reflect California’s evolving ide...
ow.ly
February 15, 2025 at 10:26 PM
Just wrote about Public Texts. The show features 20+ artists using text to challenge perception, critique culture and reflect California’s evolving identity. Barry McGee’s graffiti-inspired work isn’t just meant to be read—it’s meant to be experienced. ow.ly/LEYS50UZNou
She grew up in Japanese occupied Manchuria. Her POV was radical, anti-imperialist — unfit to be exhibited in Japan — but she kept painting. Here, I talk about her unique power with the California art museum that just acquired the largest collection of her work outside Asia
Japanese artist Tomiyama Taeko’s critique of imperialism
The Art, Design & Architecture Museum presents “A Tale of Sea Wanderers,” the largest collection of Tomiyama’s work outside Asia. Born in 1921 in Kobe and later living in Japanese-occupied Manchuria, ...
ow.ly
January 31, 2025 at 7:18 PM
She grew up in Japanese occupied Manchuria. Her POV was radical, anti-imperialist — unfit to be exhibited in Japan — but she kept painting. Here, I talk about her unique power with the California art museum that just acquired the largest collection of her work outside Asia