This summer, Art Intelligence Global and William Leung jointly present TEACH ME HOW TO FISH, a group exhibition featuring works by 17 Asian diaspora artists exploring narratives surrounding food, diasporic identity, difference and otherness, memory and nostalgia, cultural authenticity, and the notion of home. Participating artists include Elizabeth Atterbury, Peter Hong-Tsun Chan, Hyegyeong Choi, Dominique Fung, Kyoko Hamaguchi, Sally J. Han, Olivia Jia, Cindy Ji Hye Kim, Ji Woo Kim, Mike Lee, Zoé Blue M., Stephanie H. Shih, Miko Veldkamp, Lily Wong, Miyeon Yi, Yesiyu Zhao, and Gongmo Zhou. The exhibition is curated by NYC-based collector turned gallerist William Leung.

For generations, the nexus between food and identity within the Asian diaspora was a relationship cultivated through sustained exigency. Culinary rituals, carefully repeated, preserved and passed on, were vital for sustenance and survival, continuity and community. How is this nexus shifting for newer generations navigating their diasporic identities against hyper-globalization, neo-colonialism, and the hybridization, commodification, and cannibalization of cultural practices? As disparate cultures continue to coalesce, intermingle, evolve, or even dissipate, how are we to understand ideas about authenticity, tradition, and heritage?

Borrowing from the ancient proverb (itself with contested origins) “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime”, the exhibition TEACH ME HOW TO FISH assembles diverse voices from the Asian diaspora of the present generation. Are we hunting, consuming, and subsisting in this world in a manner different than what was taught by our ancestors? How are we fishing, so to speak, for answers about our contested, marginalized, exoticized, and romanticized histories, our fragmented hybrid selfhoods, and our futures? The constellation of works creates pockets of meditative spaces facilitating ruminations on food as markers of identity and belonging, mediums of nostalgia, trauma, and loss, and mediators in the negotiation of diaspora politics.

About Will Leung: William Leung has gained attention as one of the most engaged and foresighted art dealers and advisors in the field of contemporary art. He started exploring contemporary art as a young collector in the early 2010s and built strong connections with peer collectors, galleries, and artists all over the world. During that time, he witnessed a lot of the backstage of the art world. Utilizing his connections, experience and knowledge, he helped transform young collections into important collections, and has helped artists navigate an art world. In 2020, during the year that the global pandemic started, Leung co-founded ATM Gallery in the Lower East Side in New York to support and encourage the art world. He is most enthusiastic about introducing young emerging artists who haven’t had their talent recognized or shown before in the art world. His goal is to help them find a path in their early careers and eventually raise their profile nationally and internationally. Leung has expanded his career as a gallerist and has opened his own galleries: Long Story Short in NYC and Paris.

About Art Intelligence Global: Founded in 2021 by art market forces Amy Cappellazzo and Yuki Terase, Art Intelligence Global offers an unrivaled breadth of expertise and a holistic understanding of every corner of the market. With headquarters in New York and Hong Kong, AIG delivers bespoke services to a range of clients on a global scale.