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Art
Laura Kina creates art which relates to race, religion, class, family, and identity, more specifically Asian American and mixed race identity. Kina's work typically studies highly personal subjects such as her own family circle, friends, memories, and dreams. It is precisely the intimate relationship Kina has with her subjects that allows her to examine complex social and political issues with great care and detail. Her solo exhibitions include Blue Hawaii (2014), Sugar (2010), A Many-Splendored Thing (2010), Aloha Dreams (2007), Loving (2006), and Hapa Soap Operas (2003). She has exhibited at the Chicago Cultural Center, India Habitat Centre, Nehuru Art Centre, Okinawa Prefectural Art Museum, the Rose Art Museum, the Spertus Museum, the University of Memphis, and the Wing Luke Museum of the Asian Pacific American Experience.


 * Aloha Dreams (2006–2008)- the series comments on issues of immigration/migration, heritage, and orientalist fantasies, through the exploration of color, pattern figuration, and abstraction. Kina utilizes Pop Art images, textile design, as well as works of Gaugin, compelling the viewer "to think of the history of Hawai'i and ultimately of the layering of myths and perceptions of place and subject within the painting". Diana Lowenstein Fine Arts in Miami, FL. 2007.


 * Loving (2006)- the series was inspired by the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision Loving v. Virginia, which declared race-based legal restrictions on marriage unconstitutional. The artist uses the genre of Portrait to examine mixed race issues. In the words of the artist, "these life-size charcoal portraits of myself along with other mixed race friends surround the viewer in a meditative half circle that simultaneously embraces and confronts the viewer". Grand Projects in New Haven, CT 2006.


 * Mishpoche (2005–2007) destroyed- the name "Mishpoche" refers to the Yiddish word for family. The artist relates her personal experiences as she examines her own complex identity. This series' main installation is a 12' by 12' quilt-like area created using 60 smaller paintings (enamel on wood), each depicting a sliver of the artist's identity. These paintings constitute a platform which the viewer is invited to walk on after donning a pair of beach flip flops which line the sides of the installation. This feature enhances the viewer's intimacy with the subject, allowing a closer reflection on the patterns and subjects portrayed. Among the panels are depictions of fabric patterns, a Talith, and a Challah cover. Walsh Gallery Chicago, IL. 2005Diana Lowenstien Fine Arts Miami, FL. 2007.


 * Hapa Soap Operas (2002–2005)- the term Hapa is Hawaiian and literally means “half”; it has been used colloquially to describe mixed race Asian and Pacific Islander Americans. Kina grew up describing herself as hapa although the term has since come to be contested. The series consists of paintings based on photographs the artist took of mixed race Asian Americans from across the country. Some of the paintings are larger-than-life oil paintings, while others appear as actual movie posters that were installed in flashing movie poster marquees.  Diana Lowenstein Fine Arts 2003


 * Refrigerator Portrait Series (2001)- in this series Kina comments on class, family, and identity, by creating trompe-l’oeil depictions of household refrigerators. The refrigerators are titled after their owners, all members of Kina's extended family. The paintings convey something about their owners' identities through magnets, drawings, and other items appearing on their doors. This series deals with the ever-blurring boundaries between race, religion, and national identity. One of the paintings, titled "The Rosenfelds", depicts a high end Sub-Zero refrigerator made of shining steel and surrounded by custom wood cabinetry. Unlike the other works in this series, this refrigerator’s surface is unadorned. In its stark simplicity, its formal presence invokes the work of Mark Rothko and Barnett Newman. “While the variety of adornments on the Kina-Aronson fridge indicates a multiplicity of identities, the interiors of the refrigerators, and, by extension, the inner lives of their owners, remain closed to the viewer”. Spertus Museum, Chicago, IL. 2007-2008Rose Art Museum Waltham. MA. 2008

Laura Kina New Work (2012-2013) New paintings about Okinawa, Hawaii, and family history

Laura Kina Sugar Artist Statement

Set during the 1920’s-1940’s, Laura Kina’s SUGAR paintings recall obake ghost stories and feature Japanese and Okinawan picture brides turned machete carrying sugar cane plantation field laborers on the Big Island of Hawaii. Drawing on oral history and family photographs from Nisei (2nd generation) and Sansei (3rd generation) from Peepekeo, Pi’ihonua, and Hakalau plantation community members as well as historic images, Kina’s paintings take us into a beautiful yet grueling world of manual labor, cane field fires and flumes.

Laura Kina Devon Avenue Sampler Artist Statement Devon Avenue Sampler features vintage and contemporary street signs and imagery from my West Roger’s Park Chicago immigrant neighborhood where Orthodox Jews, Hindus, Muslims and Christians all live.