22nd Annual WAH Salon

Sat. April 3 – Sat. May 1, 2021

Opening Reception: Sat. April 3, 1-5pm

Gallery Hours: Saturday & Sunday, 1 – 5pm

ARTISTS IN SHOW: Agare Asano, Silvia Aviles, Ayako Bando, Bienvenido Bones Banez Jr., Beryl Brenner, Orin Buck, Linda Butti, Nan Cao, Christine Chiocchio, Elena Mishenko Cohen, Alison Cuomo, Theresa DeSalvio, Val Dyshlov, Rita Finnegan, Sandra Forrest, Ayakoh Furukawa-Leonart, Sandra Giunta, Risa Glickman, Eleanor Goldstein, Glen Goodenough, Susan Handwerker, Richard Hatter, Miho Hiranouchi, Kumi Hirose, Charles Hudson, Susan Jacobs, Sam Jugkurth, Yuko K.,Katherine Kissh, Frank Krasicki, Drew Maillard and Samantha Levin, Emiliday Manzueta, Yve Mas, Daniel McDonald, Mieko Mitachi, Gail Robin Mitchell, Kenichi Nakajima, Denise Nassar, Saji Nobuko, Yasuko Okumura, Aston Philip, Yupin Pramotepipop, Renee Radenberg, Germania Reyes, Cheryl Safren, Nobuko Saji, Larry Scaturro, David Schulman, Jessica Schulman, Gloria Schuster, Hanna Shannon, Kayo Shido, Joel Simpson, Anthony Samuel Sivio, Linda Smith, Jos Stumpe, Suprina, Larry Szycher, Gayle Tanaka, Rumi Tsuda, Villo Varga, Jeff Watts, Mary Westring

A Message about The 22nd Annual WAH Salon Show

by Yuko Nii

Upon founding the WAH Center in late 1996 based upon my “Bridge Concept,” I was determined to ensure an enduring and long lasting high quality art center. To realize my desire, I came up with the idea of a membership program in which artists would participate in an annual member’s group show. So I organized and curated the WAH Salon shows for the past 21 years. I have stayed as the sole organizer and curator so that I could see how my envisioned program could be realized within my own capacity. During those long years, I got to know the salon members better, and we’ve enjoyed each other and we’ve grown together. I value and treasure the friendships we’ve established! The members have worked with me to support the program as volunteers fulfilling the necessary duties in order to make the show possible. I am truly grateful for having talented artists with kind and generous hearts who have helped the WAH Salon grow.

Because the WAH Salon is the only membership program we offer to the artists, it is an important part of the WAH Center’s existence. The Salon members look forward to participating in the annual show and I look forward to seeing their new works each year. That has become a part of our expectation and a great joy. Although sometimes artists experience a “Slump” period, they always come out from the slump and continue to create. Artists’ creative energy flows constantly with no stopping, and the WAH Center is the place where the artists’ collective creative energy can be shared. Therefore it is important for us to continue the Salon show even in the Covid time.

As I will be very busy with the preparation for a big show coming up in May, I thought it would be a good chance for someone else to be in charge of the Salon show for a change. Instead of assigning one curator I’ve formed a WAH Salon Committee (WSC) consisting of 6 individuals (3 male and 3 female artists) selected from the Salon members who work with different mediums. This is the first undertaking for a group of artists collaborating and curating the WAH Salon show to it’s fruition. I hope to learn something new from this trial. Because they are very talented artists with pleasant personalities, I have no doubt they will work together in good harmony following the WAH Center’s mission statement and knowing what WAH means in Japanese means “Peace, Harmony and Unity.”

I look forward to seeing how differently the committee presents the Salon show from what I have done in the past.

Yuko Nii, The WAH Center’s Founder & Artistic Director
andTim Walker
The Yuko Nii Foundation’s Founder

BELOW IS A TASTE OF WORK BY INCLUDED ARTISTS.
These are not the same as the new works that will be on display in the exhibition.