Please join us on Thursday, September 17th from 5-8pm for the opening reception of AAAinA’s Fall Exhibition, Zine* Together. 

Zine* Together is the first exhibition of its kind to examine Asian American zines not only as objects, but as actions—creative, collective, and relational. Drawing from Asia Art Archive in America’s Reading Room collection, this exhibition highlights collaboratively produced zines from 2010 to the present, alongside newly commissioned projects and prompts that trace zine-making as a mode of shared authorship and community building.

In the 1960s and 1970s, zines (short for “magazines” or “fan-zines”) were characterized by their photo-copied, staple-bound formats and emerged as popular do-it-yourself platforms for sharing counter-cultural socio-political programs and avant-garde art practice. In more recent decades and particularly in Asian American communities, zines have served as a place to explore artistic narratives, diasporic histories, and collective responses to marginalization. 

Key to this exhibition is a commissioned research project and essay by Michelle Yee, PhD, and Elizabeth Chung that investigates the recent history of Asian American zines in relation to the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic and the parallel rise in anti-Asian violence across the United States. Situating zine-making within this moment of crisis, the research frames the medium as one of many grassroots strategies for care, documentation, and solidarity. Together, the exhibition and research project position zines not as peripheral ephemera, but as vital cultural tools that register and record how communities respond in times of uncertainty.

Zine* Together, itself a collaborative project, is organized by Claire Kim, Susanna Chang, Sarula Bao, Michelle Yee, Elizabeth Chung, Mary Y. Yang, Chen Luo, and Tasnima Tanzim.

Leadership Support for Zine* Together is provided by the Magellan Group at Morgan Stanley Private Wealth Management.

Additional support is provided by the Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College, and numerous generous foundations and individuals.

AAAinA’s general programs and operations are funded in part by the New York State Council on the Arts, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, Ruth Foundation for the Arts, and other foundations and individuals.