$15
Up to 45 participants on site.
Installation image of Naomi Okubo: Resonance on a Surface, 2025. Photo by Ken Lee, courtesy of Fou Gallery.
Join Fou Gallery and The Serica Initiative for an evening of layered storytelling and introspective dialogue as we explore the complexities of identity through literature and visual art. Writer Daniel Tam-Claiborne will share insights from his debut novel Transplants, a cross-generational story following two women’s parallel journeys of self-discovery across borders. Japanese artist Naomi Okubo, known for her psychologically charged paintings examining themes of identity, beauty, and self-concealment, will speak about the personal narratives embedded in her practice.
In conversation with a moderator the two artists will reflect on cultural displacement, personal reinvention, and the many ways identity is constructed, masked, and revealed. This will be filmed and recorded for online promotions. The evening will include a guided walkthrough of the exhibition led by Lu Solano, curator of Okubo’s solo exhibition Resonance on a Surface at Fou Gallery.
Transplants: A harrowing and poignant novel following two young women in pursuit of kinship and self-discovery who yearn to survive in a world that doesn’t know where either of them belong. On a university campus in rural Qixian, Lin and Liz make an improbable pair: Lin, a Chinese student closer to her menagerie of pets than to her peers, and Liz, a Chinese American teacher grieving her mother’s sudden death. They’re each met with hostility—Lin by her classmates, who mock her for dating a white foreigner; Liz by her fellow English teachers, who exploit their privilege—and forge an unlikely friendship. After a startling betrayal that results in Lin’s expulsion, they swap places. Lin becomes convinced to pursue her degree at a community college near Liz’s Ohio hometown, while Liz searches for answers as to what drove her parents to leave China before she was born. But when a global catastrophe deepens the fissures between modern-day China and an increasingly fractured United States, Lin and Liz—far from home and estranged from themselves—are forced to confront both the familiar and the strange in each other.
Resonance on a Surface: The solo exhibition by Japanese artist Naomi Okubo continues Okubo’s exploration of home, intimacy, solitude, and escapism through intricately composed visuals. Okubo’s practice explores alternative ways of living that slow down the pace of global culture. Okubo’s process begins with digital collages that incorporate photography, drawing, and found imagery. Drawing from architecture, interior design, fashion, and art history to textiles, scientific diagrams, and decorative patterns, she constructs richly layered compositions that blend elements of Japanese culture with Western motifs.
*This event is made possible by the generous support of Teasthetic and AccentSisters.
Writer: Daniel Tam-Claiborne is a multiracial author, multimedia producer, and nonprofit director. He serves as Deputy Director at The Serica Initiative as well as a producer for two public media initiatives at WNET, America’s flagship PBS station. His debut novel, Transplants (Simon & Schuster, 2025), was a finalist for the 2023 PEN/Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction. Fluent in Mandarin Chinese, Daniel has spent over five years living and working in Greater China and is an outspoken advocate for Asian American issues and increased global understanding through education, cultural exchange, storytelling, and effective philanthropy. He holds degrees from Oberlin College, Yale University, and the MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College.
Artist: Naomi Okubo
Curator: Lu Solano