Artist Information

Emily Hanako Momohara
Emily Hanako Momohara was born in Seattle, Washington where she grew up in a mixed-race family. Her work centers around issues of heritage, multiculturalism, immigration, and social justice. Momohara has exhibited nationally, most notably at the Japanese American National Museum in a two-person show titled Sugar/Islands. She has been a visiting artist at several residency programs including the Center for Photography at Woodstock, Headlands Center for the Arts, Fine Arts Work Center, and Red Gate Gallery Beijing. In 2015, her work was included in the Chongqing Photography and Video Biennial. Momohara has created socially driven billboards for For Freedom and United Photo Industries. She lives and works in Cincinnati where she is Professor of Art at the Art Academy of Cincinnati and heads the photography major.
(https://www.ehmomohara.com/)

Eunhwa Lee
Born in South Korea, pianist Eunhwa Lee indulges her musical wanderlust with an itinerary that is constantly challenging and fresh. She has been a top prize winner of numerous competitions and appeared at the Kennedy Center, Carnegie Hall, and Chicago Symphony Hall. Lee collaborates with various artists and her drive to support composers has led Lee to give frequent premieres of new works. Eunhwa Lee holds degrees from Seoul National University (BM, MM) and Indiana University (PD) with multiple scholarships for distinguished musicians. She is currently a doctoral candidate under James Tocco at College-Conservatory of Music, University of Cincinnati. Residing in Cincinnati, she happily tinkers in the kitchen whenever at home, feeding friends all her experiments.
(https://www.eunhwalee.com/)

Eunshin Khang
Eunshin Khang studied art in South Korea and in the United States. After earning MFA from the University of Cincinnati, she taught art at Miami University for ten years. She paints both realistic and conceptual works. She believes throughout our journey in life, we live with endless dialogues: dialogues with family, friends, loved ones, within our hearts, consciously and subconsciously. Through these dialogues Khang gets inspiration to express her feelings of happiness, hope, memories, yearnings and so on. She thinks “hope” is an expectation that brings us sustaining power to survive, grow and live on. She utilizes the inherent quality of calligraphic brushstrokes and light to express “hope”. Blending light into calligraphic strokes, she provides the meeting point of her Asian heritage and the Western culture.
Her works have been shown throughout the United States as well as in South Korea. In 1988, she was a recipient of the Individual Artists Fellowship in Visual Arts from the Ohio Arts Council. Also in 1987-1988, her painting was selected as part of the Governor’s Residence Art Collection. She received the Best of Show award at the Tri-State Small Drawing Show at the Art Academy of Cincinnati in 1985; Honorable Mention at the 32nd TAG annual, Warren, Ohio in 1989; The Best of Show Award at the 1991 Women’s Art Expo, Columbus, Ohio in 1989; Merit Award at the 13th Annual Miniature Juried Art Show, Colorado Springs, Colorado in 1994; First Prize Award at the Asian American Art Exhibit, Findlay, Ohio, curated by Jessica Hong, the curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at Toledo Museum of Art in 2021.
(https://www.facebook.com/eunshin.khang.3/?locale=sw_KE)

Jacob Zhou
Jacob Zhou serves as Adjunct Professor in Voice at Xavier University Music and Theater Department. He is former Assistant Professor in Voice at Beijing Dance Academy Musical Theater Department. Mr. Zhou is finishing his Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Voice and a cognate in Choral Conducting at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (CCM). The Conservatory appointed Mr. Zhou to teach undergrad and graduate levels of Applied Voice for Non-Majors at CCM. The research project Mr. Zhou led won Ethics in Action Award granted by the University of Cincinnati Office of Research and was featured on UC's main website, UC’s official social media, and on Operawire.com. Mr. Zhou has performed with many opera companies and symphonies, which include Cincinnati Opera, Opera San Jose, Sarasota Opera, Queen City Opera, Nickel City Opera, Kentucky Symphony Orchestra, CCM Philharmonic, and Lebanon Symphony Orchestra. The productions Mr. Zhou was in have been featured by NPR, the Wall Street Journal, the Playbill, Broadwayworld.com, Operawire.com, and many other American mainstream media. Mr. Zhou has sung Prince Yamadori in the Cincinnati Opera's production of Madama Butterfly.
(https://www.xavier.edu/music-program/directory/jacob-zhou 

JeeEun Lee
JeeEun Lee was trained as a ceramicist in South Korea. She came to the U.S. to pursue her MFA degree in ceramics. She is currently the ceramics professor at Northern Kentucky University. In recent years, she has been focusing on using ceramic sculpture to explore how nature influences her sense of self. In her current practice, water and mountains are the elements of nature that inspire her work. Water evokes thoughts of time and memory and inspires the artist to project her creative spirit into her work. Mountains and water offer limitless possibilities for the artist to communicate with nature through her work. Meditation is an important tool in Lee’s work. Through meditation, she nourishes her spirit and identity and express her feelings in the work. Lee feels the purpose of her work is to express the importance of a spiritual sense of self-realized in relationship to nature and share this idea with the viewer. (https://www.jeeeunlee.com/)

John Lanzador
As an immigrant from the Philippines, John Lanzador is always seeking a different approach to western art. Growing up on the outskirts of Manila, he was surrounded by wooden handicrafts by local artisans. The carvings in this exhibit bridge the many disciplines that he has studied. Disciplines like woodcarving, printmaking and painting have been part of the artist’s work for over 30 years. The images are of Asian animals that John feels represent parts of his personality.
(https://johnlanzador.wixsite.com/artstuff)

N. John Tsuchiya
Senior Designer John Tsuchiya has over 25 years of experience in providing viable design solutions and managing projects for commercial, athletic, recreational, hospitality, healthcare, and educational facilities. A graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Mr. Tsuchiya’s degree in Art and Design as well as a minor in Civil Engineering make him an asset to the design team with his wealth of knowledge in these fields.

Joomi Chung
Joomi Chung is a Korean-American artist based in Oxford, Ohio where she is currently an Associate Professor of Art at Miami University. Her work has been exhibited at national and international venues including Alice F. and Harris K. Weston Art Gallery in the Aronoff Center for the Arts, Cincinnati, OH; Urban Arts Space, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH; Urban Institute of Contemporary Art, Grand Rapids, MI; Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO; Seoul Art Center at Hangaram Museum and SOMA Drawing Center, Seoul, South Korea; and the University of West Bohemia, Pilsen, Czech Republic among others.
(https://www.joomichung.net)

Karl Feng
Karl Feng is a native of Taiwan. He studied traditional ink painting and watercolor techniques for many years in Taiwan. After immigrating to the United States, he began to incorporate western techniques and ideas to his works. Feng has been painting professionally more than thirty years. His primary media is ink and colors on paper or silk. His favorite subjects include birds, flowers, animals, and landscape. His works reflect the artist’s respect for natural beauty and passion for wildlife. Turning to nature as a source of ideas, his painting is realistic in content, yet reflect the joy and beauty of nature. His work has been exhibited at art galleries and art shows throughout the tristate area. He has received many awards for his excellent work.

Ming Ke
Ming Ke, an acclaimed Pipa virtuoso, has mesmerized audiences around the world as a soloist with leading orchestras in China, Japan, Spain, and the United States since her debut in 1985. Her performances have been hailed by the Cincinnati Enquirer as graceful and expressive. Ming Ke is an accomplished interpreter of both traditional and contemporary music for the four-stringed Chinese chordophone, the Pipa, whose history dates back to ca. 200 B.C. In 1993, Ming Ke relocated to the United States with her family. Since then, she has appeared as a soloist and orchestral performer in festivals, universities, performing arts centers, and Chinese gatherings across the country from Arizona to New York. Her performances in Cincinnati have included numerous solo concerts and collaborations with the Cincinnati Symphony, Pops, and Chamber Orchestras under the batons of Erich Kunzel, John Morris Russell, and Jingdong Cai. Recently, Ming Ke has been exploring digital music collaboration with digital music master composer Yi Qun. Using the "Human-Machine Integration" method, Ming Ke has combined Pipa solos with cutting-edge music technology, giving new life to traditional Pipa usic. On January 31, 2023, Ming Ke performed the Star-Spangled Banner to open a Chicago Bulls versus Los Angeles Clippers NBA game in front of over 20,000 people.
(https://mingkemusic.squarespace.com/)

Priya Rama
Priya Rama's art is born from her chronic migraines. When one begins, along with the pain and pressure, colors and shapes appear in her mind's eye. These get transformed into hyperchromatic paintings of identity, resilience, and tenacity. An abstract expressionist, her paintings highlight a spontaneous, intuitive, and personal mark-making, with rich color and palpable texture. Her paintings especially explore dualities-- of pain/beauty, emphatic color/delicate brush lines, rich details/quiet resting spots, spontaneity/deliberate placement, translucency/opacity, and contemplation/assertion. Priya Rama thinks of her paintings as self-portraits, because as she says, "My art is part of me, and I am part of my art". She adds, “My paintings emerge from within. They are part of an ongoing conversation with myself that I have had since my childhood. Priya Rama's works often feature reference points from her cultural background and upbringing: dots and circles from Tamil 'kolam', vibrant colors of cultural and physical surroundings, motifs of traditional fabrics, and layers of the past intertwining with the present. The artist’s paintings can be found in private and corporate collections around the country. She has also been interviewed for multiple print and online publications, as well as regional and national media including an interview for CBS’ ‘Sunday Morning with Jane Pauley”.
(https://www.priyarama.com/)

Radha Lakshmi
Lakshmi was born and raised in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. Her professional artistic career has spanned many creative directions. She uses a variety of mediums, including etching, screen printing, painting, and ephemeral materials. Her art is inspired by her Southern Indian heritage and her passion for storytelling. She creates vibrant mandala art that's ephemeral and on paper that celebrates the beauty of sacred spaces. She practices the art of Kolam/Mandala, a ritual and meditative art form passed down through her women ancestors for generations. It is a ritualistic form of drawing used to create intricate patterns and designs on the floor or walls of a home. They are hand-drawn or stenciled with rice flour, colored sand, and petals of flowers. The mandalas are believed to bring good luck and prosperity to the home. The Mandala, a Sanskrit word for circle or completion, has a long history and is recognized for its deep abstract spiritual meaning and representation of wholeness. Lakshmi has been creating art for over 30 years. Her artworks have won several awards and are in museums and gallery collections worldwide. Her works can be viewed locally at the Cincinnati Children's Hospital Proton Therapy Center and Cancer and Blood Diseases Institute. She is a passionate advocate for the arts and has dedicated countless hours to helping bring art to the people in her community. She has been a visiting Scholar at Rhode Island School of Design (Rhode Island), Darwin University (Australia), and The College of Fine Arts, Sydney (Australia) and Bloomington, IN.
(https://www.radartist.com/)

Setsuko LeCroix
Setsuko LeCroix is a native of Kyoto, Japan. She moved to Cincinnati in 1982 and later lived in Caracas, Venezuela, and Kobe, Japan. In 1993, during her time in Kobe, the artist began studying traditional Japanese ink painting (sumi-e). After returning to Cincinnati in 1999, she continued painting sumi-e. In 2009, after spending nearly fifteen years working on Japanese art, LeCroix began studying Western art under the direction of a Cincinnati based artist David Mueller. Currently, LeCroix creates graphite portraits for commission and working on oil paintings of a variety of subjects. With her roots in the Japanese sumi-e tradition, the artist is equally at home in Western techniques. She moves fluently between traditional ink painting and western style painting techniques. "It's like cooking a Japanese dish one day and a French one the next. They are both delicious in their own way.", she said. The artist has participated in numerous juried art competitions both in the US and Japan and received many awards throughout her career.
(http://www.lecroixfineart.com/)

Sirui Liu
Born in Shanghai, China, Sirui Liu started her dance training with the Shanghai Dance School in the year 2000. After 7 years of training, she continued her studies at the Shanghai Dance College of Shanghai Theater Academy for four years. In 2011 Liu started her professional career in the United States with the Cincinnati Ballet as a Corp de Ballet member. She was promoted to Principal with the company in 2017. In 2009 Liu won the gold medal in the senior division at the Ninth Taolibei National Dance Competition in China. She also won the gold medal in the senior division at the Beijing International Ballet Competition in China in 2010. Sirui was included in Dance Magazine’s Top 25 Dancers to Watch in 2017. In 2011 Liu was invited to dance in the Hong Kong Ballet’s production of Swan Lake. In 2016 She got invited to dance in the Gala “Night of Ballet” in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. Liu was a Guest Principal with the Los Angeles Ballet’s production of Bloom in 2022. She has danced several Pas de Deux including Black Swan, Don Quixote, Esmeralda, Diana and Acteon, Le Corsaire, Paquita, and Coppelia. Liu has performed principal roles such as Odette and Odile in Swan Lake, Sugar Plum Fairy and Snow Queen in Nutcracker, Lilac Fairy in Sleeping Beauty, Waltz girl in Balanchine’s Serenade, Tall girl in Balanchine’s Rubies, Cinderella in Cinderella, The Chosen One in Rite of Spring, Pas couple in Minus 16, amongst other ballets. Ms. Liu has also worked with internationally acclaimed choreographers such as Annabelle Lope Ochoa, Helen Pickett, Val Caniparoli, Yuri Possokhov, Kirk Peterson, Nicolo Fonte, Garrett Smith, Justin Peck, Alejandro Cerrudo, Septime Webre, Trey Mcintyre, Ohad Naharin, Jennifer Archibald, Edward Liang, Ma Cong, Travis Wall, etc.  
(https://cballet.org/dancers/sirui-liu/)

Tom Tsuchiya
Tom Tsuchiya is a prominent Cincinnati based artist who creates public sculptures and bronze portraits. He is best known for his bronze sculptures for Major League Baseball and the National Football League, including life-size bronze sculptures of Cincinnati Reds players at Great American Ball Park. He designed bronze trophies such as the Madden Most Valuable Protectors Award to honor the NFL's best offensive line. His design integrating figures of the players into the trophy's base is viewed as a departure from the traditional award design. In addition to portrait and public sculptures, Tsuchiya created sustainable art sculptures such as the 2010 work Atlas Recycled which doubles as a recycling container for aluminum cans and plastic bottles. The seven feet tall sculpture, made mainly from reused materials including used atlases and road maps, depicts the mythical Greek Titan Atlas bearing the earth on his shoulders. To celebrate Earth Day, Atlas has been exhibited in Cincinnati's Fountain Square, New York City's Grand Central Terminal and Washington D.C.'s National Mall. Tsuchiya also creates religious work. In 2012, he completed Lux Mundi, a 52 feet tall statue of Jesus for Solid Rock Church in Monroe, Ohio. This work replaces the statue of Jesus that was destroyed by a lightning strike in June 2010.
(http://www.tomtsuchiya.com/)

Yu Ling Huang
Yu Ling Huang came to the U.S. for graduate studies in Asian Art history in 1991. She is currently teaching Asian art history at Northern Kentucky University. She has taught art history at several institutions and has served in various curatorial positions at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, the Birmingham Museum of Art, and the Dayton Art Institute. Huang has been painting professionally for more than a decade. Oil on canvas is the artists’ primary media. Her work has been exhibited throughout the Midwest. Huang focuses on issues of gender, immigrant experiences, political and social justice, and colonialism. The artist chose portraiture and figurative forms in the styles of realism and magical realism to offer a critical view to examine the contemporary society and culture she lives in.(http://www.yuhuangart.com/)