By Matthew Wexler
Las Vegas has plenty of art to be discovered throughout its hotels and casinos, and an increasing number of immersive spaces like Meow Wolf’s Omega Mart (grocery shopping will never be the same). But the city’s only art museum, the Marjorie Barrick Museum of Art, located on the UNLV campus, is worth the trip—especially to see its current exhibition, “Living Here.”
Curated by Deanne Sole and created in consultation with Dr. Constancio Arnaldo, Jean Munson, and Dr. Mark Padoongpatt, the exhibit gathers 26 artists from East and Southeast Asia diasporas for a multifaceted show that refuses to view Asian cultures as a monolith.
“We are deemed foreign, alien, unassimilable, and a ‘model’ American all at once,” writes Padoongpatt. “We navigate, resist, and transform these forces everyday, in the everyday. This is what it means to be living here.”
1 Minute Critic explored the exhibit with the museum’s executive director, Alisha Kerlin. Here are three of our favorite finds:
‘11,111’ by Emmanuel David and Yumi Janairo Roth
The artists, inspired by a group of Filipino performers who joined Buffalo Bill’s Wild West touring show in the late 19th century, have developed several projects to preserve their memory. This particular part of the series was created in Manila, in collaboration with jeepney sign painters, to commemorate all the cities the Rough Riders traveled through in 1899, the first year of the Philippine-American War.
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‘Anh Ly (Grandmother)’ by Phung Huynh
Artist Phung Huynh uses graphite on pink donut boxes to document the experiences of Southeast Asian refugees —why? Cambodian immigrants began opening shops in the 1970s (thanks in large part to donut entrepreneur Ted Ngoy). Today, nearly 80% of California donut shops are owned by Asian Americans. In Living Here, Huyngh portrays her grandparents and older brother, and hopes the series will remind others “where they come from.”
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‘Bowl’ by Ian Racoma
Artists Ian Racoma spent his childhood moving between the U.S. and his grandparents’ home in the Philippines. As is often the case with first- and second-generation Americans, he found himself code-switching between cultures, saying, “A lot of the challenge growing up was navigating these two worlds and learning where and when to use a certain cultural language.” This painting nods to the common bowl haircut popular when Racoma was growing up.
Living Here is on display at the Marjorie Barrick Museum of Art through December 20, 2025.
