MONTEREY, CA.- With its mission to celebrate the diversity of California art past, present and future, the Monterey Museum of Art’s (MMA) fall 2024 exhibition season presents Imagining China: The Art of Belle Yang and Joseph Yang, on view from September 12 – November 24, 2024. The first cultural institution to exhibit Belle Yang and her father Joseph Yang’s work in a creative conversation, the Museum today also announces that Ms. Yang has promised a significant number of her own works, as well as her father’s works to MMA’s permanent collection (currently on long term loan); and has pledged substantial support to create an endowment for catalogue production. Belle Yang shares, “Joseph Yang was my mentor throughout his life, and even now from the afterlife. For both of us, creativity is the reason we are on this Earth, and I feel a lightening of a load to know that our art will remain together as a legacy to inspire others.”

Imagining China presents a visual journey of what it means to be “100% Chinese and 100% American” as Belle has described herself. Belle Yang’s many artistic influences include growing up as a first-generation American, studying pre-med locally at UC-Santa Cruz before finishing at ArtCenter College of Design in Southern California, becoming a successful graphic novelist, and finally, studying classical Chinese painting in China. Curated by Oakland-based artist and scholar, Lydia Nakashima Degarrod, Imagining China uncovers how Belle and her father Joseph, also an accomplished artist, found solace, resilience, and ultimately joy and deep satisfaction in creating art together.

The catalogue for Imagining China offers an interview with Belle Yang conducted by Lydia Nakashima Degarrod, a deeply personal essay by Belle Yang, and a foreword by MMA Executive Director Corey Madden. The catalogue will be available for purchase during the fall season and will be distributed to museums and schools across California.

MMA Executive Director Corey Madden, notes, “Belle’s generous pledge to MMA will help us continue being responsible stewards of remarkable California art. It will help support the Museum’s capacity to study and share stories of the diversity of California artists with the wider public.” In addition, MMA is grateful to Lila and James Thorsen for their generous support of this exhibition as well as Steve Hauk for his gift in support of the catalogue of Imagining China.