Art of the Guardians Panel Talk at AAMG Virtual Convening

Jevijoe Vitug and I as Aban-guard along with poet Louisa Lam were part of Art of the Guardians presentation by Lambert Fernando and panel discussion for the 2023 Association of Academic Museums and Galleries Virtual Convening. Lambert’s presentation topic was about the art of Security Officers at the Met and their profound relationship they have formed with the collection, their experiences during the COVID 19 pandemic, and the art that they created during the lockdown. The art was later exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC in a exhibition titled: Art Work: Artists working at the Met, which opened for the first time to the public and was very well received garnering international press coverage including NBC Nightly News, Aljazeera TV and German ARD TV. I discussed how museum guards and staff can be a vital collaborative and educational resource in connecting with communities by sharing Abang-guard’s projects and our translations of museum spaces and objects.

Quiet Before - The Brown Vanguard

Quiet Before is a series of panels co-ordinated by Nancy Bulalacao that examines anti-Asian violence by “capturing history through conversation.” Recently the series featured artist Lambert Fernando, poet Louisa Lam, and Abang-guard (with me and Jevijoe Vitug) as we talk about our groundbreaking work inspired by being museum art guards and the community we have built along the way.

Featured in The Met Museum's Perspectives

An edited transcript of Abang-guard’s performative talk on Asian American Modernism accompanied by recordings of Louisa Lam’s poems is featured in The Met Museum’s Perspectives.

Artists on Artworks at The Met : Abang-guard

Thrilled that Jevijoe Vitug and I as Abang-guard will be doing a performative lecture at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. We will be discussing works by four Asian American artists in the museum’s collection specifically Bumpei Usui, Yasuo Kuniyoshi, Isamu Noguchi, and Martin Wong as well as creating a cross-dialogue through movement to poems by writer Louisa Lam.