Annual Asia North art exhibition kicks off in Baltimore during Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month

The seventh annual Asia North Exhibition & Festival begins Friday, May 2, in Baltimore's Station North Arts District during Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. 

The main event is the exhibition, called "EXCEEDS EXPECTATIONS." It takes over more than 15,000 square feet of space in the Historic North Avenue Market and Motor House along W. North Avenue. 

The exhibit features artwork from 25 APIMEDA (Asian Pacific Islander, Middle Eastern, and Desi-American) artists from the Baltimore region and the DMV. 

The artist's work is on display in buildings throughout Station North, including Currency Studio, Club Car and Motor House. 

Nerissa Paglinauan is the program manager with the Asian Arts & Culture Center at Towson University. The center, along with the Central Baltimore Partnership, puts on the Asia North exhibition. 

"You'll see artwork installed in unexpected places, it's not really not necessarily your traditional gallery setting, it's great to see art alive in the spaces you're already in," Paglinauan said. 

Each year, the event is held in Station North, which was once home to Baltimore's unofficial Koreatown. Researchers at Towson's Asian Arts & Culture Center have been collecting this history as part of the center's Greater Baltimore Asian Community History Project. 

"We don't want that history to get erased and a lot of the Korean restaurants have been closing so one thing that we want to do is really support all of the businesses and artists who are trying to make this a vibrant community gathering space and a vibrant arts and culture center," said Paglinauan.

Baltimore-based Taiwanese American artist Phaan Howng guest curated the exhibition and said she wants to bring the energy back. 

"I really want to make it very official for Koreatown and really bringing that community together and giving us a sense of place," Howng said. 

She wanted the exhibition to show off what Baltimore is best known for, its edgier side, by transforming empty spaces into cool experiences. 

The EXCEEDS EXPECTATIONS exhibit lives up to its name. It features artwork in unexpected spaces, unlike a traditional gallery. 

Contemporary artist Kei Ito's piece, Penumbra's Skin, can be found in the back of one of the spaces used for the exhibition at 16 W. North Avenue. 

Guests are supposed to view the artwork from the doorway. Peering inside, you see a large, dark industrial room. A light at the center of the room spins and illuminates objects that are scattered around. In front of the light is a slab of Uranium glass, which creates a green hue as the light touches the items. 

"That connected to my background as my grandfather was in Hiroshima when the bomb exploded," Ito said. "He survived the bombing, but died from cancer when I was nine, and within that idea of inherited nuclear trauma, a lot of my artwork has to do with this idea."

Ito likes to use the space he's working with when he creates art, so he incorporated many of the items already in the room in his piece. 

His practice is all about connecting historical events, like Hiroshima and Chernobyl, to today. 

"When you think about it, all of these dots can be connected to lead to where we are, and what I want people to see is beyond that," Ito said. "Acknowledging what's behind us and what was before, learn from it and use it as a case to study the future, to build a better future."

Asia North 2025 runs from May 2 to May 31. Find more information HERE.