Eternal Living Room

Eternal Living Room
Group Exhibition

Huilin Gui
Jinghong Chen
Lu Zhang
Xinmei Liu
Yao Xiao

March 1st - May 3rd, 2025
Opening Reception: Saturday March 1st, 7-9pm
Land To Sea
402 Graham Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11211

Nostalgia is not just about indulging in the past. For five artists, nostalgia is a driving force that illuminates the fragile temporality of the present moment. Depicting scenes distilled from memory, the artwork draw on an awareness of the imprecise remixing of the original source, a reminder that everyday moments may become especially precious when recalled later.

The complex impact of the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in a state of exile for these five diaspora artists, who were not able to return to their home countries for years. The prolonged separation from families created a sense of departure from a life that once felt connected. The artists gravitated towards recreating memories through their work, creating a familiar space amidst an increasing sense of alienation. Haunting the center of this gravitational pull is the memory of a living space, filled with accumulated evidence of life shared by generations.

Through an explosion of mediums — watercolor, collage, cyanotype, cut paper, woodblock print, and oil painting, the artists explore what it means to dream of this space. They question the linear flow of time, push the boundaries between past and present, illusion and truth. A record of ephemeral places and times, they reach for a sense of shared space — an Eternal Living Room —between Asian American diaspora artists, a deep longing that unites the past, present and future generations. By making work about memories, grief, and dreams, the artists weave a future defined by togetherness, agency, and belonging.