Vo is a radical educator of 13 years in over 20 countries in racial justice, intercultural communication, trauma-informed care, de-escalation and transformative justice. They have trained staff from over 300 organizations in OR and WA since immigrating to the US in 2014. Editor of an internationally renowned publication, speaker, curator, artist and musician who has exhibited and toured in Australia, Germany, Indonesia, The Netherlands, Singapore, Croatia, Mexico, Finland, Denmark, New Zealand, Vietnam, Sweden, Malaysia, and the States. Local festival organizer. One of the festivals they curate is IntersectFest: A Festival For and By People Of Color – now in it’s 8th year. It has featured over 200 Black, Indigenous, and POC artists, including dancers, poets, filmmakers, curators, visual artists and more. It also creates space to discuss radical political approaches to community organizing and artistic practice. In their visual art, they primarily work in textiles, embroidery, weaving, and furniture building. Their installations seek to interrogate power dynamics, structural oppression, challenge histories and realities of imperialism, white supremacy and colonization. They continue to explore support strategies and models of community care within a post-traumatic social landscape, focusing on the resilience of BIPOC, LGBTQIA2S+ and disabled communities.
WORK:
Weaving Data, Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, Portland (audio recording, weaving, cotton, wool), January 24 - April 29 2023
Artist Talk, Portland State University, May 17 2022, view it here
Hope is a long game, foyer, The Nick Fish Apartments, Portland (weaving, wool, 22 ft x 3.5 ft), Winter 2022
Radio Interview, Art Talk Bus Stop, KBOO.FM, 11am-12pm Nov 24 2021
Provisional Structures: Carmen Papalia with Vo Vo and jes sachse, MacKenzie Art Gallery, Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada, July 7 - Oct 17 2021. More info here
Artist Talk, Why We Make Our Own, Oct 14 2021, register here
Artist Talk, TextileX Conversation Series: Portland Textile Month, 6:30PM PST Oct 20 2021, event link here
Praxis Artist Residency, Cleveland OH, October 2021
Prototypes, Converge 45’s Portland’s Monuments & Memorials Project (PMMP), Portland, OR, Aug 25 - Oct 9 2021.
Artist installation, Lose Your Mind Festival, Portland, OR, September 17-19 2021
Exterior Artist Installation, Dundee Lodge Campout, Mississippi Records, Dundee, Aug 21 2021
Artforum, Critics' Picks, View it here
Solo exhibition, Things That Have To Do With Fire, Fuller Rosen Gallery, Portland, OR, February 18, 2021 - April 1, 2021
Artist talk, Things That Have To Do With Fire, March 13, 5-6pm 2021. View it here
Interview, Willamette Week, Like Their Art, Artist Vo Vo's Workspace is Informed by Their Life Experiences and Anarchist Philosophy, Feb 2021
Album: Abolition Annihilation, online - Spotify, iTunes, Youtube, January 2021
Presenter, As We Are: Disability Justice and Community Care Conference, online, December 5-6, 2020
System Failure. Please Restart. CETI Gallery of the Future. Online. October 23, 2020 – December 23, 2020
Caring Package exhibition, East Portland Art and Literature Festival, November 2020
IntersectFest VI: A Festival For and By Artists of Color, curator, Portland, OR, November 21 2020
Grant, Re:Imagine Sustainability Grant, Portland Art Museum and Northwest Film Center, November 2020
HUHHH film in Festy Films Film Festival, Sydney, Australia, October 31 2020
Unfolding* exhibition, Portland Textile Month, Urbanite PDX, October 12 - Nov 13 2020
Honorable Mention for Bill of Post Truths in New Directions 2020: 36th Annual National Juried Exhibition of Contemporary Art, Barrett Art Center, Poughkeepsie, New York, October 10 – Nov 14, 2020
Emerging Artists Residency, Centrum Arts, Port Townsend, WA, October 1-31 2020
Worn Memoirs online archive (curator), Portland Textile Month, October 2020
Book, Trauma X: Holding Space Radically. 106 pages, in full color. September 2020
'Occupy/Refuge' installation in 404 Error Not Found, Pacific Northwest College of Art, Aug 17 - Sept 5 2020
Solo exhibition, Settle, Settler, Chehalem Cultural Center, Newberg, OR, August 1 - September 1 2020
Workshop: Anti-Racist Trauma Informed Care, August 23, 2-4pm. Zoom.
An Artistic Smorgasboard at Chehalem Cultural Center, Oregon Artswatch, August 11 2020
Musical score for film, Bitten, A Tragedy, July 2020
Four Generations, Tiny Thumb Gallery, Portland, OR, March 1-July 31 2020
Congress Yard Projects exhibition, June 11-14 2020
Interview, We Want The Airwaves: Queer and Trans Artists of Color podcast, May 2020
Interview, Them Magazine, Conde Nast, I’m Building Counter-Narratives: LGBTQ+ Asian Americans on How They’re Processing Racism During Coronavirus, May 2020.
Felt Deeply: Textiles and Immigration (curator), Gallery 157, Portland, OR, February 3-28 2020
Interview, Bandcamp Feature, New Dark Protest Folk Draws on Old Traditions, January 2020
IntersectFest V: For and By Artists of Color (curator), North Portland, December 14-15 2019
Panoply, Performance Works NW, November 15-16 2019
Designer at SH/FT Fashion Show, for Right Brain Initiative, October 2019
Caldera Arts, Artist Residency, October 2019
Performance ‘Workshop Workshop’, Say When Performance Festival , June 2019
Not Welcome (curator), Center for Contemporary Art and Culture, May 6-17 2019
IntersectFest IV: For and By Artists of Color (curator), Portland Institute for Contemporary Art, October 2018
Scarlet Tongue Artist Residency and Performances, Mexico City, September 2018
Hướng nước, Portland Children’s Museum, February 10-May 1 2018
Solo exhibition: Anna Vo, illustrations. The Know, July 2018
IntersectFest III: For and By Artists of Color (curator), Ford Building and Unite Oregon, December 2017
Outside The Lines exhibition, White Gallery, September 2017
IntersectFest II: For and By Artists of Color (curator), P:EAR, September 2016
IntersectFest I: For and By Artists of Color (curator), North Portland, October 2015
Work available for purchase here.
