About the Artist

Asia's journey into cultural work began in the environmental non-profit sector where they developed culturally relevant environmental education for BIPOC youth. And from the time of their own youth, Asia often used photography and poetry to capture their perspective of the world and environment around them. Understanding that their work in the community, environmental justice, and the arts are not mutually exclusive, they designed bilingual chronic and mental health education materials for Iu Mien seniors and their families of South Sacramento, and worked with Iu Mien farmers in Sacramento, Yolo, & Solano Counties as a community educator to create visual tools for accessible sustainable agriculture education that centered the growers' cultural knowledge and experiences. 

As a descendent of a long line of oral tradition, Asia's work is guided by the belief that reclaiming + archiving community/individual (counter)narratives and histories are an essential part of healing and intergenerational exchange of knowledge, and that the arts and visual mediums are accessible and vital tools that can be used to achieve that. This led them to co-found the Cold Rice Collaborative (CRC) in 2021. By reflecting on and contextualizing their own diasporic experiences through their art, Asia aims to transform and reclaim Khmu & Iu Mien ways of knowing and learning. In, 2023, they received an Honorable Mention Award in still life from Teravarna Art Gallery for their project Divinity. They also had the honor of winning first place in Asian Law Alliance's Preserving Heritage Photojournalism Competition with their project Sieqv/dorn - An Iu Mien AFAB Family Legacy.  Most recently (2024), they co-developed and led the Cold Rice Creative Cohort project through the CRC as a Lead Artist in producing a cultural storymap, artist catalog + editorial, and the Homecoming: Visions of Home, Safety, and Belonging art exhibition. 

When Asia's not making art, they're training to be a land steward and farmer/grower, embodying their ancestors' land-based traditions and grounding in local/global food, social, and political movements.