Upcoming Exhibitions
Intergenerational Dialogues: Asian American and Asian Diaspora Women Artists in Sacramento
Curated by: Yipaer Aierken, PhD
Artists: Rey Jeong, Jennifer Kim Sohn, Jennifer Lugris
Robert Else Gallery (Kadema Hall)
California State University, Sacramento
Exhibition Dates: September 8 to October 2, 2026
Artist Talks and Panel Discussion: September 10th from 4- 5 PM, with the reception to follow
Gallery Hours: Tuesday - Friday, Noon - 4 PM
Parking Structure I (PSI), II (PSII) or III (PSIII) : $ 10 for a full day or $5 for two hours
PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Can Diaspora Be More Than One Homeland? Jennifer Lugris Reimagines Identity for a Mixed Generation
SACRAMENTO, CA – August 3, 2026 – As Americans become increasingly multiethnic and multinational, how do we describe identities shaped not by one migration, but by many?
Sacramento artist Jennifer Lugris explores this question in Intergenerational Dialogues: Asian American and Asian Diaspora Women Artists in Sacramento, on view at Else Gallery at California State University, Sacramento from September 8th to October 2nd. Curated by Yipaer Aierken, PhD, the exhibition features artists Rey Jeong, Jennifer Kim Sohn, and Jennifer Lugris, whose work examines memory, migration, and Asian diasporic experiences across generations.
Lugris presents paintings from her ongoing body of work, An American Wedding, a series that expands traditional conversations around diaspora by exploring identities formed through multiple migrations, cultures, and family histories. As the granddaughter of North Korean and Franco-Spanish refugees and the daughter of parents who fled dictatorships in Uruguay (her father) and Argentina (her Korean-born mother) before building a life in the United States, Lugris inherited a history that cannot be traced to a single place or culture. Her work asks what belonging looks like when identity emerges from several homelands at once.
“For generations, diaspora has often been understood as the relationship between one homeland and one adopted country,” Lugris says. “But many people today inherit multiple migrations, languages, and cultural histories. My paintings ask how we might imagine diaspora differently, making space for identities that don't fit neatly into a single narrative.”
Lugris transforms archival family wedding photographs into vibrant, layered paintings where blocks of realism and patterned abstraction symbolize the convergence of multiple histories, migrations, and cultures. “By painting from my parents' wedding photographs, I return to the moment when generations of migration converged into a single family,” Lugris shares. The images commemorate the union of her Uruguayan father, whose family traces its roots to Spain, and her Korean mother, whose family fled North Korea before eventually immigrating to Argentina. As Lugris explains, “These photographs symbolize the beginning of a distinctly American story, one shaped by displacement, resilience, cultural exchange, and the blending of identities rather than a single heritage.” Each wedding image is broken apart and rebuilt, echoing the ways memory and identity are continually reconstructed across generations. She often abandons traditional brushes in favor of sneakers, Brillo pads, and Q-Tips, using unconventional tools to stamp, scrape, and press paint into richly textured surfaces. The resulting works reject singular narratives in favor of multiplicity, complexity, and reinvention.
While rooted in one family's history, An American Wedding reflects a broader cultural shift. As mixed identities become increasingly common, Lugris proposes a more expansive understanding of diaspora, one that recognizes the overlapping histories, ancestries, and migrations that shape contemporary American life. Rather than centering displacement alone, her paintings reframe inherited histories through resilience, joy, and the extraordinary possibilities that emerge when cultures converge.
The exhibition will be accompanied by public programs, including an artist talk and panel discussion on September 10th from 4- 5 PM exploring contemporary understandings of diaspora, mixed identity, and belonging.
About the Artist Jennifer Lugris is a multidisciplinary artist whose paintings examine migration, memory, and the evolving nature of American identity. Her work has been supported by the National Endowment for the Arts, the California Arts Council, the City of Sacramento, and Wexford Science & Technology. She has presented solo exhibitions at the Richmond Art Center, Los Medanos College, Merced College, and Verge Center for the Arts, and her work is held in the permanent collections of the Hawaii State Foundation on Culture and the Arts, Facebook, and the University of California, Davis Health. Lugris received her MFA from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and lives and works in Sacramento and Los Angeles.
For images, click here.
For interviews or additional information, please contact Jennifer Lugris at jlugris@live.com and (201) 214-1477.