East of the pacific: making histories of Asian American art explores how the migration of people across the Pacific Ocean, from Asia to the United States, has profoundly shaped our nation’s cultural and artistic landscape. By reframing the geography of the U.S. as not only west of the Atlantic but also east of the Pacific, the exhibition shifts our perception of American art and its key contributors, revealing histories shaped by contact, exchange, and collaboration.

Rather than offering a singular narrative, the show is organized around vital moments in Asian American history from the mid-nineteenth century to the present, underscoring the ways in which artists of Asian descent have contributed to our shared history. Drawing primarily from the collection of the Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University, the exhibition features ceramics, drawings, paintings, photographs, and prints by more than thirty Asian American artists, including Ruth Asawa, Bernice Bing, Dong Kingman, Yasuo Kuniyoshi, Chiura Obata, Roger Shimomura, and Toshiko Takaezu.

The presentation at the Columbus Museum of Art incorporates works from the American collection, as well as paintings by a new generation of contemporary artists of the Asian diaspora from CMA’s Scantland Collection.