NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

Both i hagå-hu (si Sumåhi) yan Guahu will be exhibiting as part of this special Mes Chamoru exhibit in the lobby of the Outrigger Hotel in Tumon starting March 1st. A reception will take place on the 1st starting at 5:30 pm. If you are able, please come and join me and Sumåhi. We've been working for the past few weeks on our pieces. Gof banidosu na tåta yu' på'go!

Guam Humanities Council to host Smithsonian Institution Exhibit Journey Stories, Opening June 26, 2014 The Guam Humanities Council is partnering with the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service, Museum on Main Street (MoMS) program to bring to Guam the national exhibit, Journey Stories. Many of us have powerful journey stories in our personal heritage. It may be a story of a family uprooting itself in order to stay together, or of sons and daughters moving to another land, or of a distant ancestor. As part of the Guam tour, the Council has developed a local companion exhibit with complimentary programs entitled, Sindålu – Chamorro Journeys in the U.S. Military, to explore the many significant and oftentimes unrecognized journeys of Chamorro men and women who currently serve or have served in the U.S. Military. Chamorro servicemen and women, along with their families, have moved all over the world, some returning home, others resettling perman

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                 Date:               March 11, 2014                         Contact:          Kimberlee Kihleng, Executive Director                                                 Monaeka Flores, Coordinator for Marketing and Programs                         Phone:             472-4460/1 Council to host next Smithsonian Institution Exhibit Journey Stories, public call for photographs and artifacts The Guam Humanities Council will partner with the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service, Museum on Main Street (MoMS) program to bring a national exhibit to Guam in 2014 entitled, Journey Stories. Many of us have powerful journey stories in our personal heritage. It may be a story of a family uprooting itself in order to stay together, or of sons and daughters moving to another land, or of a distant ancestor, perhaps unknown. As part of the Guam tour, the Council will highlight Guam’s unique journey s

I haven't been painting much lately, but I decided to do something about that last week and ended up painting several faces using watercolors. These are two that I submitted to the Creative Hands Exhibition at the Isla Center for the Arts. There titles are "Hot Woman" and "Cold Woman." I really like how they turned out. I hope they accept both pieces as I think they contrast each other nicely.

One of the most curious creatures that I’ve met as I’ve traveled to Okinawa, Japan and South Korea is a particular form of Rightist conservative. The majority of people whom I’ve interacted with during my research and solidarity trips over the past three years have all been leftists, albeit a variety of leftists. I talk and work with liberals, progressives, peace activists, decolonization and demilitarization activists and so the conversation usually sticks to a pretty familiar side of the ideological spectrum. But as I’ve travelled the other side, with its own diversity of opinion has always been there. During my trip to Okinawa last month pro-military, rightist conservatives were always around the edges of my sphere of being, threatening to enter, but never really making a solid appearance. For example during a two day symposium at Okinawan International University on demilitarism and decolonization, a threat was called in to one of the organizers, stating that conservat

Tonight my grandfather (Tun Jack Lujan) and I will be on a panel at the T. Stell Newman Center near the entrance to Big Navy. We'll be talking about the film Families Under Siege, created by the Guam Humanities Council on the effect of World War II on Chamorro families. Panel is at 6 pm. It'll begin with a screening of most of the film, followed by reactions from the panelists, and then a question and answer period. See the flyer for more details.

I haven't had an art exhibit in about two years now, since my last solo show titled "Before the Storm, After the Fire" in May of 2010. In December 2011, I hung a small exhibit featuring artwork created by my brother Jack but conceived as part of a project I've been working on for quite a while, but only got a small amount of funding to work on last year. The project is titled "The Untold Story of the Chamurai: How Chamorro and Spanish Warriors Fought Against the Spanish in Guam in 1616." The exhibit in it's still unfinished glory is meant to tell the previously unknown tale of how Samurai and Chamorro warriors fought against the Spanish who were attempting to wipe out all of the Chamorros on Guam in 1616. I had first imagined this project more than 10 years ago as a way of combining my interest in samurai manga, anime and fiction with my interest in reading and teaching Chamorro history. I wrote up an entire story arc, filled with action, drama, romanc

This month or next I'll be finishing off an art project I've been working on for more than a year with my brother Jack and  i nananfamagu'on-hu Jessica Chan. To be truthful, while I have been working on it for more than a year, the hardwork is actually being done by these artists, I'm doing more of the conceptualizing of it. The project is titled The Untold Story of the Chamurai: How Chamorro and Samurai Warriors Fought off the Spanish in Guam in 1616. I will provide the description below for you to read to get a better idea of what I'm intending, and you should be interested after reading such a weird title. I received a Guam CAHA grant for this project and so the excerpt below is from my grant proposal. The artwork will be displayed in an exhibit sometime this fall. I'm not sure where. I might have a small exhibit in a few months of the just the artwork, perhaps at I.P. Coffee or a similar place. Then later around December I might have a more serious show

The Museum of Modern Art in Nagasaki is having a peace exhibit as part of the 65th anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bomb there. Although there were many incredibly moving pieces in that exhibit, one massive painting stood out above the rest. Its title is "The Present, the Past and the Future" and was painted by 22 students from Yoko Middle School and their teacher. Its imagery is inspired by the history the student learned about the terror of nuclear weapons and war, and also their desire for a peaceful world. The clock which brazenly occupies the middle of the composition is familiar to people from Nagasaki, as various clocks which survived the blast in 1945, were all frozen with their hands at 11:02. There is one more element which I found very interesting about this painting. Its massive size is identical to the well-known anti-war painting "Guernica" by Pablo Picasso. The shades of grey face on the horror and war side of the painting is inspired from

This Friday, July 16th my most recent art show, "Before the Storm, After the Fire," at I.P. Coffee in Mangilao, will be coming down. In its place a new exhibit by artist and editor of the Marianas Variety Mar-Vic Cagurangan, called "Naked Truth" will be opening. So Friday night from 6-8 pm we'll be having an opening/closing party, where you can meet both artists, enjoy some good food and wine and also try to pick up some of my pieces before they get stored in the trunk of my car. For this last show I divided my artwork up into different themes. When I paint things, even abstract imagery, they tend to follow a set of regular themes. So even though the artwork is abstract and open to interpretation, when I paint it and when I title it, I often end up coming back to the same sorts of themes: movies, song lyrics, puns, Guam history and so on. So when I was figuring out how to hang my show, I decided to divide them up into groups based on shared imagery or names. Th

On my last full day in South Korea, after traveling north to hear about the struggles against the expansion of the Mugeon-ri training areas, I had a few hours to myself, to do whatever I wanted with. After five days of tightly scheduled trips, visits, meals and transportation adventure, I really appreciated being able to explore on my own for a bit, the area I was staying in Seoul. I did not know my way around Seoul at the start of the trip and I still don’t know much about its geography, except for the little area near downtown that I was staying in. In my little area I could tell you where almost anything was (so long as its signage contained some English letters or images which indicated what was inside). I could tell you how many Dunkin Donuts were in the area and lead you to all of them, and could show you were the three music stores that I had found were, and even the chick place, which has a sign where a friendly looking chicken invites you to come in and partake of the flesh o

My art show at I.P. Coffee is still up for those who are interested in seeing my latest pieces. Email me at mlbasquiat@hotmail.com if you have any questions. The week before last I typed up an artist statement basically explaining to those who were interested, where the notion for the show and its title "Before the Storm, After the Fire" came from. In explaining myself, I ended up using the old Quantum Physics paradox/experiment famously known as "Schrodinger's Cat." Except my version, as you'll read in the first paragraph, is localized to become "Schrodinger's Karabao." I would have given this a completely different name, like "Tun Sakati's Karabao," but since most people already have no idea what this means, I decided not to make it even more obscure. ******************************* BEFORE THE STORM, AFTER THE FIRE Michael Lujan Bevacqua - Artist’s Statement Put fabot, imahina na guaha un kuåto, ya gaige gi este na kuåto,

You Are Cordially Invited to Attend: "Before the Storm, After the Fire" A Solo Exhibition Or Meggai na Monotypes By Michael Lujan Bevacqua I.P. Coffee Mangilao, Guam OPENING RECEPTION: 5:30 - 8:30 pm May 7, 2010 Refreshments will be provided... If my brother can work it, there might be music at the opening... Exhibit will remain up until it is taken down... For more info contact me at mlbasquiat@hotmail.com Or I.P. Coffee at 735-3663 Put fabot, kefatto (pi'ot an guaha salape-mu) guihi para i binaba...

For the past month and a half I've been working for the Guam Humanities Council, putting together their exhibit "Transitional Table" which opens next week, on Tuesday October 13, at the T. Stell Newman Visitor Center at the entrance to Big Navy. The opening reception is at 6 pm, but if you can't make it then the exhibit will be open unil November 21st. The title itself doesn't sound very interesting, but the exhibit ( gi minagahet) is. Its a combination of a national Smithsonian exhibit that has been brought to Guam, which covers changing food practices in the United States over several centuries. A locally made exhibit has been added to it, which deals with the history of food in the years immediately before, during and after World War II. I just went down yesterday while the exhibit was being put up and although the space is a bit tight, I still think it's going to be great. In the middle of the exhibit room the Smithsonian panels have been put up, and alon