In Conversation: Mayumi Lake and Asha Iman Veal

Join artist Mayumi Lake in conversation with Asha Iman Veal, Associate Curator at the Museum of Contemporary Photography, as they discuss Lake’s current installation at 21c Chicago, Unison.  

Unison is Mayumi Lake’s ongoing series of immersive mixed-media installations, sculptures, and photographic collages. The central motif of this series is Housouge, an ancient Japanese imaginary flower believed to bloom in paradise, symbolizing the delicate border between life and death. These intricate floral patterns have been passed down through Asian history and are prominently featured in sacred spaces, embodying hope within the cyclical nature of life.  

Mayumi Lake  (b.Osaka) is an interdisciplinary artist and educator, whose work explores the ideas of time, memory, and floating between the real and imaginary. She incorporates photography, sculpture, sound, moving images, and installation to expand her narrative into more complex layers. 

Mayumi has exhibited nationally and internationally at Miyako Yoshinaga Gallery, Asia Society, Art in General, Artists Space, New York; Chicago Artists Coalition, Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago; Lubeznik Center for the Art, Michigan City; Fotograpie Forum International, Frankfurt; Cornelius Pleser Galerie, Munich; Galleria PaciArte, Brescia; FOTOAMERICA, Santiago; Witzenhausen Gallery, Amsterdam; Setouchi Triennale, Takamatsu. She has published two monographs, “Poo-Chi” and “Ex Post Facto,” from Nazraeli Press. Her work is in the collections of the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, Art Institute of Chicago, Asia Society, DCASE/City of Chicago, McCormick Place Art Collection/Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority (MPEA), Video Art World, Joy of Giving Something Foundation, and Facebook. Mayumi received her MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. 

Asha Iman Veal is Associate Curator at the Museum of Contemporary Photography (Chicago), and faculty in the Department of Arts Administration & Policy at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Her recent large-scale exhibitions Beautiful Diaspora / You Are Not the Lesser Part (MoCP 2022) and LOVE: Still Not the Lesser (MoCP 2023) brought together cross-diasporic conversations between global artists, and celebrations of love and desire. Her Chicago Architecture Biennial 2021 partner program and exhibition, RAISIN (vol. 1), commissioned new artworks and generated community among more than 35 global artists. Throughout her tenure at MoCP, Asha Iman has introduced an array of new acquisitions into the museum’s permanent collection. She frequently serves as a jury reviewer, panelist, and guest lecturer for cultural programs in the US and abroad. 

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