Fifty years after the first wave of Southeast Asian migration to the United States, a new art exhibit at Xia Gallery in St. Paul asks what it means to call this country home — and how queerness, memory and cultural survival shape that experience. 

Just a few miles away, more than 100 artists will fill Swede Hollow Park for the annual “Art in the Hollow” festival, featuring live music and dance. And in Minneapolis, Ponca artist Julie Buffalohead honors her tribal heritage through rawhide sculptures and paintings that draw on personal family stories and ancestral memory.

Step into a ‘portal year’ with queer Southeast Asian artists

The Paper Lantern Project, a Minnesota-based gender and reproductive justice nonprofit, is celebrating the 50th anniversary of Southeast Asian migration to the United States with an exhibit highlighting queer Southeast Asian voices. 

“We call it a portal year,” said Rae Rowe, the executive director of the Paper Lantern Project. “It’s our moment to reflect back on what 50 years has meant to us. We think about the sacrifices our families made — not just getting here, but in what they gave up in their culture, in their language and in trying to make homes in the Midwest. 

“Alternate Routes: Southeast Asian LGBTQ+ Pride” brings together nearly 25 local, national and international artists to explore what home, identity and liberation looks like across the queer Southeast Asian diaspora. The exhibit features mixed media installations, portraiture, altars and pieces exploring sex and chosen family. 

Rowe and Lynn Nguyen launched the Paper Lantern Project in 2024, after meeting in a support group following the 2021 Atlanta spa shootings that targeted Asian women. 

“People kind of stopped caring about Minnesota as far as gender and reproductive justice because Minnesota became a trans refuge state, Roe v. Wade was codified and people thought the work was done,” Rowe said. “But we were hearing directly from community members that there are still huge barriers: stigma in families, a lack of sex education and financial hardship when accessing care.”

Their programming includes mutual aid support, rest and resistance workshops, zines and art shows like “Alternate Routes,” which offers a community altar inviting visitors to contribute objects representing their queer ancestors or personal identities throughout the exhibition’s run. 

At the opening reception on June 7, the gallery will host a special performance night featuring Hmong American drag king LightNing, poet Keng Xiong and a dragon dance performance by Alivia Lor, followed by a community talkback and altar-building session. 

“Art is a way to reach our community when it’s scary to ask for help,” Rowe said. “When people see us out here talking about gender, talking about sex, asking big questions — then maybe they’ll feel safe enough to ask for what they need too.”

Live music and local art in the Hollow

At Swede Hollow Park this Saturday, “Art in the Hollow” brings more than 100 artist booths into the park’s winding paths and wooded nooks. Expect everything from science and tech zines by Sophie Wang to animated poster art by Maria Ku, surreal figurative paintings by Michele Morris and photography by  H. Jiahong Pan. 

The festival will also feature performances from Latine writer Isavela Lopez, Ecuadorian dance group Away Runakuna, Roda de Samba Brasil, and more. Kids activities include face painting, temporary tattoos and plein air painting stations. Food trucks on site will offer egg rolls and pizza. 

Inside Julie Buffalohead’s ‘Travois’

At the center of Minneapolis artist Julie Buffalohead’s solo exhibit “Travois” stands a sculpture draped in a red, white and blue trade cloth dress, stitched with dozens of small name plaques. 

The names belong to members of the Ponca, a Native American tribe from the plains of northern Nebraska, of which Buffalohead is a member. 

In 1877, the U.S. government forced the Ponca to leave their homeland and walk 600 miles to Indian Territory in Oklahoma. Nearly a third of the tribe died from illness and hunger during the journey, and shortly after arriving in Oklahoma. 

The sculpture, titled “Ancestral (Honga),” references a U.S. census list recorded just before the tribe’s forced removal. Buffalohead transforms the names on that list into a hand-sewn tribute honoring both those who were displaced and those who didn’t survive.

Buffalohead’s exhibit at Dreamsong gallery includes five paintings and seven sculptures made from rawhide, beads, porcupine quills, dentalium and abalone shells. 

In one painting, a woman sleeps while monkeys pull at a scab on her leg. A small black dog watches over her. The monkeys represent Ishtinike, a Ponca trickster figure known for shapeshifting. Above the woman hangs a framed print that reads “Family,” a reflection on how familial bonds can reopen old wounds. 

The exhibition’s title work “Travois” draws from a personal family story. It references a childhood dog belonging to Buffalohead’s father that was killed by his brother in their youth. In the painting, the dog pulls a travois (a wooden sled used to transport goods) loaded with cushions, turtles, rabbits and a monkey. Children ride along, representing Buffalohead and her siblings. 

Her sculptural pieces resemble wombs, sky holes and origin stories. She uses techniques passed down from generations of Indigenous women to make space for matrilineal knowledge and resistance. 

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