The Bowdoin College Museum of Art (BCMA) will present two exhibitions this winter: "Josefina Auslender: Drawing Myself Free" (December 11, 2025–May 31, 2026), the first museum retrospective of Argentine-born, Maine-based artist Josefina Auslender, featuring over 90 drawings from the 1970s to the present; and "Hung Liu: Happy and Gay" (January 22–May 31, 2026), which examines how Hung Liu reinterpreted Chinese propaganda from her childhood during the Cultural Revolution through ten paintings, prints, archival materials, and a video. Both shows explore themes of immigration, history, memory, and personal experience.
These exhibitions matter because they highlight how artists transform politically charged personal histories into art that challenges received narratives, particularly through the lens of migration and resilience. By presenting Auslender and Liu side by side, the BCMA draws connections between artists from Argentina and China who use drawing and painting to interrogate trauma, joy, and defiance, offering viewers a cross-cultural meditation on the power of visual art to reshape memory and identity.