O.M. France Viana (US FWN100, 2011)
O.M. France Viana (US FWN100, 2011) recently earned a Master of Fine Arts degree from Mills College in Oakland, and her MFA Thesis exhibition is ongoing at the Mills Art Museum until May 28, 2017. Her photographs, sculptures and installations celebrate Filipino food as agents of reverse colonization. As salsa overtook ketchup as the most popular condiment in the U.S. over 20 years ago, France chronicles how Filipino immigration is changing and what it means to be American.
She recently received the Hung Liu Award for excellence in Studio Art, juried by Claudia Schmuckli, Curator-in-Charge of Contemporary Art and Programming at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (DeYoung Museum and Legion of Honor), and Jodi Roberts, Curator for Modern & Contemporary Art at Cantor Arts Center, Stanford University. Earlier in the year, France also won a Murphy and Cadogan Contemporary Arts award, administered by the San Francisco Foundation, and given to outstanding MFA Bay Area freshmen; she humorously exhibited a tuyo, a Philippine dried fish, hanging from dental floss, at the awards exhibition.