Insiders Looking Out; Young Asian-American artists show that they are firmly in touch with all of their many cultural roots.

Byline: Vibhuti Patel

The 17 young artists represented in a dazzling new show at New York's Asia Society all have roots in Asia. But all grew up in the United States and display little nostalgia for any abandoned homeland or lost way of life. Indeed, the works on display in "One Way or Another: Asian American Art Now" (through Dec. 10) may reveal traces of ancestral influence, but mostly show a real affection for and intimate grasp of the complex jumble of colors, tastes, textures and landscapes that make up America.

Unlike their Asian-born predecessors, who immigrated to the United States and always considered themselves outsiders looking in, these artists are not obsessed with self, multiculturalism or identity politics. Instead, their choice of subjects and technique is diverse, outward-looking and--as the show's title, taken from a 1978 Blondie hit, makes clear--grounded in pop culture. Iranian-American Ala Ebtekar moved from Berkeley, California, to Tehran at 19 to study miniature paintings. But he ended up preferring "coffeehouse painting"-- large oils that illustrate oral narratives instead of the more highbrow classical written texts from which Persian miniatures are usually drawn. His huge whitewashed installation juxtaposes boom boxes and sneakers that hark back to his urban U.S. childhood with objects from 19th-century Iranian coffeehouses: samovars, cups, hookahs, cushioned sofas and wall paintings of wrestler heroes revered by Iranian working classes.

Other artists borrow the technique but not the subject matter of their ancestors. Pakistani-American Saira Wasim returns consciously to the tradition of classical Mughal miniature painting. But instead of the hunting, battles and royal entertainments those works depicted, she chooses as her subjects Bush and Blair, Cheney and Rumsfeld, the Iraq war. By contrast, Indian-American Chitra Ganesh uses everyday objects and materials to create murals that seem to jump off the wall to create images of psychic conflict and pain. Her site-specific work revolves around a multi-limbed, multi-eyed calendar-art goddess, painted in the style of commercial Bollywood posters. The figure is covered in beads, plastic--the ubiquitous furniture covering for new ...