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My Peoples Are You With Me Where You At opens in NYC

Kellen Hatanaka’s latest exhibition examines where Asians fit into sports & society

LiFTED | Marcus Aurelius | 20 Oct 2022


For the next three weeks, New Yorkers or visitors to the Big Apple can head to ALLCITY, an art gallery in Brooklyn, and check out Toronto-based visual artist Kellen Hatanaka’s latest exhibition My Peoples Are You With Me Where You At. The show, with its title taken from ‘Da Mystery of Chessboxin’ by Wu-Tang Clan takes a deep look at where Asians fit into sports and society as a whole in contemporary Western culture.

Bruce Lee is featured in the gallery a few times as he knocks down a Roman pillar and also chills with his most famous student, Kareem Abdul Jabbar. The Asian hero is also depicted in another reference to Wu-Tang in a badge that has him jumping over a tiger with the words Tiger Style in the middle. The third representation of Lee is when he’s shot with arrows mimicking Muhammed Ali’s Esquire cover shoot in the 1960s.

All of Jeremy Lin's teams

Bruce Lee is not the only Asian depicted in Kellen’s work as Hideo Nomo is also in there as well as some more abstract pieces like the one painted from the bottom of a huddle that shows all the teams Jeremy Lin played for.

Kellen’s works show that sports have always been intertwined with the people, countries, and politics surrounding them.

For more information, check out ALLCITY’s Instagram page here.