Houston Blog

She searches out lonely men, takes them home with her, slips into something more comfortable and videotapes what happens next. No, we're not talking about a "working girl"; we're talking about Laurel Nakadate, who playfully interviews single men in scant clothing -- and she's not a cock tease; she's an artist.

One of her video works, I Want to Be the One to Walk in the Sun, is on loop in the Blaffer Gallery 's "One Way or Another: Asian American Art Now." It has little to do with Nakadate's Japanese heritage, but -- by some stretch of logic -- that makes it even more emblematic of modern Asian American art, according to Melissa Chiu of New York's Asia Society. "Most Asian American artists of this generation want to have an individual voice," says Chiu, who co-curated the exhibit. "We see fewer artists who use traditional notions of what is 'Asian.'" -- Nick Keppler

Read about Generation Y Asian-American artists into such multi-national arts as graffiti, Bush-bashing and sweater-string installations in this week's Night & Day� section, which also features some people more appreciative of the past, including an artist obsessed with steamboats, a novelist that "writes about the '50s in the style of the '50s," and a musical revue that's trying to re-re-revive swing dancing.