About

June Xu (Xu Yichuan) is a Chinese American artist, curator, and cultural advocate based in Houston, Texas. She is the founder and president of the Asian American Art & Culture Initiative (AAACI), a nonprofit dedicated to amplifying Asian American voices through art, research, and community storytelling.

June holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts, and even before graduating, she achieved a rare honor—her painting From Silver Screen to Silver Wing, featuring former Air Force Captain Sabu Dastigir, was collected by the U.S. Air Force and is now permanently displayed at the Pentagon. She also worked as an assistant producer for the Houston local TV program CIN: Yang Yan Yang Yu, gaining valuable experience in cultural media production and community-centered storytelling.

Her return to art during the pandemic was driven by a growing urgency to address cultural erasure, historical invisibility, and the rising wave of anti-Asian sentiment. As she witnessed discriminatory measures like the Texas Alien Land Bill of 2023 gain traction, she recognized the need for artists to respond swiftly and powerfully. This commitment to advocacy through creativity became a cornerstone of her work—positioning art not only as cultural preservation, but also as an immediate and living response to current events.

In 2024, she initiated Roots Unveiled, an artist-centric, interdisciplinary exhibition that blends visual art, historical artifacts, archival research, and music to explore Chinese American history—particularly the stories rooted in Texas. Designed as both a platform for artists and a call to civic awareness, Roots Unveiled confronts the past while engaging directly with the social and political realities of the present. The exhibition debuted in Austin in May 2025, drawing thousands of visitors and sparking dialogue on representation, justice, and belonging.

Through her work, June bridges history and contemporary art, empowering communities to tell their own stories before they are forgotten or rewritten.