Championing famous and forgotten Asian Americans, this artist uses cookies as her canvas

Artist Jasmine Cho makes exquisite portraits that champion famous and forgotten Asian Americans. “Cookies, I’ve always said, are the perfect platform for education, activism and healing because they are one of the most disarming, inviting and surprising mediums,” said Cho, who is also a baker. “So, I kind of always had this question: ‘I wonder if I could use this point of joy for me to address this pain point?’ And cookies was the answer.” A few months after making those first cookie faces, Cho held her first portrait gallery show. “They tell me things like, ‘I learned more in your 15-minute talk than I have in my whole class that’s about Asian American history,’ or something like that,” Cho said. At a time when demanding to see Asian American history included in school curricula can get you branded as “woke,” even Cho’s seemingly innocuous cookies can be a target.