About the Exhibition

As would any artist, I spent a great deal of time becoming comfortable and confident in the ideas that are presented in my art. I went from considering “relationships” to “destiny” to “water” as words that would describe my body of work. It was not until the study of the Maggi Hambling, an artist I looked into during the Comparative Study, that I established a clear direction for my exhibition. Her artwork was greatly based on expressing her truest feelings in the way that made most sense to her, with the hope of allowing her viewers to feel as well. In this light, I reviewed my previous work and ideas to notice that I too was exploring my own idea -- a natural rhythm -- with the same intentions. 

To be more specific about this, this exhibition is greatly inspired by the arbitrary and organic yet harmonious nature of life. I believe that these 3 qualities melt graciously into each person’s life, driving them forward. In my artwork, I want to share the feeling that comes after the acknowledgement of the essence of the life we live. Individual artworks in my collection deal with specific ideas -- time, human instincts, acceptance of oneself -- however, they all have the same intention in allowing my viewers to think and feel this “feeling” for themselves.

The selection of my artwork was then based upon how well I thought it would allow my viewers to “feel”. The first step to doing so was eliminating pieces that I personally had trouble connecting with because I thought that the intensity of emotion for the viewer was dictated by how strongly I felt about the work myself. Secondly, I was concerned with how well the pieces matched with each other, visually. I felt that all of my work had to be striking in the same manner in order to act as an effective catalyst for emotion. The visual patterns that I wanted to keep consistent within my body of work were bold colors and a busy composition. Additionally, all my artworks are connected in the sense that they are all active; they incorporate a rhythm and flow. These elements are used as tools to draw people into my body of work. 

The primary material used in my artwork is acrylic paint. Acrylic paint gives me great control over the artwork that I am creating. While it may seem ironic to try to express a natural phenomenon with a high level of control, I think that it reflects confidence in my conceptual understanding and intentions behind the work that I am creating. Another recurring material is print, which is a medium that allows the same pattern to be duplicated an infinite number of times. This was incorporated to vaguely suggest that the feeling that I am trying to explore in my artwork is universally applicable. Regardless of the material used, all of my pieces establish depth, whether that be created physical or virtual space, in order to emphasize the complex and multidimensional aspect of life. 

The exhibition starts off with 3D works and then gradually moves into 2-dimensional paintings. The intention for this is to implicitly show my thought process of rendering tangible life into emotions on a canvas. The main start to the show is the video, which allows my viewers to spend more time being introduced to my body of work than they would if I had started with paintings. The following works are organized on two side-to-side panels rather than one double-sided panel because I thought the latter would break the flow of thought. The installation piece is placed slightly before the wall so that light can shine through it and create a colorful shadow, making my exhibition more visually interactive. 

In this exhibition, I am not so much concerned with convincing my viewers to share the same ideas as me, but rather to stimulate them to resonate with their own ideas. The very act of thinking about oneself is, to my standards, a celebration of the essence of life.