About the Exhibition

There are times when feelings are indescribable. As an artist, I believe that art aims to convey what language cannot, and art, as an extension of language, expresses something indescribable within words. Oftentimes, when people have those feelings that are hard to explain, they tend to give up on telling others how they feel. I know how these people feel because I used to be one of them, being uncomfortable talking about my real emotions inside. However, through art, I changed and I want to be an artist who produces artworks that gives courage to everyone to speak up about topics that people do not find comfortable talking about. If someone were to ask what kind of art I make, my answer would be giving courage to my audience that everyone is an artist, designer, imagining and making a life that you want to live. 

Pressure, anxiety, loneliness and depression, these are all feelings that everyone has experienced once in their lifetime. However, not many people want to admit that they have felt this way because of the way that the public categorizes these feelings. For my exhibition, I wanted to open up about these feelings and be honest with my audience. I wanted to make a special connection between the audience and the artist: talking from genuine heart to heart. 

When I make art, all my conceptual thoughts are from my past experience or personal thoughts. This is different from many of my peers who prioritize the aesthetics of their work. Personally I like to prioritize authentics of my thoughts and I think that is one of the strongest traits that I have as an artist. Because I am an artist who wants to share a story of my life whether it is good or bad in somewhat abstract forms, I can evoke a person’s sympathy for a response in their heart. 

The theme of my exhibition was ‘Trapped Feelings’. First starting as societal pressure to male dominations to finally narrowing down to feeling of being trapped, they are all somewhat interdependent but different. This theme was highly inspired by ‘male aversion’ and ‘phantasmagoria’ , two themes of my favorite artists Yayoi Kusama and Wyatt Mills. Through my artworks I wanted to express trapped feelings, times that you cannot fulfill your desires simply because of the pressure that you get from your surroundings whether it is people, circumstances or places. 

Main medium that I used for this exhibition was acrylic. Acrylic is effective in making many different textures and with my coherent theme, I can show my versatility to the audience in tieing back to the theme using various techniques. Based on the way that I presented my work, the space seems compact. So in order to make every piece stand out, I had to make a good combination in the limited space. My first approach for viewers was to make sure that they understand the concept easily. Although my artworks are mostly abstract, I hoped that people would feel straightforward in understanding my concept by having to arrange my artworks that accentuates characteristics within each artwork. 

One of the struggles that I had as a person was being completely open about who I am. However, as an artist, I could voice myself, accepting the flaws contained within myself. Through art, I accepted myself, and ultimately resulted in a positive influence. I hope that through my artworks, I can bring positive influence to society.