BIO
I am a native San Franciscan and first generation Chinese American artist living and working in San Francisco. I received my B.A. from UC Berkeley with a year abroad at Lorenzo De Medici in Florence, Italy. Over the past two decades, I have continued independent studies under mentors and artists Rose Shakinovsky and Claire Gavronsky (known collectively as Rosenclaire) in Italy and South Africa. Highlights from these studies include working alongside renowned Venda master wood carvers such as Tshikudo (Paul) Thavanha (RIP) and Thomas Kubayi from the Limpopo region with intimate studio talks by William Kentridge and Noria Mabasa. I have attended residencies at CanSerrat in Spain (full-stipend recipient) ; Banff Centre for the Arts in Canada; and the Anderson Ranch Arts Center in Colorado (full-stipend recipient). Awards include the Banff Merit Scholarship and the Pamela Joseph Merit Fellowship for Minority Artists.
ARTIST STATEMENT
I am interested in the poetic intersection of the material and the immaterial - a transformative and often humorous synthesis of confounded expectations. As a haptic learner, my practice is process-based and involves selective chance and intuitive play with everyday objects and collected end-of-life materials.
My work focuses on objects, actions and situations that highlight the overlooked or marginalized as a reflection of the human condition and post-human political climate. I re-purpose humble, mass produced materials, and largely found rubbish to investigate the possibilities in re-forming beauty and value. In doing so, I set aside preconceived notions about the materials so I can freely explore their inherent qualities and investigate meaning beneath the surface.
Working across disciplines of painting, object making, and installation I combine elements drawn from memory, art history and my immediate surroundings. Irreverent slippages serve as metaphors for the liminal. In negotiating these materially ambiguous spaces, new meanings arise that simultaneously amplify the familiar and celebrate the unknown.
I make it and keep it strange as a mischievous entry point to seeing things with fresh eyes and introducing critical reflection as a quiet but forceful agent of change.
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