Trip to the Bay

During Spring break, my fellow grads and I took a trip to the Bay to not only go to the Firelei Baéz lecture, but to also visit as many galleries as we could fit into the day. I took so many pictures, that I even lost track of the names of some galleries. I took as many pamphlets and handouts that I could in order to remember where I went and what I saw. The day as a whole was really splendid and I thought it was really beneficial to get outside of Sacramento to see some different kinds of work. It made me excited to look for graduate programs outside of Sacramento too. Seeing the diversity in work out of my hometown made me eager to go look at art in other places.

Som, Trevor, and I beneath a sculpture(Union Square) in which its sister (about 20 yrds away) can retain the sound of the other. While Trevor, Som, and I talked within the piece, Chelsea was in the other one listening to our conversation and vice versa. 

We saw a lot of work that day, so I will narrow down a couple experiences that I found the most interesting.

Altman Siegal Gallery 

I was really excited by these paintings in 49 Geary Building at the Altman Siegel Gallery. The gallery was showcasing the work of Liam Everett. Everett works in mixed media, creating these large abstracts out of acrylic, enamel, alcohol, and salt on linen. According to Everett's artist statement, this body of work, all done in 2016, addresses the idea preconceptions of how a painting should be. He reflects on the writer Bertolt Brecht's writing and play The Elephant Calf, in which he borrows the show titles from. Because Brecht's play acted as an interlude or play within a play, Everett borrows from the idea with his very heavily layered paintings, purposely posing questions about the picture, or picture within the picture. His goal is for the not for the viewer to find some deeper meaning, or to narrate a certain story. He wants to communicate a "reality from the studio" and acknowledgment from his surrounding environment, considering spatial and temporal conditions when building paintings in his studio.  

I enjoyed the abundance of marks in the work, creating a textural experience in which all the marks gather to create a wall, and hardly dissipated except for some areas. After reading about the purpose behind these paintings, I was interested in the way Everett infused the work with his environmental experience. It makes me want to visit his studio, because I almost expect it to look like mine, messy and full,  with the type of work that he does. With a focus on his environmental experience, Everett gave me ideas on how I could shift my studio experience to broaden my own work. 

Gallery View 

Untitled (Teotihuacan), 2016 

Detail of Untitled (Teotihuacan) A.

B.

C. 

Untitled (Cahokia), 2016 

Som and Sean looking ( I was too busy taking pictures, I did not get one of me and the work) 

  Yerba Buena Center 

 At the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, the piece that I admired the most was Samara Golden's A Trap in Soft Division. When I entered the room, there was a large area of the floor blocked off by a low wall that had a mirrored surface. When I looked down, I had to almost catch my balance. It felt like I was about to fall into the world that was being reflected. This world consisted of foam furniture, faux stain glass windows, lamps made of lighting gels and black caulk, fabric, glue, and polyurethane paint, and adapted found clothes and objects. This piece was installed on the ceiling, where each "room" was installed upside-down so that it gave the illusion of being below you in the mirrored world. I was so fascinated by this installation. It made me feel almost out of body and displaced from the reality I was in. I felt like if I leaned over the wall too much I could fall into the world and never return to reality. With my altered perception of my environment, I also felt nostalgic. When looking down into the world or up into it, I felt like gravity was taking me there either way I looked. The vastness of the piece welcomed me into it, and each room felt like a sister of the room next to it. Some of the furniture looked the same, but something seemed a bit different in each room, whether it was an added element or a shifted object. Golden really takes the viewer almost by force because it is almost impossible to not be engaged when viewing the work, looking up into it, or down into the mirrored reflection. It was very intriguing, and has lasted with me.  I am eager to see more of her work in the future.

The mirrored floor, feat. myself.

You can see the woman behind Trevor taking pictures of the ceiling where the work was installed.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gw3IUxsscBs

Here is a very interesting video of Samara Golden's installation of A Trap in Soft Division and a little more about what it is about

My people, 

(left to right) Sean Hong, Trevor Pope-Lance, Chelsea Thompto, Bailey Anderson, Bobby Edwards, Som Sayosone, Me (Caiti Chan)

Artist Lecture: Firelei Baéz at San Fransisco Art Institute

During Spring break, my fellow grads and I drove to the Bay Area to explore some great art and to see artist Firelei Baéz speak about her paintings based on her interest between the crossover and evolution of Caribbean mixed with American culture. Being a young Caribbean female in America, Baéz's works vary from self portraits to historically driven narratives. She began her lecture by explaining to the audience a little about what drives her work, saying that she uses humor and fantasy to create  newness to self.
She showed us her early paintings, driven by the topic of skin color. She described to us the "brown paper bag test" in America. This was an unjust test in which certain privileges were taken from those whose skin color was darker than a brown paper bag. She quotes it as "American standard of Whiteness." Baéz took this idea and drove it into her work where she create these self-portraits to embrace her skin color and her hair as well. She described her using color and the shades of brown as an access to psychology. She also emphasized that along with skin color, hair was also an issue. "Black" female hair was encouraged to be covered up in her culture, so with her self portraits, she recorded the different states of her hair while emphasizing the flat brown surface that made up her painted silhouette. By keeping the portrait flat and minimal, Baéz lets the viewer delve into a politically charged art experience without the distraction of realism. She leaves her eyes to look back at the viewer, as if she is speaking through her 2-dimensional world into the soul of another human being just like her. These pieces, to me, are very approachable in that they speak on a level in which the only thing that matters is our humanity as equal despite skin color or hair type.

Another method of self-portraiture she executed that interested me the most are the larger palette portraits in which she applies paint intuitively to create abstracted patterns within the silhouette. By masking off her silhouette and creating an energetic play of color within the portrait, Baéz creates an entirely new energy within the frame of her own portrait. These portraits resonated with me because of the way i experiment with paint in my work. I was interested in the way Baéz applied the paint in such as way while keeping the outline so crisp and precise. At the end of her lecture, I even asked her how she was able to mask off the edges so that the paint didn't pour out of the confines of her silhouette. She told me about frisket and I and I am excited to try to use it in my own work. I had tried other ways of masking off areas, but none of my attempts have worked out the way I wanted them too. Thanks to Firelei, I am excited to try something new in my own work. This Summer, I need to work even further on my body of work to take them too the next step, and perhaps introducing this suggested material may help me figure things out. 

When one of your artist heroes emails you for your essay

I wanted to share the email showing artist Chris Trueman providing me with information for my genealogy paper. I will also be posting this link in the bibliography of my paper so that the reference can be seen publicly. Below I included a photo of Trueman's work so that if anyone does nto read my paper can apply the statement to the images.  

FTH, 40x60, acrylic and acrylic spray paint on canvas, 2015

GYS, 60x52, acrylic and acrylic spray paint on canvas, 2015