Through the training in filmmaking, I cultivated passion to invent and rearrange symbols to tell stories. I was inspired by the textures of fabric and cutout images of common household goods under the camera; this experience later led me to explore the possibility of working in sculptures and installation.
I observe the distinctness of people’s cognitive thinking and the similarity of human experience in different cultures. I am interested in utilizing familiar objects or images to depict the dichotomy found inside highly developed societies. Elements from nature, animal and plant images often appear in my work, because they create an invisible tension or distance from our modern lifestyles. My work range from sculptures made of gummi bears, licorice lace and found objects to conventional medium of paper, clay, glass and bronze. The variety of materials I work with is essential because they represent particular meanings based on each individual viewer’s background. My focus is on the related experience created by the audience when they encounter my work, instead of the definition of the concept itself.
The works shown here are inspired by souvenirs sold in National Park gift shops. I am interested in exploring the usage of animal images in commercial goods. By redesigning those untamed animals in romantic settings, I wish to reveal the irony of how people use wild beasts, which can pose great danger, as interior decorations and symbols of comfort. Other sculpture pieces are from a collaborative project I did with a Taiwanese illustrator, Roo. I hand made these clay sculptures by modeling after the characters created by her. Each figurine has a personality and story behind them.
Bio
Born and raised in Taiwan, YaYa Chou moved to Los Angeles in 1997 to study Experimental Animation. Being inspired by scene and set design for clay animation, the award-winning filmmaker turned her interests to sculpture and installation. Without formal training in the visual art, Chou remains a self-taught mixed-media artist.
YaYa Chou’s works combine humor and commentary on modern lifestyles; they are inspired by language, social phenomenon and melody, stemmed from consumption, theory, and words. Mostly she investigates the assumption of what is natural and what is unnatural.
Chou has shown her works in galleries and museums in the United States, as well as numerous international film festivals, most notably in Museum of Modern Art, New York and Contemporary Art Center of Virginia, Virginia. She received four film awards on her animated films and Artists' Resource for Completion Grant from Durfee Foundation, Santa Monica , in 2007. She is currently exhibiting in southern California and around the U.S.. Her works were reviewed in art magazines and newspapers around the world, including Fiberarts magazine in November/December 2006.
Resume
Born: Taipei, Taiwan Resides: Los Angeles, CA, USA Education: 2000 MFA, Experimental Animation, California Institute of the Arts, Valencia, CA, USA 1997 BA, Mass Communications, Fu-Jen University, Taipei, Taiwan
Solo and Two-Person Exhibitions
2009 Compromised Interpretation, LAAA/Gallery 825, Los Angeles, CA 2006 Consumerism & Product #1, Gallery Revisited, Los Angeles, CA
Selected Exhibitions
“Fresh”, The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA, Los Angeles, CA eclat, Crussell Fine Arts @ Eichler Gallery, Orange, CA (catalog) “Venice Art Walk and Auction Exhibition”, Venice, CA Pretty: Disturbing, Orange County Center for Contemporary Art, Santa Ana, CA International Shoebox Sculpture Exhibition, University of Hawaii at Manoa Art Gallery, Honolulu, Hawaii Sweetness, curated by Julie Hughes, HYPERLINK "http://www.moorparkcollege.edu/" "_blank" Art Gallery at Moorpark College, Moorpark, CA
2008 Hysteria Updated, Gatov Gallery , Long Beach, CA Novella, Gallery 825, curated by Meg Linton, director of Ben Maltz Gallery at Otis College of Art & Design, Los Angeles, CA Transformed, Contemporary Art Center of Virginia, Virginia Beach, VA “Venice Art Walk and Auction Exhibition”, Venice, CA Now, curated by Yossi Govrin, Arena1 Gallery, Santa Monica, CA The Cutting Edge: New Works in Fiber Art, Acorn Gallery, Los Angeles, CA First Anniversary Group Show, Tinlark Gallery, Los Angeles, CA 4th Year Anniversary Show, Gallery Revisited, Los Angeles, CA
2007 Big Babies, Art Murmur Gallery, Los Angeles, CA Group Show, James Gray Gallery, Santa Monica, CA Love and Lounge, curated by Chris Sicat, Cisco Home, Pasadena, CA Annual Downtown Artists Grants Exhibition, Dangerous Curve, Los Angeles, CA Liminal, organized by Brian and Mary Jean Mallman, Phantom Galleries L.A., Pasadena, CA On site at the Gate, juried by Aimee Chang, curator of Contemporary Art at the Orange County Museum of Art, Angels Gate Cultural Center, San Pedro, CA Echoes: Women Inspired by Nature, curated by Betty Ann Brown & Linda Vallejo, Orange County Center for Contemporary Art, Santa Ana, CA (catalog)
2007 Get:Art 2007, Bonhams & Butterfields, Los Angeles, CA HausGuests, Haus Gallery and The Brewery Project, Los Angeles, CA The Child in You, juried by Roberta Reb Allen, Woman Made Gallery, Chicago, IL Winter Biannual, juried by Susan Cross, curator of MASS MoCA, L.A. Art Association South: The Michael Napoliello Gallery, Hermosa Beach, CA
(more detailed information is available upon request) brian smith february 27th - april 9th, 2010
brian smith, padre pio brian smith, revobaby
Contextually, Brian's paintings speak volumes. A dream-like, rainy day nostalgic and melancholic chord permeates drip laden and dark imagery. We are caught up in a waltz without meter, at first losing step while seeking then finding a distant and muffled rhythm. Bold yet raw imagery of form and figure are opposed by creation; each striking at conflict while gravitating towards harmony. Within this duality emerges a subtle tension that keeps us suspended; a long breath holding, the exhale acknowledging the moment. There is implicit poetry about this work with untamed verse caught in candy colored fields of pigment; the duality of creation and creature, deconstructed, buried and unearthed demanding a response. Brian Smith is an artist of a different ilk. He's honest, not a lot of fanfare. But his work comes at you with a twist, like a DNA helix; color, form, shape and line creating two reciprocal visually encoded strands of perspective. He paints from the inside out presenting opposing natures of similar themes. In its resolution, there is mathematics with universal constants. A resulting familiarity comforts us; we want to continue our exploration. At the extremities, bright opaque color fields reflecting tight interwoven dramas of form and creation are opposed by dark, burdened and dense renderings. Tension, symmetry and balance propel Brian's confident imagery. Three distinct sets of paintings visually display his staunch dogma on "order." With building blocks of ideas, he moves the viewer through an equation. A set of paper works made with graphite and acrylics employ a gentle hand; a blending of mutely painted organic shapes and loose structure. The next set of paintings, call them appetizers, are 3 near fluorescent paintings that quickly establish Brian as a frontiersman. He's on a mission; "daring" and fearless; albeit with gentle and delicate hand that he announces the coming violence. The luminescence of "Pain is to come" is nearly off-putting; embedded silhouette figures offset by intense light. Almost,
with a naivete, he courts us with color. "She Cayman to my life" pits
nude female form against a Cayman alligator, almost as a formula,
begging the question of our connection and relationship to the nature
of the beast. Are we dominant or the dominated, hunter or the hunted? Like a crescendo Brian creates momentum through the body of the work. His entrees are not for the vegetarian. He is a carnivore. "Stampede," "Revo Baby," and "Never touch Baby Birds" are three aggressively painted paintings. Unlike the delicate form of the Fluorescent paintings, truncated torsos haunt this trio. Strewn with limbs, the summation of the whole, caught in the spiraling helix, we are now inside the dark-side; with a dramatic change of paint and palette. Despite the white wash of these paintings, we are in the dark. Well developed and structured, there is lots of underpainting with tons of texture; massive paint drips endemic of his fearlessness.
Karl Slocum Knapp Gallery
christopher umana april 10 - may 21, 2010 hestin lostwood may 22 - july 2, 2010 danny scheible july 3 - aug 13, 2010
INDIE COLLECTIVE gallery for contemporary art and cutting edge fashion 6039-A washington boulevard culver city, california 90232 usa 310 837 7714 info@indiecollective.com www.indiecollective.com gallery hours; tuesday to friday 12-7pm / saturday 12-8pm or by appointment
