User:Briananr/sandbox

= Bryan Ida = Bryan Ida (born 1963) is a Los Angeles based Japanese-American artist and painter. He is mostly known for his "con.text" Ink on Panel portrait series where he portrays numerous individuals drawn from words taken from government documents that affect that individual directly. Ida's paintings often begin with a geometric pattern, mixing acrylic paint and polyurethane on wood panels, then sanding and painting over them again and again. In his eyes, layers of paint represent "the passage of time and the importance of memory." Ida utilizes the concept of layering in his work to explore the idea of recollection within a symbolic landscape.

Website: https://bryanida.com

Instagram: @bryanida

YouTube: Bryan Ida

= Life and Education = Bryan Ida was born in 1963 and raised in Palo Alto, California. As a child, Ida found himself extremely drawn to music. He began playing the french horn in El Camino's youth symphony and school orchestras. Ida's passion for music ultimately lead up to his interest in electronic music in high school.

After high school, Ida went on to attend Sonoma State University from 1984 to 1986 and San Jose State University from 1986 to 1989 both studying electronic music composition. Francis had invited Ida to work as his studio assistant in Palo Alto, California where he was working on a large 20ft by 40ft mural for a new government building located in Bonn, Germany.

During his time at San Jose State University, he began working for Sam Francis, a notable American painter.

= Career = Sam Francis played a pivotal role in Ida's change of career paths from a musician to a painter. Francis had moved Ida from his studio in Palo Alto, to his studio in Los Angeles. In this studio, Ida had free access to paint, paper, and canvas. This is where Ida began painting, and writing less music. Ida shifted from a musician, to a full time painter in this Los Angeles studio. Bryan Ida stated that painting had given him the ability to create something uniquely his own, which was a feeling music could not provide.

Ever since the start of his painting career, Ida has displayed shows for quite a wide audience, such as showings in Europe, the United States, and Asia. He is represented in both Los Angeles and New York at the George Billis Gallery and at Bluerider Art located in Taiwan.

Ida's first exhibition took place in Sam Francis' studio in October of 1995.

= Artwork =

con.Text
"con.Text" is a series of life-sized portraits that relate historical events and documents to the lives of the people who are affected by them. These portraits touch on the subjects of racism, civil rights, human rights, and mans's inhumanity towards man. Ida blends words from these documents on top of one another to create depth, shadow, and shape.

Ida's intent with this series is to portray individuals as the "embodiment of strength and pride standing defiantly in the face of oppression and fear by a power against them."

Bryan Ida began this series with a portrait of his grandfather. He is shown waiting to board a bus to the Japanese Internment Camps during World War II. Ida drew this portrait from the words of Executive Order 9066, the document that authorized the removal of all individuals of Japanese descent from the United States' military bases.

Ida's inspiration for this series began after the signing of Executive Order 13769, signed by President Trump in 2017, which limited travel from Muslim majority countries to the United States. This travel ban reminded Ida of the treatment his family had endured, which sparked the start of his "con.Text" series.

Environment series
In Bryan Ida's "Environment" series, he "examines mankind's endless demand for energy and expansion in the name of human advancement." Ida cuts apart landscapes of trees and nature and places them on top of one another.

Within these paintings, Ida reveals the struggle individuals face as the world is dependent on humans' ability to balance the demand for natural resources. He communicates, through this series, his belief that the destruction towards the environment has come to the point that it is irreversible.

Though he believes recovery is impossible, Ida could only hope that humans change their ways.

= Accomplishments = November 13th, 2020: Two images from Ida's "con.Text" series was featured in Psychological Perspectives: A Quarterly Journal of Jungian Thought" under an article titled "Healing Cultural Divides: A Jungian Approach."

December 2020: Ida's work was featured in the 2020 edition of CENTERPOINT NOW "Are we there yet?" under the title "Manzanar."

December 29, 2020: Bryan Ida publishes his first fine arts magazine, "con.Text."

February 3, 2021: Bryan Ida was interviewed by the San Jose Metro Newspaper with one of his portraits from his "con.Text" series on the cover page.

May 25th, 2021: Ida was interviewed by the Santa Clara University's student newspaper, The Santa Clara, where he spoke about his career and the inspiration behind his "con.Text" portraits.

September 29th, 2021: Ida was a guest on Art Dimensions' "Beyond the Palette" podcast where he spoke on how he became an artist, his education, and his creations.

Exhibitions
October 1995: Ida holds hist first exhibition at the studio of Sam Francis.

November 8th, 2014 - December 20th, 2014: Ida holds an exhibition called "Remnants" located at the George Billis Gallery in Los Angeles.

May 20th, 2017 - July 1st, 2017: Ida holds his second exhibition at the George Billis Gallery called "Echo & Line."

August 22nd, 2019 - November 21st, 2019: Bryan ida displays two pieces from his "con.Text" series in Cal Poly Pomona's The W. Keith & Janet Kellogg University Art Gallery.

February 4th, 2020 - February 28th, 2020 Ida holds a "con.Text" exhibition at the Cilker Art Center West Valley College.

May 16th, 2020 - June 20th, 2020: Ida was apart of a show held by the Durden and Ray Gallery called "We are here Here we are."

February 5th, 2021 - February 11th, 2021: Ida holds a digital exhibition of his "Environment" series at the entrance to Helms Design Center located in Culver City.

August 1st, 2021 - August 28th, 2021: Ida held an exhibition dedicated to the portraits shown in his "con.Text" magazine at the Japanese American Museum of San Jose.

= References =