User:Grapekitten2020/sandbox

Kristen Liu-Wong was born on Friday the 13th in September of 1991. Her place of birth is San Francisco, California. At the age of 17, Kristen left home and traveled to Brooklyn, New York to attend school. She lived in Brooklyn for six years. In 2013, she graduated with a degree in Illustration from the Pratt Institute. She currently resides and works in Los Angeles. Kristen is a popular and prolific painter and illustrator who identifies sources of inspiration from multiple sources: Japanese woodblock painting, Chinese pottery, Egyptian art, American folk art, Shunga, architecture, vaporwave aesthetics, Greek mythology, Nickelodeon Cartoons from the 1990s, and Greek Mythology (1) (2) (3). Her works have been characterized as having “bright neon colors on wood panels” which depict female sexuality and strength (4). Additionally, her works contrast darker themes such as violence with bright tones, as she defined it, “death fights in cute colors.” In an interview on RVCA, Kristin said that her early works were in black and white and that “I was pretty afraid of color.”  She overcame that fear and embraced neon colors, “to have the subject matter not necessarily reflected in the palette.” Another interesting aspect of Kristin’s approach to the depiction of humans in her work is the choice to not indicate detail, “I want to keep the features pretty blah so that everyone can project themselves onto the characters.” “The last stand,” was inspired by the unicorn Tapestries, specifically the tapestry featuring” the Killing of the unicorn”. This piece of interpretation can be, the creatures of the forest weep silent tears of fear and helplessness as they witness the cruel attack that stains the beauty of the forest, usually the unicorn and her companion’s sanctuary. Despite the countless arrows and wounds that drain them of their life, they fight back. www.kristenliuart.com “Pentheus Was a Disbeliever”, (2019). In this piece, Wong was telling a story of the Greek myth about Pentheus, the king of Thebes who banned the worship of Dionysus the god of the wine harvest, drink, and fertility. Dionysus got angry over the ban, so he exacted revenge by making the women of Thebes horny, who then all ran over to the orgy on Mt Cithaeron, including Pentheus’ mom Agave and his aunts. Pentheus had Dionysus locked up in jail, but the chains fell off, the jail doors opened, and Dionysus simply walked out. ⁠⠀ Dressed as a woman, Dionysus lured Pentheus out to the woods to spy on the orgy, but once there, Pentheus’ aunt thought he was a wild animal in the bush and killed him. In a frenzy the women then tore off his limbs, Agave ripped off his head, and they all went back to the party scene here. Agave did not realize it was her son until she got home later. Section 3: Academic publications and writings Kristen Liu-Wong made the cover of Juxtapoz magazine in March of 2017. Considering the beginning of Trump’s presidency, this issue intentionally featured “strong female protagonists” such as Liu-Wong and Yayoi Kusama and focused on themes of personal enlightenment, sexual empowerment, and visual storytelling (2). In 2008, Liu-Wong’s work was cited in the thesis of MFA student Hannah M. Groudas, titled “HORN OF PLENTY”. In their thesis, Groudas discusses how the artwork of Kristen Liu-Wong encompasses themes of queer futurism with its “depictions of strong, futuristic women who are clearly in control of their lives and their environments” and argues that “her women explore their sexuality with people of other or of the same gender in a free and open way” (Groudas, 2018). Another strong quote from that Thesis: “Similar to feminist artists of the 60s and 70s, Wong’s women of all races are fearless and unapologetic about their nude bodies, menstruation, vices, relationships to technology, and range of sexualities.” References

(1) Anthony, A. (2020). Whitehot Magazine: Interview with LA-based artist Kristen Liu-Wong. Retrieved from https://whitehotmagazine.com/articles/based-artist-kristen-liu-wong/4507. (2) Farr, K. (2017). Juxtapoz: Kristen Liu-Wong: Underworld pool party. Retrieved from https://www.juxtapoz.com/news/magazine/kristen-liu-wong-underworld-pool-party/. (3)LVL3 (2018). Spotlight: Kristen Liu-Wong. Retrieved from http://lvl3official.com/kristen-liu-wong/. (4)RVCA Q & A: Kristen Liu-Wong. Youtube Retrieved from www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3fm5LCBzzQ. (5) Groudas, H. M. (2018). Horn of plenty: thesis: Northeastern University. Retrieved from https://repository.library.northeastern.edu/files/neu:cj82sv894/fulltext.pdf. Kristin Liu-Wong (2020). Artist website. Retrieved from www.kristenliuart.com.