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Kristin Liu-WongAbout Kristen Liu-Wong Artist

Kristin Liu-Wong was born on Friday the 13th in September of 1991. Her place of birth is San Francisco, California. She is Chinese American but notes that she does not speak Chinese, “As an Asian lady who only speaks American English I probably wouldn’t blend to [sic] well in a lot of places,” (Pierra, 2020). The artist identifies as queer and frequently depicts sexual acts associated with the marginalized queer and kink communities. The artist identifies as atheist, although she was raised in the Catholic church which is the stated reason for the use of Catholic imagery in her artworks (Marinovic, 2015). She was raised with her sister, by her Mother and Grandmother. Her father and mother divorced when she was young and she does not know her biological father. Her mother is an art teacher and her Grandmother was an elementary school teacher. The artist describes her upbringing, “. . . although we were poor, education and arts were always appreciated and emphasized in our household,” (Pierra, 2020). In relation to her progression as an artist, Liu-Wong states, “In high school, I was drawing lots of goopy vagina monsters. . .my mom, since she’s very open to any type of art, never really censored what I was allowed to be interested in. She didn’t mind that I was drawing oozing vagina monsters,” (Weinstein, 2018). 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. The majority of her work is freelance. She works as a freelance illustrator for many entities which include Lenny Letter and Adidas (Hurley, 2017). show. The use of subversive imagery to explore the taboo in her artworks elicits varied reactions, which appear to be a part of the artist’s plan, she explained, “I don't know that I'm ever sending a message because my paintings are so personal to me. That's why I make them so weird because I don't want to share too much. I like to translate it through imagery. So I don't ever have a specific message. And I think that it's more relatable and universal if the message is never too specific to me. I like to leave it just open enough that everyone can project whatever they want onto my stuff,” (Renshen, 2015). Liu-Wong’s works tempt the viewer to gaze into the taboo, she stated, “I like to have a voyeuristic approach. We all want to look at shit that we're not supposed to,” (Khatchadourian, 2016) 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 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.”

Two Sample Works

Kristen Liu-Wong's work is surreal, illustrative, dreamy, sometimes erotic, and always striking. Drawing from an eclectic collection of narrative and aesthetic influences, Kristen paints detailed tableaus of self-reliant women in fluorescent and pastel hues. The last stand was inspired by the unicorn Tapestries, specifically the tapestry featuring” the Killing of  the unicorn”. This piece 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.

Pentheus Was a Disbeliever,(2019). In this piece Wong was telling a story of 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 and 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 seen here. Agave didn’t realize it was her own son until she got home later.

Norma- the piece was inspired by the opera Norma, which tells the story of a Druid priestess who has secretly been having a forbidden affair with Roman proconsul, and has broken her vows and bore him two children.

Academic works & social impact critiques

In response to 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 eKristen Liu-Wong made the cover of Juxtapoz magazine in March of 2017. In light of the beginning of Trumpowerment, and visual storytelling (Farr, 2017).

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).

Art Shows & Installations

2015--Corey Helford Gallery, Los Angeles, CA Group show: Hello Kitty--45th Anniversary

2015--New Image Art Gallery, Hollywood, CA

2018--Corey Helford Gallery, Los Angeles, CA 1st solo art show “Conflict Resolution”

2018--Screaming Sky--Portland, OR; 2 person art show Sabrina Elliott

2018--Superchief--2 person Art show, traveling across country to New York featured with Luke Pelletier

2020--Corey Helford Gallery, Los Angeles, CA group show "fantasical beasts"