User:Theravenqueen/Marilyn Yu

Marilyn Yu (born 26 September 1975) is one of San Francisco's premier genre-busting artists, known for interweaving media, ideas and people in her creations.

Work
Yu’s artwork is a mixture of her lighthearted and humorous perspective with critical topics ranging from urban sprawl to the culture of consumerism. She was a pioneer in introducing sustainability to high fashion with her award-winning, hemp-based clothing line, Plutonium Clothing. Her costume design work is highly acclaimed for both its craft and creativity.

In her latest works, Yu is collaboratively creating a mythology for a contemporary heroine named Eva. She has produced two avant-garde books and a short film about Eva with about 20 other people. In "Relations That Suck: The Story of Eva and Dries" Yu uses fashion photography to tell the story of a friendship between a vampire and a spider. The book "La Femme Fatale" is a deck of cards that contains Eva's story and self-help advice for the reader. The short film "La Femme Fatale" is a dream-like depiction of an excerpt from the book. In addition to these main projects, Yu has produced art installations and performances about Eva.

Much of Yu's work deals with proactively orchestrating the intersection of ideas. She draws from a wide range of influences and combines them in unconventional ways. This results in her art, clothing, and costumes having the quality of being simultaneously historic and futuristic. Her artistic productions often involve audience participation, elaborate costuming and environments, interactive components, and other collaborators, including Angela DeCenzo, Norma Cordova, Matthew Abaya, Heather Papp, Stephani Martinez, and the band Laguna Sunrise.

Yu is regarded as pioneering and inspirational. Her work with communities bridges traditional boundaries of ethnicity, generations, sectors/fields, and cultures. She co-founded Locus Arts in 1999 to support pan-Asian-American arts and issues. She has worked with many community-based organizations to diversify their programs to match changing community demographics and needs. During a time of crisis she steered the venerable Kearny Street Workshop onto a path towards sustainability. She specializes in non-profit organizational development with a focus on financial management.

Organizations and Community Work

 * Locus Arts, San Francisco, Co-Founder and Co-Director (1999-2004)


 * Kearny Street Workshop, San Francisco, Board Chair (2006-2008)and Board Treasurer (2003-2005).


 * Some non-profits Yu has done work for: Women's Community Clinic, Community Educational Services, Opportunity Fund, Asian American Theater Company, and the Galeria de la Raza.

Books & Video
La Femme Fatale, ISBN 978-0-578-06860-2 (2011)

Relations That Suck: The Story of Eva and Dries, ISBN 978-0-615-25471-5 (2009)

La Femme Fatale - Short Video (a collaboration with Matthew Abaya) (2011)

Accomplishments
Some of Yu's accomplishments included being voted Best Fashion Designer by AsianWeek for the Best of the Asian Pacific American Bay Area Awards 2004, receiving the "Reviewer's Choice" Distinction from California Bookwatch in April 2009 for "Relations that Suck," awarded Henry S.F. Cooper Memorial prize for Best in Sculpture (1997), and receiving Florence Brevoort Kane Award from the Providence Art Club (1996).

Education
Yu graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design with a Bachelors of Fine Arts in Sculpture and from the University of California at Berkeley with a Masters in City and Regional Planning.

Select Exhibitions and Productions
Look Around: Fashion Crawl, San Francisco (2010)

Celebrate! San Francisco, Mission Cultural center, San Francisco (2010)

Mad World: Messages to the Future, Galeria de la Raza, San Francisco (2010)

City Centered Festival, San Francisco (2010)

Fort Point Open Studios, Boston (2009)

Dogsbody, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco (2009)

Nocturn: Celebrating Those who Live in the Shadows, San Francisco (2009)

Damask Boudoir, Oakland (2009)

Queer Cheer, LGBT Community Center, San Francisco (2008)

Fashion Designer episode, TV show "The Job – Loving Your Job Is Possible" (June 2006)

Dimension of IS, The Lab, San Francisco (2006)

Don Q, NOHspace, San Francisco (2006)

Moon of the Scarlet Plums, Diego Rivera Theater, San Francisco (2005)

The Typographer's Dream, Thick House, San Francisco (2005)

M.U.V.E. (movement uninhibited violating everything), APICC United States of Asian America Festival, San Francisco (2004)

Greater Than The Sum of Our Parts, APICC United States of Asian America Festival, San Francisco (2004)

The Clay Play, NOHspace, San Francisco (2002)

Altas(t), Galeria de la Raza, San Francisco (2001)

APAture, San Francisco (1999 & 2000)

Sculpture Walk, San Francisco (1997 & 1998)