Glades and Ragged Underwood
January 3, 2013 to February 3, 2013
Featuring Vivian Chen, Julia Gfrörer, Angie Wang
Opening Reception Thursday January 3rd, 7 - 10 pm
Curated by Molly Georgetta
Opening Reception Thursday January 3rd, 7 - 10 pm
Curated by Molly Georgetta
This January Compound Gallery presents Glades and Ragged Underwood, a three-person show featuring art by local artists Angie Wang, Vivian Chen and Julia Gfrörer.
Inspired by the woodlands and forests that surround us in the Pacific Northwest, January will find our walls covered in representations of what this landscape means to us as organisms in the cycle of life. A place of life, growth, death, decay, mystery and beauty, our interactions with the woods may vary from light to dark, as does the art in this show.
Please join us for the opening reception Thursday January 3rd, 2013.
Artist Statements:
Vivian Chen: Life in the wild is a continuum. Over time, life turns to death and decay, which in turn becomes the rich base from which new life forms. Beauty becomes shit becomes beauty. In my work, I gather the states on both sides of death in towards the center like folding a blanket, and create a new moment in which life is comprised of both old and new, stillness and violence.
Julia Gfrörer: In my work I approach the mythological forest as a symbol of liminality, embodying the chaos and danger that must be confronted in order for transition to occur. Both light and darkness, growth and decay are present and interdependent, perhaps indistinguishable, and human intellect and morality have no purpose in this wild place.
Angie Wang: My drawings for this show are based on the idea of beauty and the sublime in nature, and the tension between neat, postcard-sized prints with an accessible sensibility and an orderly composition, and the untamed setting that these drawings were based on.
Inspired by the woodlands and forests that surround us in the Pacific Northwest, January will find our walls covered in representations of what this landscape means to us as organisms in the cycle of life. A place of life, growth, death, decay, mystery and beauty, our interactions with the woods may vary from light to dark, as does the art in this show.
Please join us for the opening reception Thursday January 3rd, 2013.
Artist Statements:
Vivian Chen: Life in the wild is a continuum. Over time, life turns to death and decay, which in turn becomes the rich base from which new life forms. Beauty becomes shit becomes beauty. In my work, I gather the states on both sides of death in towards the center like folding a blanket, and create a new moment in which life is comprised of both old and new, stillness and violence.
Julia Gfrörer: In my work I approach the mythological forest as a symbol of liminality, embodying the chaos and danger that must be confronted in order for transition to occur. Both light and darkness, growth and decay are present and interdependent, perhaps indistinguishable, and human intellect and morality have no purpose in this wild place.
Angie Wang: My drawings for this show are based on the idea of beauty and the sublime in nature, and the tension between neat, postcard-sized prints with an accessible sensibility and an orderly composition, and the untamed setting that these drawings were based on.
Artist
When Angie Wang was eight she made a mural on her wall out of snot, and that's when she knew she was artistic. She does occasional illustrations for The New Yorker, The New York Times, and Nylon Magazine, and her comic "Flower Mecha" will be featured in Best American Comics 2011. Her style is a mix of ukiyo-e, science fiction, and fashion illustration. Angie is currently working on a graphic novel adaptation of The Nutcracker. Angie lives in Portland, Oregon.
Julia Gfrörer is an artist and printer who lives in Portland, Oregon. Her comic books include Mundane Grimoire, Too Dark to See, the series Ariadne auf Naxos, and Flesh and Bone, which was nominated for an Ignatz Award in 2010, and included in 2011's Best American Comics anthology. She has long red hair, likes to cry, and drinks a lot of tea.
Born in NY, raised in Taiwan, and lived in Portland, OR for the last 12 years, Vivian Chen takes inspiration from a wide variety of cultures and people, with very different styles and ideas – from graffiti to manga to fine art, she is mesmerized by anything and everything beautiful and intriguing, and believes that inspirations come from absolutely everywhere when you are welling to look with openness and freedom of imagination.
Artwork