Pearl C. Hsiung

Pearl C. Hsiung is a Taiwan-born American multi-media artist based in Los Angeles.

Biography

Pearl C. Hsiung was born in Taichung, Taiwan and raised and educated in California.[1] However, she and her brother, artist Michael C. Hsiung, spent time in Taiwan during several summer breaks from school.[2] Hsiung received her a BA in art from University of California of Los Angeles in 1997, and she earned her MFA from Goldsmiths College, London, in 2004.[3]

After graduating college, she began a career in commercial fashion design, but quickly found herself unfulfilled.[3] Hsiung then decided to pursue an MFA in art at Goldsmiths College in London.[4] She primarily works in painting, installation and video. Hsiung's earlier works reflect her Taiwanese roots and Los Angeles upbringing in its use of bright colors, hard-edged application techniques, and graphics informed by the quotidian and popular aesthetics of both cultures.[1] The subject matter usually focuses on nature and how humans relate and interact with and within it. Through her artwork Hsiung looks to understand how as humans we see and apply biological, social and cultural patterns in natural environments.[5]

Hsiung's painting style can be described as contemporary surrealism with a mixture of sci-fi and other components.[3] Currently, she is a working artist and arts educator based in Los Angeles, California.[6] In 2022, her tile artwork High Prismatic, was installed at the Grand Ave Arts/Bunker Hill subway station of the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority.[7]

Style and artwork

Hsiung works in a variety of media including paper, video, and paint.[8] Hsiung uses a style where she attempts to imitate computer graphics by hand while using mural-like bright colors.[9] Hsiung's bold landscapes are influenced by her summers in Taiwan as well as Southern California and Los Angeles street murals and advertisements.[2] She creates psychedelic vistas in many of her works that she figuratively relates to consciousness.[10] Hsiung also uses humor in her art work to critique culture identity and to challenge art making and common notions.[2]

Overfiend (2003)

This painting is oil-based enamel on canvas. This abstract landscape features an eyeball as a giant sunset overlooking a beach where an egg is laying in the sun. The background is dark blue with palm trees in silhouette. With this painting, Hsiung presents her anthropomorphic style which is present in many of her paintings.[11]

Power Chode Homina (2004)

In this painting, oil on canvas, we see her multicultural influence in the use of color and digital painting.[1] The graphics she depicts are done in a form that makes them appear videogame like.[1] This painting has alien like figures depicted on a space like landscape. We see nothing surrounding the figures other than themselves and smoke. The vibrant use of color creates a digital imitation look that reflects the influence of graffiti and mural painting commonly seen in the streets of L.A.[12] Hsiung in this painting and like in others has a humorous approach and creates a blatant joke about the phallus.[13]

Volcanic Ash (2010)

In this video work, Hsiung uses her trademark surrealist style and includes music performance and composing.[6] This six minute long piece is a music video which she uses the lyrics to describe a geological reality.[6] Her work is more than just a sci-fi and psychedelic fantasy, she explores natural cycles of destruction and rebirth.[14]

Yellowstoner (2014)

This video work by Hsiung brings her painting style to life. This piece takes place in Yellowstone National Park, it is a thirty-minute video that took Hsiung almost 4 years to complete.[15] In this video we see a character, no gender specified, exploring this landscape through waterfalls and the Geothermal areas of Yellowstone.[16] The character is shown doing cartwheels through the fields and other simple acts that describes the characters enjoyment of the landscape.[15] The way Yellowstone is captured by Hsiung depicts it as an other worldly realm by showing frames of the bubbling mud puddles and exploding geysers as well as the rainbows.[15] This video work by Hsiung is meant to portray the rhythm of nature and human interaction.[15]

Solo exhibitions

Pearl C. Hsiung's first solo exhibition was back in 2004 while she lived in Britain. In her debut at MW Projects in London, Hsiung holds Overfiend where she shared a couple paintings and transformed a room to fit her artistic aesthetic that would fit her other-worldly art.[12]

  • 2019  Fault Zone, Visitor Welcome Center, Los Angeles, CA
  • 2018  Two Faces, One Die, College of the Canyons Art Gallery, Valencia, CA
  • 2017 Full Gorge, Visitor Welcome Center, Los Angeles, CA[8]
  • 2015 Whiskeytown, O.N.O, Los Angeles, CA
  • 2014 Yellowstoner, Human Resources, Los Angeles, CA
  • 2011 Gusher: Pearl C Hsiung, Selected Works 2003 - 2011, Vincent Price Art Museum, East Los Angeles College, Monterey Park, CA[17]
  • 2010 Never Ends, Steve Turner Contemporary, Los Angeles, CA[18]
  • 2007 Eroto Erupto Infinito, Steve Turner Contemporary, Los Angeles, CA
  • 2006 To the Big Life, Max Wigram Gallery, London, UK
  • 2004  Pearl C. Hsiung, Upriver Gallery, Kunming, China
  • 2004 Overfiend, MW Projects, London, UK[19]

Select group exhibitions

  • 2022  3 Artists, 39+ Art Space, Singapore
  • 2022  The Healing Trumpet, Marguo Gallery, Paris, France
  • 2019  New Suns, Páramo Gallery, Guadalajara, Mexico
  • 2019  Candlewood Arts Festival, Borrego Springs, CA
  • 2018  The Beyond: Georgia O'Keeffe and Contemporary Art, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, AR[20][21]
  • 2016  Second Wave: Aesthetics of the 80s in Today's Contemporary Art, UCR ARTSblock, Sweeney Art Gallery, Riverside, CA
  • 2014  Tender Buttons, Hockney Gallery, Royal College of Art, London, UK
  • 2013  The Archaic Revival - Rotterdam, Zic Zerp Gallery, Rotterdam, Holland
  • 2012  Made In L.A. 2012, Hammer Museum, Westwood, CA[22]
  • 2011  The Archaic Revival, Las Cienegas Projects, Culver City, CA
  • 2010  New Art for a New Century: Contemporary Acquisitions 2000 - 2010, Orange County Museum of Art, Newport Beach, CA[23]
  • 2009  OZ: New Offerings from the Angel City, Regional Museum of Guadalajara, Mexico
  • 2004  Expander, The Royal Academy of Arts, London, UK

Selected screenings

  • 2017  Fair Play, Brickell Center, Miami, FL. M.A.R.S. Festival, Art Share L.A., Los Angeles, CA
  • 2015  Opening Night, The Situation Room, Glassel Park, CA
  • 2012  Cinemarfa, Marfa, Texas
  • 2011 – The Big Screen Project, Medial Lounge, CAA Conference 2011, New York. Whole Halves, Human Resources, Los Angeles, USA
  • 2006  Dreamcenter LA, Drake Hotel, Toronto, Canada
  • 2005  Sparks Video International, Spark Contemporary Art Space, New York, USA
  • 2004  Timepop, Prince Charles Cinema, London, UK

Honors and awards

  • 2015  CCF Fellowship for Visual Arts, Getty Fellow 2015, Mid-Career Artist [5]
  • 2015 National Park Services - Artist in Residence, Santa Monica Mountains, Santa Monica, CA
  • 2014  National Park Services - Artist in Residence, Whiskeytown National Recreation Area, Redding, CA
  • 2014 Pearl C. Hsiung presents Original Face, P3 Studio Residency curated by the Art Production Fund, New York, NY
  • 2012  We Are Talking Pyramids, Public Art Residency at Heart of Los Angeles (HOLA), Los Angeles, CA
  • 2010  USA Projects Grant, United States Artists, Los Angeles, CA
  • 2003  Red Mansion Art Prize and Residency in Kunming China, Red Mansion, London,

References

  1. Foster, Stephen (2004). "New British Painting" (PDF). Southampton: John Hansard Gallery: 17–20.
  2. Diaz, Karla. "Pearl C. Hsiung" (PDF). Beautiful Decay. v: 69–71.
  3. Gonzalez, Rita (2006). "Pearl C. Hsiung" (PDF). Retrieved 2021-03-20.
  4. Ivan-Zadeh, Larushka (June 11, 2004). "Young at Art" (PDF). Evening Standard Magazine: 53–55.
  5. "Fellowship For Visual Artist". California Community Foundation. 2015. Retrieved 2021-03-20.
  6. Taft, Catherine (September 16 – December 16, 2011). "GUSHER: Pearl C. Hsiung, Selected Works 2003-2011" (PDF). {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  7. "Regional Connector Art Program". www.metro.net. Retrieved 2021-06-03.
  8. de Dobay Rifelj, Claire (2017-06-01). "Pearl C. Hsiung at Visitor Welcome Center". Contemporary Art Review LA. Retrieved 2021-05-11.
  9. Shirley, Rosemary (2004). "Southampton: "New British Painting" at John Hansard". Circa (108): 77. doi:10.2307/25564153. JSTOR 25564153 via JSTOR.
  10. De Dobay Rifelj, Claire (June 1, 2017). "Pearl C. Hsiung at Visitor Welcome Center". Retrieved May 10, 2021.
  11. Lee, Carol (February 2009). "Scorpio Rising" (PDF). Paper Magazine: 27.
  12. Smith, Dan (2004-03-28). "Debut: An Emerging Artist's First Solo Exhibition". mwprojects.net.
  13. Schwabsky, Barry (April 2006). "Pearl C. Hsiung". Artforum International. 44 via ProQuest.
  14. Dalton, Trinie (2011-12-16). "Pearl Hsiung: Vincent Price Art Museum".
  15. Fitzpatrick, Kyle (March 3, 2014). "The Rhythms of Nature: Pearl C. Hsiung's Yellowstoner" (PDF). Los Angeles I'm Yours.
  16. Hoy, Anna Sew (March 2014). "Yellowstoner".
  17. "Pearl Hsiung at Vincent Price Art Museum". www.artforum.com. Retrieved 2021-05-11.
  18. Knight, Christopher (October 28, 2010). "Art review: Pearl C. Hsiung at Steve Turner Contemporary". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved April 25, 2021.
  19. "Debut: An Emerging Artist's First Solo Exhibition". Art Review: 97. March 2004.
  20. Dunne, Susan (February 26, 2019). "37 Georgia O'Keeffe works hang next to contemporary artists at NBMAA". Hartford Courant. Retrieved April 25, 2021.
  21. Funderburk, Amy (2019-01-18). "How Georgia O'Keeffe's Themes and Style Have Flowered in Contemporary Art". Hyperallergic. Retrieved 2021-05-11.
  22. Gaines, Malik (2012). Made in L.A. 2012. New York: Delmonico Books. pp. 219–222. ISBN 978-3791352312.
  23. Goldner, Liz (May 2008). "Disorderly Conduct: Recent Art in Tumultuous Times, Orange County Museum of Art, Newport Beach" (PDF). Artillery Magazine: 50.
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