I am overjoyed with how the Loving & Letting Go exhibit came together. In the next few posts, I will be reflecting on different aspects of my solo show. Today’s post focuses on the exhibit itself. I absolutely love this view from the outside.

Huge thanks to Mark Woods and Vassilisa Kapila for these beautiful photos.

 

This may be my favorite wall in the show. There’s something about the way these pieces hang together (maybe it’s the blues) that I find so pleasing.

 

These works in the front of the gallery are what most likely come to mind when people think of one of my paintings ~ lots of depth with layered surfaces that are textured, weathered and worn. In these pieces, there’s a tension between opposing forces seeking resolution (motion/stillness, geometric/atmospheric, light/dark, etc) ~ a fitting match for show’s theme of loving and letting go.

 

 

 

I made the large paper piece on the left during my 2022 Chateau Orquevaux artist residency in France. After my morning writing, I headed into my studio and painted some quick works on paper just to loosen up.  At the end of our month, we were invited to exhibit the work we’d created…and I didn’t want to show 30 pieces of paper. So I decided to make a painting out of paper. This is what I came up with.

The 3 smaller pieces on the right are what my quick works on paper evolved into ~ these pages have taken on a life of their own, and are currently exhibiting in my solo show (“Little & Often”) in Chicago.

 

The beauty of this space is that it offered up different rooms that allowed me to showcase various sides of my creative practice. This little nook held more standalone pieces that were still pivotal in my journey.

 

Heading down the hall, I love this peekaboo view into this room. I enjoyed witnessing people’s responses as they stumbled upon this unexpected installation. The walls of the room are lined with 8 years of original journal pages.

If you look closely, you can see Korean characters painted in orange on the “thatching” of the hut. This was a fun Kimaro family collab: I wrote a statement about my daily writing practice ~ my father translated it into Swahili ~ then my mother transcribed (not translated) the Swahili into Korean.

I traced her handwriting onto raw canvas strips that made up the thatching…then distressed the canvas with coffee.

For me, the ideal progression of this exhibit is from internal to external. So I begin in the hut ~ inside my subconscious mind. Hanging inside the hut are papers embedded with images of my Korean family. Projecting from behind these papers is my movie A Lot Like You. So my Tanzanian family illuminates my Korean family, bringing them to life with color and light. The two families are interdependent ~ I love how you couldn’t see one without the other. I am the embodiment of their stories…

Journal pages lined the walls around the room.  I’ve had a daily writing practice since I was 7. This writing bridges my internal and external worlds.

With the pages turned sideways, the text tumbles vertically down the wall ~ reminiscent of the scrolls in my childhood home.  I wanted people experience the feeling of being surrounded by my writing, instead of feeling compelled to stand, read and consume it.

Several folks asked if I was worried about people reading my journal entries. Not in the least. It was readily available, so people would take a closer look. But pretty quickly they would realize the contents were of little interest to anyone but me.

 

 

 

Continuing down the hall from the hut room to the large room in the back. These  paintings focused more on the balance between light & dark.

 

Even though I love the two pieces on the left, I almost didn’t bring them because I wasn’t sure how well they would work with the other paintings. But that was because I had never seen these two together in the same room. Much to my surprise, they bring out the best in each other. This unlikely pairing was one of the many gifts of having this much space to play with…

(I will say more about the piece on the right in a future post.)

 

This room in the back is huge, and contained these pieces exploring light and dark. For some, these pieces were more intense than the ones in the front ~ and they appreciated being able to look at them from a distance. It’s also where we held the screening of the film and the artist talk. What a blessing to have this whole gallery to explore and express my reflections on Loving & Letting Go from multiple angles.

The cave/tunnel painting on the right was one of the pieces that drew the most interest during the run of the show.  Click here to see how The Offering came in to being, from start to finish.