Deviance – Project Space
February 2 – March 15, 2008
Reception for the Artist: Saturday, February 2, 6 – 9 pm
Los Angeles, CA—Sam Lee Gallery is pleased to present a solo exhibition entitled Deviance by Brooklyn-based artist Fay Ku. This exhibition opens February 2 and closes March 15, 2008; the gallery will host an opening reception for the artist on Saturday, February 2, 6 to 9 p.m.
Deviance offers a dark but beautifully executed group of intricate graphite, watercolor and ink drawings that depict girls in disquieting and dark narratives. Ku’s work, which treads the line between the styles of Japanese ukiyo-e (pictures of the floating world) and contemporary illustration, addresses issues of socialization, particularly the complexities of childhood and adolescence. The artist approaches the topic through a personal, historical and cultural context. Her paintings and drawings are a blending of familiar folklore stories or random events that she has heard or witnessed. For Ku, bringing forth the “unthought known” is of utmost importance, as she re-works stories as a tool for “extracting the psychological realities that underlie all things.”
In Nightcrawlers (2007), a teenage girl passively lies in bed while her whole body is covered with terrorizing insects. In Thorns (2007), another drawing from the same series, a naked girl is kneeling on the ground with thorns projecting from her mouth, leaving the viewer to wonder if the drawn figure is purging or ingesting the prickly branches. Ku’s work uncovers the trappings of adolescence by juxtaposing the innocent with the sinister.
Ku, born in Taiwan, currently lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. She holds a master’s of fine art from Pratt Institute, New York (2006) and bachelor’s degrees in visual arts and literature from Bennington College, Vermont (1996). Ku has had solo exhibitions at Real Art Ways in Hartford, Connecticut, Metaphor Contemporary Art in Brooklyn, and A.I.R. Gallery in Manhattan; her work has been included in numerous group exhibitions in Brooklyn, Connecticut, Manhattan, Santa Fe and Los Angeles.
Digital images are available for press purposes. Please email (info@samleegallery.com) for reproduction requests.
Sam Lee Gallery is located at 990 N. Hill Street #190, Los Angeles, CA 90012, Phone 323-227-0275, Facsimile 323-227-0256. Gallery hours are Tuesday to Saturday, 12 to 6 pm. For detailed information, please visit the gallery’s website, www.samleegallery.com.