Ray Hwang
My work often draws from the estranged relationships we have with the parts of ourselves that exist in paradox with each other. The elements in my paintings feel like actors in a play, responding to a director, an unreliable narrator, who loathes rehearsals. Since the beginning of the pandemic, I’ve become hyper aware of my longing for an idealized idea of home or belonging; many of the works made since then reflect a sort of amalgamation of lived experience, memory and fantasy. A half eaten Vietnamese Banh Mi sandwich alludes to love half-realized, while dinosaur feet slippers feel like a somber reminder of a far off extinction event. In the end, we’re left with the record of something that may not reflect factual history, but perhaps a genuine emotional history.
Ray Hwang’s featured work is on loan courtesy of LaiSun Keane Gallery, Boston.
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