Rhyming The Invisible: Charles Yuen

20 April - 28 May 2023

Overview

Charles Yuen

Rhyming the Invisible

Conjuring stories that champion absurdity and acceptance, hubris and redemption—I paint innocent observations of the human condition. Made in a process of discovery and revelation, they offer an archeology of their own creation; pentimenti belies false starts, buried metaphors, and possible diversions.

Somewhat iconoclastic by nature, my paintings yield realist’s logic to poetic insight. I use material and intellectual stimuli to explore invisible forces. With battered and scarred surfaces reflective of developing an image, I hope to resist mass-media’s dehumanized generalities to evoke our contemporary condition.

Being from Hawaii, a longtime New York City resident, with an hyphenated identity (Chinese-Japanese-American), has encouraged unique assumptions on belonging. An unstable cultural perch promotes my questioning viewpoint.

VIEWING ROOM

Essay by John Yau

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Installation Views

All install photos credit Dan Watkins, courtesy of the gallery

Works

Press release

March 31, 2023, Boston, MA - Charles Yuen’s first solo exhibition in Boston, Rhyming the Invisible, will open at LaiSun Keane next month. The exhibition will feature a collection of the artist's new paintings, along with an exhibition catalogue and accompanying essay by writer and poet John Yau.

Yuen's work champions absurdity and acceptance, hubris and redemption, conjuring stories that reflect his unique perspective as a Chinese-Japanese-American artist from Hawaii and longtime New York City resident.

The paintings in the exhibition are somewhat iconoclastic in nature, yielding realist's logic to poetic insight. Yuen uses material and intellectual stimuli to explore invisible forces, and the battered and scarred surfaces of his work reflect the process of developing an image.

Yuen's questioning viewpoint is reflected in his work, which resists mass-media's dehumanized generalities to evoke our contemporary condition. The exhibition promises to be a fascinating exploration of identity, culture, and the human experience. As astutely observed by Yau, Yuen’s works evoke a constantly changing polymorphous world, rooted in abstraction and often dislocating, melancholic emotion. His art invites viewers to speculate and reflect on the relationships between culture, history, and nature. They remind us that we all share a common fate.

Charles Yuen, whose career spans over four decades, is a highly awarded artist. He has been the recipient of grants and awards from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship (2018), Adolf and Esther Gottlieb Foundation (2011), Joan Mitchell Foundation (2006), Artists’ Projects: New York State Regional Initiative (1993), and an Artist in Residence (1983-4, Asian Arts Institute and New York State Council on the Arts). He has exhibited his works in New York with Pierogi Gallery, Pamela Salisbury Gallery, and Kathryn Markel among others. Reviews of his work have appeared in numerous publications including Hyperallergic, The Brooklyn Rail, New York Times and Art In America. He is a founding member of Godzilla, an Asian American Arts Network. He graduated with a BFA from the University of Hawaii in 1975, and obtained an MFA from Rutgers University in 1981.

Rhyming the Invisible will be on display at the gallery from April 20th to May 28th. The artist will be present at the Opening Reception on First Friday, May 5th from 5pm to 8pm, and an in gallery conversation will take place on Saturday May 6th at 1pm between the artist and writer John Yau.

Admission is free and open to the public. For more information, please visit the gallery's website or contact us at info@laisunkeane.com.

CHARLES YUEN
Rhyming the Invisible
April 20 - May 28, 2023
At LaiSun Keane
460C Harrison Ave C8A Boston MA 02118

Normal gallery hours: Wednesday to Saturday 11am - 6pm, Sunday 11am- 4pm or by appointment

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