Interlocutor Interviews | JENNY WU | Ai Yo!

INTERLOCUTOR

Feb 14

Exhibition Feature – AI YO! by Jenny Wu

Exhibition Features, Multidisciplinary Artists

Photo by Jarrett Hendrix

Morton Fine Art is pleased to announce Ai Yo!, a solo exhibition of sculptural paintings by artist Jenny Wu. Continuing an innovative latex paint and time-based practice the artist has been implementing for nearly a decade, Ai Yo! features Wu further exploring composition, color, expertise, control, chance and surprise—favoring discovery over mastery.

Long interested in tactility, in-betweenness, embodiedness, and construction (Wu has a background in architectural studies), the exhibition questions our basic assumptions about what paintings and sculptures can be. Wu’s first solo exhibition with the gallery, Ai Yo!, will be on view through March 8, 2023 at Morton’s Washington, D.C. space (52 O St NW #302).

Photo by Jarrett Hendrix

CURATORIAL STATEMENT by Amy Morton

Engaged in an innovative hybrid sculptural painting practice, Jenny Wu is a rigorous, focused and accomplished artist with a humble nature and good sense of humor.  Her practice acknowledges—and embodies—the sensational, perceptual and temporal properties of her materials, particularly her enlivening applications of latex paint and glossy coating of resin. Having cultivated a deep material wisdom, Wu is able to transform her materials from their original forms and then crucially present them within new, engrossing formal contexts. Deeply admiring Jenny’s vision and art practice, I am thrilled to be able to continue to share this transformative body of work with Ai Yo!, Wu’s first solo exhibition with the gallery.

Briefly Inhabit a Fictional World, 2022 – Latex paint and resin on wood panel – 18 x 18 x 2.5 in.

Hello to That One Person Who Nods Along Encouragingly During Presentations, 2022 – Latex paint and resin on wood panel – 36 x 12 x 2.5 in.

ARTIST STATEMENT by Jenny Wu

I could never sit still when growing up, and my mother found an alternative method to make me sit still—classical art lessons. These childhood lessons  built a foundation  that has led to my current cross-disciplinary practice in painting, sculpture, installation, video, and participatory projects. My work acknowledges the sensational and perceptual properties of materiality and then transforms the materials, from their original forms and purpose, to present them within new contexts. 

My current sculptural paintings transform liquid paint into sculpture, a process derived from making oil on canvas paintings and discovering the many layers of oil paint beneath the surface. Those layers of oil paint embody linear time, repetitive processes, and material characteristics. Now, I exemplify the layering by pouring a thick coat of latex paint one color at a time on a silicone surface, letting each color dry completely, and repeating the process many times. The colors of each layer are premeditated. I later cut the dried paint to reveal the layers of cross-section, which I then use to assemble sculpturally on a flat surface. The cross-section juxtaposes order and chaos: the consistent order of paint from old to new, and the imperfection of subtle differences in thicknesses. Each piece follows a specific pattern, uniting the differences to present a systematic imagery. Resin coating is added later on to amplify the colors, as well as to protect the paint. These works question our basic assumptions about what we consider paintings can be and what sculptures can be.

The Analysis is Severely Limited By My Lack of Understanding of What I am Doing, 2022 – Latex paint and resin on wood panel – 36 x 24 x 2.5 in.

Have Not Overthrown a Government Since 1954, 2022 -Latex paint and resin on wood panel – 36 x 24 x 2.5 in. 

Ai Yo!, will be on view through March 8, 2023 at Morton’s Washington, D.C. space (52 O St NW #302).

Check out our coverage of other current and recent art exhibitions

All images courtesy Morton Fine Art and the artist

Available artwork by JENNY WU

LIZ TRAN interviewed in ART PLUGGED

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Liz Tran’s Rorschach-Inspired Inkblots Explore The Human Psyche And Imagination

Artist Interviews

·

Last updated:January 17, 2023

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Seattle-based artist Liz Tran’s practice is an immersive exploration into the depths of the human psyche and imagination, making her work a feast for the eyes as much as it is for the soul. Tran’s adept use of colours, dots, circles, blots, and splashes is like looking into a kaleidoscope. You see something new, a provocative experience that challenges perspective every time you look.

Liz Tran

I have a childhood memory of taking the Rorschach test and it made a lasting impression. The inkblots in the test are ambiguous and open to interpretationLiz Tran

Her past exhibition, Matriarchs and Daughters Dream Oceans of Braille at Morton Fine Art in collaboration with Homme DC in December last year, was inspired by Tran’s memories of being administered Rorschach tests. A psychological evaluation of mental health and trauma through associative responses to inkblots. In this body of work, Tran transforms disparate monochromatic prints into a captivating narrative of technicolour panels, a testament to her artistic prowess. Tran’s work features in public collections that include the City of Seattle’s Portable Works Collection, Capital One, and Vulcan Inc.

In this interview, we learn more about the Seattle-based artist practice, creative process and more.

Q: Hi Liz, can you please introduce yourself? Can you share a little bit about your background and who you are as an artist?

Liz Tran: I emerged into the world on the hottest day of summer in Oregon’s Willamette Valley. I hold no memory of a time when creating was not a part of my
life—Play-Doh sculptures and sand castle landscapes later morphed into massive
paintings and installations.

Matriarchs and Daughters Dream Oceans of Braille installation view
Courtesy Morton Fine Art. Photo credit: Jarrett Hendrix

Q: In some ways your art functions as a sort of anti- Rorschach or positive- Rorschach test, stripped of the pathological assessment that defined the original test. Can you speak into your appropriation of the form, how you came to the Rorschach test? The work in this series seems to operate on a number of levels, from colorful and invigorating to slyly subversive.

Liz Tran: I have a childhood memory of taking the Rorschach test and it made a lasting impression. The inkblots in the test are ambiguous and open to interpretation, which encourages viewers to consider their own subjectivity and how it influences their understanding of the art.

The Rorschach test has a long history and has been the subject of much debate and discussion within the field of psychology. By appropriating the form of the test, I’m exploring these themes and inviting viewers to approach it with an open mind, minus the intention of diagnosis, which, historically speaking, was often incorrect.

Liz Tran Baby Father, 2019 24 x 24 in. Mixed media on panel
Courtesy Morton Fine Art and the artist

Q: Your work places generous emphasis on the self: self-knowledge, self-reflection, arguably self-care. How do you encourage and deepen these gestures to the self in a body of work that originates from a rather impersonal, profoundly analytical test?

Liz Tran: It’s true that the Rorschach test is often associated with psychological analysis and assessment, and it is typically administered by a trained evaluator in a clinical setting. However, the use of the Rorschach test in art can be a way to invite
self-reflection and exploration of the self in a more personal and artistic context.

Liz Tran
Mirror 11, 2020
12 x 12 in. Mixed media on panel
Courtesy Morton Fine Art and the artist

Q: How do you view art? Buried in these works is the idea that there is no “correct way”to understand and engage with art. I’m interested in how you engage.

Liz Tran: I primarily engage with art and art making from the place of intuition and
feeling, later taking into consideration the context of the artist’s intentions and the cultural and historical context in which it was created. Keeping in mind that there are many different ways to engage with art, it’s important to remember that there is no “right” or “wrong” way to do so.

Q: What are your thoughts about abstraction? Obviously, you work in this mode, but your art nevertheless seems to be critically alert to how we talk about and look at abstraction (art)?

Liz Tran: Abstraction can be a very effective way for artists to explore and express complex ideas and emotions, allowing for a wide range of interpretations by the viewer. It can also be a way for artists to challenge traditional notions of representation and encourage viewers to consider the art in a more open-ended and subjective way.

Heirloom, 2022 Mixed media fiber collage installation 198 x 53 in.
Courtesy Morton Fine Art and the artist

Q: Heirloom has a delightful origin. Can you tell us the inspiration behind this piece, how long it took to complete, and its meaning? What was it like working with your mother on the piece?

Liz Tran: I have memories of sitting in church and staring at the oversized, colorful
wall hangings in the otherwise monochromatic space. This imagery definitely played a part in creating my own, non-denominational textile.

Heirloom is a large wall hanging composed of various bodies of work and pieces of installations completed over the past decade. The binding is my matriarchal grandmother’s tablecloth, cut up and dyed with turmeric and the entire piece is sewn together by my mother. Heirloom serves as a marker of my career as an artist, while simultaneously serving as a tribute to the women who came before me.

Liz Tran
Cosmic Circle 1, 2020 24 x 24
in.Mixed media on panel
Courtesy Morton Fine Art and the artist

Q: What’s next for you as an artist?

Liz Tran: I’ll continue to follow my curiosity to worlds beyond explanation.

Learn more about Liz Tran

©2023 Liz Tran, Morton Fine Art

Len Gordon

Len is a curator and writer at Art Plugged, a contemporary platform inspired by a passion for showcasing exceptional artists and their work he also studying an MFA in Curating at Goldsmiths London.

Available artwork by LIZ TRAN

Artist JENNY WU paints and sculpts her piece “70 Year Old Intern Waiting for His First Real Job”

JENNY WU’s solo exhibition “Ai Yo!” runs February 8 – March 8, 2023 at Morton Fine Art in Washington, DC.

Featured here: Jenny Wu’s 70 Year Old Intern Waiting for His First Real Job”, 2022, 36″x24″, latex paint and resin on wood panel.

Visit www.mortonfineart.com for available artwork by Jenny Wu.

LIZ TRAN | Art Plugged

Liz Tran: Matriarchs and Daughters Dream Oceans of Braille

Exhibitions

·

Last updated:December 8, 2022

Liz Tran: Matriarchs and Daughters Dream Oceans of Braille
December 9, 2022 to January 6, 2023
Homme DC
2000 L ST NW
Washington, DC 20036
US

Morton Fine Art, in collaboration with Homme DC, is pleased to present Matriarchs and Daughters Dream Oceans of Braille, an exhibition of polychromatic inkblot prints and Heirloom (2022), a new 17-foot wall-mounted installation, by artist Liz Tran. Matriarchs and Daughters Dream Oceans of Braille will be on view by appointment from December 9, 2022 to January 6, 2023 at Homme DC’s Washington, D.C. space (2000 L ST NW).

Liz Tran Baby Father, 201924 x 24 in. Mixed media on panel
Courtesy Morton Fine Art and the artist

Inspired by early memories of the artist being administered Rorschach tests — a psychological evaluation of mental health and trauma through associative responses to inkblots — Tran transforms and transports the familiar monochromatic prints into a world of vibrant, technicolor panels that explore the nature of viewer subjectivity. Featuring work from her Mirror and Cosmic Circle series, Matriarchs and Daughters Dream Oceans of Braille is an explosion of colorful dots, circles, blot, and splashes that accumulate on the panel and create a thickened impasto.

Varying her compositions from symmetrical renderings–like a Rorschach print–to others more liberally abstracted, Tran’s works challenge the notion of a correct way to view art. Like the well-known psychological test, Tran’s art performs an introspective function in which the viewer’s interpretation is self-reflexive and can facilitate self-knowledge.

Liz Tran – Heirloom, 2022 Mixed media fiber collage installation 198 x 53 in.
Courtesy Morton Fine Art and the artist

Lovingly sewn by her quilt-making mother, with whom Tran often collaborates, Heirloom encapsulates fabric culled from voyages, memories and installations created around the world. Tran views Heirloom as an homage to her artistic practice and a tribute to the women who came before her. From the curtains of a circus tent, an oversized fiber womb encased in a vintage trailer or a space suit onesie–each piece of fabric contains a distinct story.

“As I found myself delving into the history of my own mental health, I began to simultaneously study perception and subjectivity both in visual art and psychology,” said Tran. “What do we bring to what we see? The viewer’s experience of my work is completely different than my own, yet that experience is equally valid. Is what we see simply a reflection of our self?”

Liz Tran
Mirror 8, 202054 x 27 in.
Mixed media on panel
Courtesy Morton Fine Art and the artist

Opening the door into a meditative and healing atmosphere, Matriarchs and Daughters Dream Oceans of Braille actively encourages personal interpretation and projections of meaning. Through a form of abstraction that combines precision and instinct, Tran’s joyful works imagine dreamlike surfaces to question the nature of abstraction and our responses to visual stimuli, whether that be art on the white walls of a gallery or observations of planets and stars circling overhead.

Learn more about Liz Tran

©2022 Liz Tran, Morton Fine Art

Available Artwork by LIZ TRAN

Art plugged

Art Plugged is a contemporary platform inspired by a relationship with the broader arts communities. We provide our audience with curated insight into the world of art, from exhibitions to artist interviews and more.

LIZ TRAN | See Great Art

ART IN THE NORTHEAST FEMALE ARTISTS

Liz Tran art exhibition in Washington, D.C.

BY CHADD SCOTTPOSTED ON DECEMBER 4, 20220 COMMENTS

Liz Tran, Mirror 28, 2020. 16 x 16 in. Mixed media on panel. Courtesy Morton Fine Art and the artist.

Morton Fine Art, in collaboration with Homme DC, presents “Matriarchs and Daughters Dream Oceans of Braille,” an exhibition of polychromatic ink blot prints and Heirloom (2022), a new 17-foot wall-mounted installation of Liz Tran art. “Matriarchs and Daughters Dream Oceans of Braille” will be on view by appointment from December 9, 2022, to January 6, 2023 at Homme DC’s Washington, D.C. space (2000 L ST NW).

Inspired by early memories of the artist being administered Rorschach tests — a psychological evaluation of mental health and trauma through associative responses to inkblots — Liz Tran art transforms and transports the familiar monochromatic prints into a world of vibrant, technicolor panels that explore the nature of viewer subjectivity. Featuring work from her “Mirror and Cosmic Circle” series, “Matriarchs and Daughters Dream Oceans of Braille” is an explosion of colorful dots, circles, blot, and splashes that accumulate on the panel and create a thickened impasto.

Varying her compositions from symmetrical renderings–like a Rorschach print–to others more liberally abstracted, Tran’s works challenge the notion of a correct way to view art. Like the well-known psychological test, Liz Tran art performs an introspective function in which the viewer’s interpretation is self-reflexive and can facilitate self-knowledge.

Lovingly sewn by her quilt-making mother, with whom Tran often collaborates, Heirloom encapsulates fabric culled from voyages, memories and installations created around the world. Tran views Heirloom as an homage to her artistic practice and a tribute to the women who came before her. From the curtains of a circus tent, an oversized fiber womb encased in a vintage trailer or a space suit onesie–each piece of fabric contains a distinct story.

“As I found myself delving into the history of my own mental health, I began to simultaneously study perception and subjectivity both in visual art and psychology,” Liz Tran said. “What do we bring to what we see? The viewer’s experience of my work is completely different than my own, yet that experience is equally valid. Is what we see simply a reflection of our self?”

Opening the door into a meditative and healing atmosphere, “Matriarchs and Daughters Dream Oceans of Braille” actively encourages personal interpretation and projections of meaning. Through a form of abstraction that combines precision and instinct, Tran’s joyful works imagine dreamlike surfaces to question the nature of abstraction and our responses to visual stimuli, whether that be art on the white walls of a gallery or observations of planets and stars circling overhead.

About the Artist

Liz Tran (b. 1979) explores the shapes of nature, with the infusion of fantastical, pulsing synthetic hues, channeling subjects such as dream imagery, imagined landscapes, geodes, outer space and The Big Bang.

Morton Fine Art

Founded in 2010 in Washington D.C. by curator Amy Morton, Morton Fine Art (MFA) is a fine art gallery and curatorial group that collaborates with art collectors and visual artists to inspire fresh ways of acquiring contemporary art. Firmly committed to the belief that art collecting can becultivated through an educational stance, MFA’s mission is to provide accessibility to museum-quality contemporary art through a combination of substantive exhibitions and a welcoming platform for dialogue and exchange of original voice.

Morton Fine Art specializes in a stellar roster of nationally and internationally renowned artists as well as has an additional focus on artwork of the African Diaspora.

Homme DC is a boutique for emerging artists of all disciplines. Homme provides a platform for artists to exhibit and sell their art in an intimate gallery experience.

Available Artwork by LIZ TRAN

LIZ TRAN | Matriarchs and Daughters Dream Oceans of Braille | Morton Fine Art in collaboration with HOMME Gallery | Martin Cid Magazine

Liz Tran: Matriarchs and Daughters Dream Oceans of Braille – HOMME Gallery (Washington D.C.)

Creating a meditative and healing atmosphere, Tran’s new exhibition encourages personal interpretation

BY ART MARTIN CID MAGAZINE

DECEMBER 5, 2022

What Do You See? Liz Tran’s Appropriations of the Rorschach Test Examine The Nature Of Viewer Subjectivity

Washington, D.C. – Morton Fine Art, in collaboration with Homme DC, is pleased to present Matriarchs and Daughters Dream Oceans of Braille, an exhibition of polychromatic inkblot prints and Heirloom (2022), a new 17-foot wall-mounted installation, by artist Liz Tran. Matriarchs and Daughters Dream Oceans of Braille will be on view by appointment from December 9, 2022 to January 6, 2023 at Homme DC’s Washington, D.C. space (2000 L ST NW).

Liz Tran Mirror 1, 2020 27 x 54 in. Mixed media on panel Courtesy Morton Fine Art and the artist

Inspired by early memories of the artist being administered Rorschach tests — a psychological evaluation of mental health and trauma through associative responses to inkblots — Tran transforms and transports the familiar monochromatic prints into a world of vibrant, technicolor panels that explore the nature of viewer subjectivity. Featuring work from her Mirror and Cosmic Circle series, Matriarchs and Daughters Dream Oceans of Braille is an explosion of colorful dots, circles, blot, and splashes that accumulate on the panel and create a thickened impasto.

Varying her compositions from symmetrical renderings–like a Rorschach print–to others more liberally abstracted, Tran’s works challenge the notion of a correct way to view art. Like the

well-known psychological test, Tran’s art performs an introspective function in which the viewer’s interpretation is self-reflexive and can facilitate self-knowledge.

Liz Tran Cosmic Circle 1, 2020 24 x 24 in. Mixed media on panel Courtesy Morton Fine Art and the artist

Lovingly sewn by her quilt-making mother, with whom Tran often collaborates, Heirloom encapsulates fabric culled from voyages, memories and installations created around the world. Tran views Heirloom as an homage to her artistic practice and a tribute to the women who came before her. From the curtains of a circus tent, an oversized fiber womb encased in a vintage trailer or a space suit onesie–each piece of fabric contains a distinct story.

“As I found myself delving into the history of my own mental health, I began to simultaneously study perception and subjectivity both in visual art and psychology,” said Tran. “What do we bring to what we see? The viewer’s experience of my work is completely different than my own, yet that experience is equally valid. Is what we see simply a reflection of our self?”

Opening the door into a meditative and healing atmosphere, Matriarchs and Daughters Dream Oceans of Braille actively encourages personal interpretation and projections of meaning.

Through a form of abstraction that combines precision and instinct, Tran’s joyful works imagine dreamlike surfaces to question the nature of abstraction and our responses to visual stimuli, whether that be art on the white walls of a gallery or observations of planets and stars circling overhead.

Liz Tran headshot Courtesy Morton Fine Art and the artist. Photo credit: Liz Tran

Liz Tran (b. 1979) explores the shapes of nature, with the infusion of fantastical, pulsing synthetic hues, channeling subjects such as dream imagery, imagined landscapes, geodes, outer space and The Big Bang. Public collections of Tran’s work include the City of Seattle’s Portable Works Collection; Capital One; Vulcan Inc.; Baer Art Center; Camac Art Centre; The El Paso Children’s

Hospital; Harborview Medical Center, Seattle; and The King County Public Art Collection. Tran has completed multiple special projects and installations, including work for VH1 Save the Music Foundation, The Upstream Music Fest, The Seattle Art Museum, The Brain Project Toronto, Public Art at The Aqua Art Fair Miami and Vulcan Inc.

She has been awarded multiple fellowships and grants, including a Grant for Artist Projects (GAP) from Artist Trust, Clowes Fellowship for residency at the Vermont Studio Center, the Nellie Cornish Scholarship and residency at The Camac Art Centre in France, The Baer Art Center in Iceland, Jentel Foundation, Millay Colony for the Arts and The Center for Contemporary Printmaking. She resides in Seattle, WA. Tran has been represented by Morton Fine Art since 2020.

Liz Tran Mirror 6, 2020 27 x 54 in. Mixed media on panel Courtesy Morton Fine Art and the artist

Morton Fine Art

Founded in 2010 in Washington D.C. by curator Amy Morton, Morton Fine Art (MFA) is a fine art gallery and curatorial group that collaborates with art collectors and visual artists to inspire fresh ways of acquiring contemporary art. Firmly committed to the belief that art collecting can be cultivated through an educational stance, MFA’s mission is to provide accessibility to museum-quality contemporary art through a combination of substantive exhibitions and a welcoming platform for dialogue and exchange of original voice. Morton Fine Art specializes in a stellar roster of nationally and internationally renowned artists as well as has an additional focus on artwork of the African Diaspora.

Homme DC is a boutique for emerging artists of all disciplines. Homme provides a platform for artists to exhibit and sell their art in an intimate gallery experience.

Homme DC

2000 L ST NW, Washington, DC

Available Artwork by LIZ TRAN

ETO OTITIGBE | Surface Magazine | Artist Statement

ARTIST STATEMENT

Eto Otitigbe’s Blueprint for Excavating Unseen Histories

Seeking to bring history’s repressed narratives to light, the Philadelphia artist meticulously engraves remnants of his own public sculptures onto wood panels to create imaginative inquests for future archaeologists.

BY RYAN WADDOUPS

June 13, 2022

“Don’t You Know That Eye Can Read Your Eyes” (2022) by Eto Otitigbe. Courtesy of the artist and Morton Fine Art

Here, we ask an artist to frame the essential details behind one of their latest works.

Bio: Eto Otitigbe, 45, Brooklyn and Philadelphia (@etootitigbe)

Title of work: Don’t You Know That Eye Can Read Your Eyes (2022).

Where to see it: “Materiel Remains” at Morton Fine Art Gallery (52 O St NW, #302, Washington, DC) until June 28.

Three words to describe it: Chemistry, polyvisual, medusa.

What was on your mind at the time: Rummaging through my past and trying to get out of my own way. I wanted to create an image that was about seeing through darkness.

An interesting feature that’s not immediately noticeable: Below many thin layers of acrylic paint is an engraved aluminum plate that was treated with a fluid wash of gun-blackener, which brings with it associations to industry and weaponry. There are a few areas where I removed the acrylic paint and you can see the base layer of metal along with subtle reflections of ambient color and light. The color palette is inspired by syntax highlighting color schemes that are used in software programming languages. This color scheme in particular favors green as a base color alongside other saturated colors that create a sort of electrified static against dark black computer screens. Each color is representative of a unique way that language functions while scripting computer code.

How it reflects your practice as a whole: My process starts with drawing linear patterns-abstractions, or abstract-actions, of structural elements from my previous sculptures and public art projects. Rearranging or remixing prior blueprints expands the visual language of each project and conjoins them. Using software and digital fabrication, the drawings are carved into aluminum plates. I work with artists who run machine shops allowing for detours from the computational blueprints. During the engraving process, machines are stopped, and adjusted, toolpaths are changed; resulting in improvised variations. This process creates branches of work as the concept drawing is met with formal concerns raised by the material. Sanding occurs between each layer to create a sense of visual tension between the carved lines and liquid forms. Likened to a kind of excavation, the engraved lines fluctuate between visibility and invisibility among the layers of acrylic and gun blackened.

One song that captures its essence: I keep looking at and looking into this piece. Siba Dub Plate sets the tone for this kind of introspective journey.

Available Artwork by ETO OTITIGBE

New Arrivals | Sculpted Paintings by JENNY WU

Jenny Wu transforms liquid paint into sculpture built from layers of latex paint poured on glass, color over color, to form a thick cake-like aggregate. Once dried, the material is cut into small brick-like forms and assembled in vibrant patterns on a flat surface, revealing in cross-section the varied strata of paint from the pouring and layering process. Like geological formations, Wu’s method of building up paint is dependent on time, repetition and chance with her resulting objects uniting chaos and order into a systematic imagery that blurs the boundaries between painting and sculpture.

Jenny Wu
2+ Year Long Middle School Dodgeball Game, 2022
latex paint and resin on wood panel
20 x 10 x 2.50 in

Jenny Wu
Adults Were Not Okay, 2021
latex paint and resin on wood panel
20 x 16 x 2.50 in

Jenny Wu
Meaningful Access, 2020
latex paint and resin on wood panel
20 x 16 x 2.50 in

Jenny Wu
Carefully Editing An Email Response, 2021
latex paint and resin on wood panel
24 x 18 x 2.50 in

Jenny Wu
Hardly A Mandate, 2021
latex paint and resin on wood panel
20 x 16 x 2.50 in

Jenny Wu
Have Always Existed and Will Always Exist, 2022
latex paint and resin on wood panel
36 x 24 x 2.50 in

Jenny Wu
Letting Referees Openly Bet On Games, 2021
latex paint and resin on wood panel
36 x 24 x 2.50 in

Jenny Wu
Live In #DontLookUp, 2022
latex paint and resin on wood panel
18 x 18 x 2.50 in

Jenny Wu
Too Heavy to Carry to the British Museum, 2022
latex paint and resin on wood panel
20 x 16 x 2.50 in

Jenny Wu
Got Scared & Bought It, 2021
latex paint and resin on wood panel
20 x 20 x 2.50 in

About the Artist:

Jenny Wu was born in Nanjing, China. She holds a B.A. from William Smith College in Studio Art as well as in Architectural Studies, and an M.F.A. in Studio Art from American University. Her work has been exhibited in galleries and museums including Denise Bibro Fine Art, Katzen Museum, Huntington Museum of Art, Reece Museum, Vilnius Academy of Arts in Lithuania, and CICA Museum in South Korea. Wu has participated in numerous Artist-In-Residence programs across the country; and has been awarded fellowships from Vermont Studio Center and the Pollock Krasner Foundation. She has been represented by Morton Fine Art since 2021.

Available artwork by JENNY WU.

KATHERINE TZU-LAN MANN’s solo exhibition “Water Ribbon” reviewed in The Washington Post

Museums Review

In the galleries: Probing our relationships with living systems

By Mark Jenkins October 1, 2021 at 6:00 a.m. EDT

“Water Ribbon” by Katherine Tzu-Lan Mann is a vertical composition that’s 7½ feet high. (Morton Fine Art)

“Arch 3″ by Katherine Tzu-Lan Mann has a strong central focus that departs from the artist’s usual style. (Morton Fine Art)

…Katherine Tzu-Lan Mann is the most conventional of the five participants, at least in her choice of media. The Washington artist paints, usually on paper and often on a mammoth scale, with acrylic pigment and sumi ink. The ink links Mann’s style to historical Chinese painting, as does her nature imagery. Yet the crowded, layered pictures are mostly abstract. Mann begins by pouring pigment to make random patterns, which are then amended and extrapolated, partly by collage.

That synthesis — of flowing and improvisational with hard-edged and precise — yields tableaux that are dynamic and distinctive. The two Mann panoramas in “Empirical Evidence” — the larger almost 12 feet wide — are among the show’s highlights.

Anyone smitten with these sweeping pictures can easily find more, if not quite so expansive, examples at Morton Fine Art. The biggest offering is the title piece, “Water Ribbon,” a rare vertical composition that’s 7½ feet high. Many of the other pictures are, unusually for Mann, square or nearly so. Although they still suggest landscapes, such pictures as “Arch 3” have a stronger central focus than is typical of the artist’s style. Rather than meander every which way, Mann’s latest water ribbons coalesce into dazzling wholes.

Empirical Evidence Through Nov. 13 at Hamiltonian Artists, 1353 U St. NW.

Katherine Tzu-Lan Mann: Water Ribbon Through Oct. 6 at Morton Fine Art, 52 O St. NW, No. 302.

Available Artwork by KATHERINE TZU-LAN MANN

KATHERINE TZU-LAN MANN’s solo “Water Ribbon” highlighted in Baltimore Fishbowl

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BmoreArt’s Picks: September 7-13

By Bmoreart Staff -September 7, 2020

BmoreArt’s Picks: September 7-13

BmoreArt’s Picks presents the best weekly art openings, events, and performances happening in Baltimore and surrounding areas.

This Week: We are featuring online events that you can participate in from the comfort of your own couch and some that you can safely leave the house for, plus a few calls for entry to get involved locally and nationally. Stay home, stay healthy, stay engaged in the arts.

BmoreArt’s Picks presents the best weekly art openings, events, and performances happening in Baltimore and surrounding areas. For a more comprehensive perspective, check the BmoreArt Calendar page, which includes ongoing exhibits and performances, and is updated on a daily basis.

To submit your calendar event, email us at events@bmoreart.com!Katherine Tzu-Lan Mann: Water Ribbon
Wednesday, September 8 | Ongoing through October 6
@ Morton Fine Art

Morton Fine Art is pleased to present Water Ribbon, a solo exhibition of new works on paper by Washington, D.C.-based artist Katherine Tzu-Lan Mann, on view from September 8th – October 6th, 2021. Featuring a collection of recent pieces by the artist, the exhibition offers an evocative perspective on contemporary ecologies during a time at which environmental destruction and the consequences of climate change loom ever larger.

Utilizing acrylic, sumi ink, and collage, Mann draws from traditions of Chinese landscape painting to create mesmerizing, vibrant depictions of organic matter. Mann begins her process by pouring liquid pigments onto paper, allowing them to dry and yielding a stain of color from which the work is then based. Through an embrace of the indeterminate qualities of her materials—the ink or paint takes its own course, without the artist dictating its shapes or forms—Mann demonstrates a symbiotic relationship to her materials that serves as an apt metaphor for coexistence with the natural world. What results from Mann’s subsequent additions to the paper are rich, layered tableaus imbued with an affective interplay of ideas.

Of the challenges posed by her recent work, Mann describes her rumination upon “the
resuscitation of landscape painting in a world where ‘landscape’ is represented and defined through an ever-widening field of digital, graphic, and visual forms.” At times almost dizzying, the pieces shown in Water Ribbon eschew Western conventions of spatial perspective and inert figuration, instead embracing qualities of movement and monumentality central to Chinese landscape painting traditions.

Bright hues and a multiplicity of patterns are nestled among Mann’s illustrations of flora and fauna, with streams of ink evoking vines and riverbeds. Lying in the tension between the artificial and the organic, Mann’s renderings suggest an intertwining of systems rather than a constant grappling for control or domination. Splashes of ink seep across each image, traversing various shapes and forms. Elsewhere, translucent swathes of paint filter views of plant life, appearing like stained-glass windows through which to gaze.

“In my most recent work, I hope to live in the tradition of landscape painting, experiencing it for what it has always been: an occasion for radical experimentation and confrontation with the world, in the broadest sense of the term that sustains us,” said Mann. Amongst all the chaos and beauty, Water Ribbon proposes a mode of coexistence attuned to change, reciprocity, and an honoring of diverse forms of life.

Kei Ito | Artist Talk
Thursday, September 9 • 6pm
@ UMD Stamp Gallery

Screening in the Univesity of Maryland Stamp Nanticoke Room

In conjunction with this exhibition, join the Stamp Gallery for an artist talk by artist Kei Ito, artist of acquisition Under My Skin #1.

Kei Ito is a visual artist working primarily with camera-less photography and installation art who is currently teaching at the International Center of Photography (ICP) in NYC. Ito received his BFA from Rochester Institute of Technology followed by the MFA from Maryland Institute College of Art in 2016. Ito’s work addresses issues of deep intergenerational loss and connections as he explores the materiality and experimental processes of photography.

Ito’s work addresses issues of deep intergenerational loss and connections as he explores the materiality and experimental processes of photography, specifically the idea around visualizing the invisible such as radiation, memory and life/death. His work, rooted in the trauma and legacy passed down from his late grandfather – a survivor of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, meditates on the complexity of his identity and heritage through examining the past and current threats of nuclear disaster and his present status as an US-immigrant. Most of Ito’s prints are made with exposing light sensitive material to sunlight, often timing the exposures with his breath, influenced by his grandfather’s words describing the day the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima “…was like hundreds of suns lighting up the sky.” These X-ray like prints are usually installed in a way that provokes a monument.

He was the recipient of the 2020 Marva and John Warnock Biennial Artist in Resident Award and participated in other artist residencies such as: MASS MoCA, the Center for Fine Art Photography, CPW, and Creative Alliance. Ito’s works are collected by major institutions including: the Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago, Norton Museum of Art, En Foco, the Candela Collection and California Institute of Integral Studies. His internationally recognized solo and group shows can be read in reviews and articles published by Washington Post, Hyperallergic, BmoreArt, Chicago Magazine, Studio Magazine, ArtMaze Magazine, and BBC Culture/Art.

Website: Kei-ito.com
Instagram: Kei.ito.art

Viewers who wish to join the lecture virtually on Zoom may do so at https://go.umd.edu/keiitotalk

Read more at BmoreArt.