Rice Paper Mixed Media

Hayoon Jay Lee is a visual artist who explores the fundamental tension between indulgence and abnegation as it exists in terms of mind and body as well as on the level of social and political dynamics. Lee makes use of rice as an object, motif, metaphor, and visceral biomorphic form. As a building block for civilizations and as a link to the collective unconscious, rice allows her to create a visual echo reflecting points of conflict, oscillating between attraction and repulsion, between Orient and Occident, with the aim of inspiring self-reflection and ultimately producing conditions for healing and harmony. Lee’s paintings contain crowds of figures embedded in rice forms, emphasizing the symbiosis between rice and life, the seemingly countless, clearly defined grains suggesting infinite regeneration. In high and low reliefs, she meditatively arranges individual grains of rice into a surface with modeling paste to create physical and emotional topographies. In 3D works, rice is transformed into a pyramid or a grid of 3,000 handcrafted rice “bowls” that speak paradoxically of longing and fulfillment, not to mention Buddhist concepts of suffering and seeking Enlightenment. Her installations may also take the shape of mounds of rice occupying vast spaces underneath sacks of rice hanging in rows. These emotion-laden landscapes lay just beyond our reach; the extensive fields of rice seem to glow with their own inner light, yet each element of these constructs is formed by a single grain tentatively holding onto its place in the larger macrocosmic setting. Through interactive performances, she hopes to open a dialog with audiences, to create a new community of strangers, with eyes open...

Chicago-based artist Michael Thompson creates unique kites crafted from split bamboo frames covered with stretched muslin and a collage of vintage Asian ephemera—including fragments of fabric, scrolls, drawings, and books collected during his travels. This kite entitled "Momen Boro," or "cotton rags," is patterned with a patchwork of Japanese cotton fabrics, including dark indigos, woven ikats, and delicate prints. The design references the traditional practice of Boro stitching...

Original Mid-Century mixed media composition by American Artist Edith E. Ferullo (1928 - 2008). Featuring a thick textured abstract expressionist subject, the composition incorporate...

Abstract gestural pink and red woven mixed media painting by Texas artist, Ibsen Espada. The painting incorporates gestural strokes of pink, red, blue, an...

Chicago-based artist Michael Thompson creates unique kites crafted from split bamboo frames covered with stretched muslin and a collage of vintage Asian ephemera—including fragments ...

Chicago-based artist Michael Thompson creates unique kites crafted from split bamboo frames covered with stretched muslin and a collage of vintage Asian ephemera—including fragments of fabric, scrolls, drawings, and books collected during his travels. In “Open Book...

Chicago-based artist Michael Thompson creates unique kites crafted from split bamboo frames covered with stretched muslin and a collage of vintage Asian ephemera—including fragments of fabric, scrolls, drawings, and books collected during his travels. In "Untitled (Red and Orange...

Chicago-based artist Michael Thompson creates unique kites crafted from split bamboo frames covered with stretched muslin and a collage of vintage Asian ephemera—including fragments ...