We are pleased to host “Becoming” Christina Kwan’s debut Solo Exhibition Saturday, September 14th 2024
Christina Kwan is an Atlanta-based artist known for her abstract works on paper and large scale murals. Originally from South Florida, Kwan moved to Atlanta in 2010 after graduating from University of Florida with a BFA in Drawing. A decade and many different career paths later, the work she creates is an ongoing exploration of her Asian-American identity and the internal struggle of feeling incomplete or existing in-between. Kwan's work has been shown in a variety of commercial galleries and academic institutions while her murals span all across Metro Atlanta in places such as Emory University, Marietta Square, and Microsoft's Atlantic Yards. Her compositions feature bold and calligraphic brush strokes inspired by her East Asian heritage, acting as a yearning for permanence and a search for ancestral ties.
We exist in-between identities, in-between states both physical and unseen… blooming, falling apart, and starting the cycle over again. The work I create is a study in conscious and unconscious impulses and how they reflect a state of identity that is fluid and impossible to hold onto. I mainly use acrylic ink – pouring, mixing, washing – as I alternate between stages of steady meditation and frenetic mark-making. In the past, I used flowers as a starting point to later abstract into an exquisitely tense oblivion. Now, I start with the oblivion and see what forms reveal themselves from within.
There is also an East Asian heritage that permeates my work, through the calligraphic strokes and references to natural landscapes. I was raised to prioritize my Western-born identity as a pathway to success and financial stability, the American Dream. I find myself being ever more drawn to the aesthetic sensibilities of my ancestors even though their legacies remain a mystery to me. My mark holds the energy of their lineage and the unnerving feeling that a filial connection is possibly forever lost. Each work has been an effort to map out a sense of self that is fully realized.
Becoming a mother in 2020 during the height of a global pandemic added a new layer of complexity to this journey. Mothers in this country face difficulties and discrimination that are ingrained in our system and therefore are part of our collective consciousness. Coming to terms with the insidious ways in which our society fails mothers and families at large is a reality that forces me to split my identity into many iterations to fit within different contexts and definitions of what a “good” woman or “good” mother is. This everlasting state of turmoil and tension bubbles below the surface of my work and finds its way out through bursts of action painting.
Ultimately the work I make is about finding balance and equilibrium within the chaos of our struggles. The beauty of being human is that we are not ever in a “finished” state, but rather always growing and evolving toward self-acceptance.
Email info@cateye-creative.com to receive the Collector’s Catalog first.
