Pearl C. Hsiung
Pearl C. Hsiung (born 1973) is a Taiwanese-born American multi-media artist based in Los Angeles. Biography. Pearl C. Hsiung was born in Taichung, Taiwan in 1973 and raised and educated in California. However, she and her brother, artist Michael C. Hsiung, spent time in Taiwan during several summer breaks from school. Hsiung received her a BA in art from University of California of Los Angeles in 1997, and she earned her MFA from Goldsmiths College, London, in 2004. After graduating college, she began a career in commercial fashion design, but quickly found herself unfulfilled. Hsiung  then decided to pursue an MFA in art at Goldsmiths College in London. She primarily works in painting, installation and video. Hsiung's earlier works reflect her Taiwanese roots and Los Angeles upbringing in its use of bright colors, hard-edged application techniques, and graphics informed by pop culture and contemporary street style. The subject matter usually focuses on nature and how humans relate and interact with and within it. Through her artwork Hsiung looks to understand how as humans we see and apply biological, social and cultural patterns in natural environments. Hsiung's painting style can be described as  contemporary surrealism with a mixture of sci-fi and other components. Currently, she is a working artist and arts educator based in Los Angeles, California. In 2021, her tile artwork "High Prismatic", was installed at the Grand Ave Arts/Bunker Hill subway station of the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Style and artwork. Hsiung works in a variety of media including paper, video, and paint. Her subject matter focuses on sci-fi landscapes painted in bold, primary colors. She is influenced by L.A street art and Asian pop culture. Hsiung uses a style where she attempts to imitate computer  graphics by hand while using mural-like bright colors. Hsiung's bold landscapes are influenced by the her summers in Taiwan as well as Southern California and Los Angeles street murals and advertisements. She creates psychedelic vistas in many of her works that she figuratively relates to consciousness. Hsiung also uses humor in her art work to critique culture identity and to challenge art making and common notions. Section::::"Overfiend" (2003). This painting is oil-based enamel on canvas. This abstract landscape features an eyeball as a giant sunset overlooking a beach where an egg is laying in the sun. The  background is dark blue with palm trees in silhouette. With this painting, Hsiung presents her anthropomorphic style which is present in many of her paintings. Section::::"Power Chode Homina" (2004). In this painting, oil on canvas, we see her multicultural influence in the use of color and digital painting. The graphics she depicts are done in a form that makes them appear videogame like. This painting has alien like figures depicted on a space like landscape. We see nothing surrounding the figures other than themselves and smoke. The vibrant use of color creates a digital imitation look that reflects the influence  of graffiti and mural painting commonly seen in the streets of L.A. Hsiung in this painting and like in others has a humorous approach and creates a blatant joke about the phallus. Section::::"Volcanic Ash" (2010). In this video work, Hsiung uses her trademark surrealist style and includes music performance and composing. This six minute long piece is a music video which she uses the lyrics to describe a geological reality. Her work is more than just a sci-fi and psychedelic fantasy, she explores natural cycles of destruction and rebirth. Yellowstoner (2014). This video work by Hsiung brings her painting  style to life. This piece takes place in Yellowstone National Park, it is a thirty-minute video that took Hsiung almost 4 years to complete. In this video we see a character, no gender specified, exploring this landscape through waterfalls and the Geothermal areas of Yellowstone. The character is shown doing simple acts such as cartwheels through the fields and other simple acts that describes the characters enjoyment of the landscape. The way Yellowstone is captured by Hsiung depicts it as an other worldly realm by showing frames of the bubbling mud puddles and exploding geysers as well as the  rainbows. This video work by Hsiung is meant to portray the rhythm of nature and human interaction. Solo exhibitions. Pearl C. Hsiung's first solo exhibition was back in 2004 while she lived in Britain. In her debut at MW Projects in London, Hsiung holds "Overfiend" where she shared a couple paintings and transformed a room to fit her artistic aesthetic that would fit her other-worldly art.