"In the recent body of work, I use analogy as a means of extracting my personal perceptions and experiences—often intertwined with socio-political and cultural specifics. Inspired by the frequent appearance of tigers and leopards in Minhwa (Korean folk paintings), I employ animals, such as tigers, leopards, cats, to speak of connection and disconnection, tension and consolation, confrontation and harmony, and isolation and tranquility etc."
-Su A Chae
The Lil Language Between You And Me, No. 2 (Detail), 12" x 12"
Acrylic And Molding Paste On Canvas
My painting investigates the ambivalence associated with identity and asymmetrical balance that creates paradoxical space. In the recent body of work, I use analogy as a means of extracting my personal perceptions and experiences—often intertwined with socio-political and cultural specifics. Inspired by the frequent appearance of tigers and leopards in Minhwa (Korean folk paintings), I employ animals, such as tigers, leopards, cats, to speak of connection and disconnection, tension and consolation, confrontation and harmony, and isolation and tranquility etc. As a Xennial who has had an analog childhood and a digital adulthood, I make a painting that looks digital but remains the materiality. My painting, where soft gradational colors are paired with textural surfaces, chases the digital aura. Hoping to open up a larger conversation of diversity and coexistence in social context, my paintings allow the rigid structures to be the places of playfulness, hope, and the possibility rather than suppression, anger, and anxiety.
Su A Chae received her MFA in Painting from Indiana University Bloomington and an MA and a BA in Business from Ewha Womans University in Seoul, South Korea. She also completed Tyler School of Art Summer Painting and Sculpture Intensive program in PA. Her work has been exhibited at the Painting Center in New York, Ortega y Gasset Projects, Paradise Palace, Store for Rent Gallery in Brooklyn, 5-50 Gallery in Long Island City, Icebox Project Space in Philadelphia, Harrison Center in Indianapolis, Young Space, among others. Her work has been featured in publications as Studio Visit Magazine, Create! Magazine, Maake Magazine, Friend of The Artist, and Herald-Times and others. Su A Chae was a finalist of the Hopper Prize and an artist in residence at Vermont Studio Center in VT, Penland School of Craft in NC, and ACRE in WI. Su A Chae is currently an associated artist of Studio Associate