The americans
Yikui (Coy) Gu
The Americans represents an autobiographical exploration of the artist, his wife, and their immigrant Chinese-German marriage. As the central theme throughout the work, Yikui Gu injects the viewer directly into their personal narrative, revealing intimate moments and essential truths. The layering of visual information through paint, stock imagery, and everyday objects creates a rich depth of provocative storytelling. Gu’s playful incorporation of popular culture, political reference, and personal experience allows for both immediate relevance and cultural commentary.
As a classically trained artist, each work effectively oscillates between Gu’s highly detailed drawings, and alternatively, the juxtaposition of gestural shapes. These layered perceptions of space construct snapshots of moments that are collaged together to create vibrant compositions. Each is filled with a series of iconography specific to Gu as well as larger cultural and political symbolism that runs throughout his work. Gu employs a layered process that incorporates stock imagery that he then uses as a framework to paint an original image. This singular process is one aspect of an overall foundation in which Gu builds his layers of imagery. Other additions include hand drawings and the use of everyday objects, such as Gu’s passport and Top Ramen seasoning packets. The result is a flat perspective with tiers of compositional richness. While the work emphasizes real and specific moments, they feel imagined and dreamlike; an alternative universe of collaged memories. Oriental Flavor illustrates a dining experience where Gu feeds his wife “oriental noodles'' from a bowl that features Hokusai’s illustrious wave. The background utilizes a stock image of a TV set, where Gu has painted the infamous and problematic comedy skit of Mickey Rooney depicting a Chinese man. Gu’s hand is notably painted an obvious yellow color, acknowledging his informal self-portrait in the piece. This dialog engages the viewer through our acknowledgment of familiar imagery with that of Gu’s specific narrative, enabling us to enter, but requiring us to reflect and reassess. The body of work showcases Gu’s mature style of piecing together these appropriated images and personal reflections that humorously explore elements of life and love, while utilizing that subject material to acknowledge cultural constructs. Each work individually initiates a dialog, a snapshot or moment that contributes to the overall body of work. In doing so, the showcase deeply explores the human condition through Gu’s lens. These narratives can be thoughtfully scathing, provocative, and humorously self-deprecating; a viewpoint that conflates Gu’s perspective with our own lives. The accumulation of materials, methods, and meanings facilitates a conversation that is both personal to Gu and universally relevant. |