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Artist Reception: Jennifer's Body - A Solo Exhibit by Emily Kwong

  • Friday, July 12, 2019
  • 5:00 PM - 9:00 PM
  • Salem Arts Association Gallery - 211 Bridge Street



Jennifer's Body - A Solo Exhibit by Emily Kwong

Reception: Friday, July 12 from 5:00 to 9:00 pm

Exhibit  July 6 - 28

With the huge influence that instagram culture has had on today, the new definition of beauty has been defined by filters and lip fillers in hopes of gaining enough attention to be the next Kardashian.Women in particular, are meant to look unnaturally beautiful, a sight to look at and praise regardless of the physical pains and labors it took for them to get there.

In this body of work Emily Kwong will explore this notion unnatural beauty. Of what gets to be defined as unattractive. What could be consider attractive if thrown in the right light. Baggy eyes? Large Nostrils? Sagging skin? If treated like any well sought out feature of the human anatomy, could it be considered a beautiful trait rather than something to hide?

A little fun fact, the title is inspired by Kwong's favorite movie of the same name, as in the movie the main character, Jennifer, is accidentally turned into a demon for how beautiful she was.


About the artist:

My body of work originally began as an exploration into the human form. I wanted to improve my depictions of the human form, but then drew further away as I decided to base it more on emotion. My work bloomed into an exploration of this feeling of melancholy, a sadness without a cause. Using the human form and primary colors, I explored how we as people communicate in ways other than words, how our bodies can speak with as much volume as any crowd. Twisting into one another to try and tell eachother what we’re thinking without really saying anything.

Art can sing and cry in ways we find hard to do. In our lives today I find it difficult to really express what you’re feeling without fear of judgement. We are expected to be happy unless we have a reason to state otherwise, and if we do it had better be a good one. I just find it terrible that we can’t be honest with how we feel. Forcing ourselves to keep these emotions bottled up inside until they burst right back up as this sadness, anger, anxiety, depression. The list goes on, and I’ve found that happiness isn’t the cure for me.

With basic acrylic paints I go at it, try to follow that feeling I want to bring to the surface as fast as possible before it escapes. It gets a bit tricky because if I’m not fast enough sometimes the paint manages to dry so fast I lose the idea, and it gets frustrating. But it’s worth repainting if I must in order to create a piece that gets down to that core emotion. That melancholy that I’m after with so much more to give to it.

I want to see how far I can push my work, what I’ll have to give for the sake of conveying a feeling rather than outrighting stating the obvious. Whether  It’s something that I can achieve under the right circumstances, giving not only myself but my art 100%  of my time and effort in order to push the limits.


WORKSHOP

Workshop: The Shape of the Face

Join Emily Kwong for a discussion about her work, creative process, and an interactive learning experience to learn about facial proportions while creating your own 3D face mask constructed with recycled materials.


Sunday July 14 from 1:00 to 4:00 PM


FEATURED ARTISTS!


We will also feature two additional artists through July.

Come see feature displays by David LaChapelle and Michael "Grimdrops" Grimaldi.


David LaChapelle is an oil painter and professional photographer. In this exhibition he focuses on oil paintings of marine and other natural subjects. His expressive brushwork and colorful palette create evocative natural scenes and have won awards. David frequently works in plein air drawing inspiration directly from the landscape in front of him. As a native of Boston’s North Shore David is familiar with the New England landscape but his travels have also inspired tropical beach scenes and paintings of other exotic subjects.


Mike Grimaldi/GRIMDROPS was raised in Gloucester, MA. He holds his BFA in illustration from Montserrat College of Art in Beverly, MA. and has years of experience in the creative field. He's held a number of positions in the field including patent illustrator, graphic designer, character designer, surface designer, apparel designer and screen printer. He has a strong interest and eye in the use of illustration, hand lettering and typography in his work.

Working full time in the creative field hasn't slowed down his freelance work under the name GRIMDROPS. He's worked with some amazing clients on a wide variety of projects like hand lettered signs, murals, logos, package design, caricatures, portraits and show posters to name a few.



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