Bracing: Grace Chang, Youngmin Park and Yanqing Pei
Curated by Rebecca Polanzke
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Yanqing PeiRoam, 2024Oil on canvas
40 x 60 in
101.6 x 152.4 cmCourtesy of Latitude Gallery New YorkCopyright The Artist -
Yanqing PeiAs It Spins and Scatters, 2024Oil on canvas
20 x 16 in
50.8 x 40.6 cmCourtesy of Latitude Gallery New YorkCopyright The Artist -
Youngmin ParkHover, 2023Oil on linen
26 x 26 in
66 x 66 cmCourtesy of Latitude Gallery New YorkCopyright The Artist -
Youngmin ParkBlind Dog, 2022Oil on linen
46 x 46 in
116.8 x 116.8 cmCourtesy of Latitude Gallery New YorkCopyright The Artist -
Youngmin ParkBlind Dog, 2022Oil on linen
52 x 52 in
132.1 x 132.1 cmCourtesy of Latitude Gallery New YorkCopyright The Artist -
Grace ChangSplit Stage, 2023Colored pencil on panel
24 x 30 in
61 x 76.2 cmCourtesy of Latitude Gallery New YorkCopyright The Artist -
Grace ChangStrangers in Death, 2024Colored pencil on cradled panel
48 x 48 in
121.9 x 121.9 cmCourtesy of Latitude Gallery New YorkCopyright The Artist -
Grace ChangAt the bottom of my cup, 2022Colored pencil on cardstock
12 x 12 in
30.5 x 30.5 cmCourtesy of Latitude Gallery New YorkCopyright The Artist -
Grace ChangMy Mom, the Sun, 2021Colored pencil on cradled panel
48 x 48 in
121.9 x 121.9 cmCourtesy of Latitude Gallery New YorkCopyright The Artist
Grace Chang (b. 1999 in Chula Vista, California) carefully choreographs figures into landscapes molded by interpersonal relationships. Exaggerated poses and lighting creates tension between the harsh artificiality of a staged image and lush, meticulously rendered foliage. Chang addresses cycles of motherhood, grief, and giving people their flowers through the use of self portraiture, repetition, depictions of distance, and gestures in nature alluding to these themes. She received her BFA in Printmaking from Rhode Island School of Design in 2021 and is based in Brooklyn, New York.
Youngmin Park (b. 1997, Seoul) lives and works in New York. She received her MFA at Columbia University in 2024, and her BFA from the Korea National University of Arts. Her work stems from her childhood experience as being the youngest in a large family, placed in the middle of human dynamic and animal dynamic. This personal reminisce is stretched to the exploration of the unstoppable and competitive struggle in the vertical power structure through different forms of life. Through the tense relationship between the everyday beings of many kinds, both hierarchy and uncertainty are built in the obscurely flattened world.
Yanqing Pei (b. 1991 in Foshan, China) delves into the interconnected nature of existence, presenting the interplay and interdependence of living beings within a chaoti yet harmonious whole. Her practice is an exploration of the intimate symbiotic relationship between human beings and their surroundings with the focus on nature, as well as imaginations of poetic spaces derived from narrative contexts composed of Chinese ideographic characters. She received her BFA and MFA in Chinese Painting in 2014 and 2017 from China Academy of Art, and her MFA in Painting and Drawing in 2021 from Pratt Institute. Pei's work has been exhibited in New York, London, Beijing, Shanghai, and Rome. She is currently working and living in Queens, New York.
LATITUDE Gallery is pleased to present Bracing with works by Grace Chang, Youngmin Park, and Yanqing Pei. Curated by Rebecca Polanzke, Chang, Park, and Pei embrace futility in the face of the unchangeable. With an emphasis on world building in each of their practices, each artist explores what it means to accept the difficult moments that make up the human condition. The exhibition is on view at 64A Bayard Street from June 8 through July 7.
To brace oneself is to mentally and physically prepare for an unavoidable confrontation. Emotionally, these confrontations include grief, loneliness, and despair. Physically, individuals often yield to the unflinching will of nature—such as climate change and natural disasters. In both of these instances, submitting to greater forces is an inevitable part of the human experience.
However, Chang, Park, and Pei subvert perceptions of hardship by capturing the preciousness of brief existence. Through synthesizing aspects of landscapes and the self, the resulting body of work views acceptance of the uncontrollable as a romantic submission to an inescapable situation, rather than an unfortunate necessity.
In each of their practices, the artists incorporate natural elements in order to build a deeper understanding of themselves and the world they exist within. Using colored pencils, Chang examines grief by anthropomorphizing gestures in nature. In her piece, Split Stage, she choreographs her figures as though blocking for a play; subsequently revisits memories under new light.
Similarly concerned with memories, Park’s approach to painting reflects her process of remembering. She acknowledges the susceptibility of her memories to distortion upon each recall—resulting in works that spotlight her surreal pliability. Using different visual devices, the elements in Parks' painting take in the self of another being, inviting the viewers into the intricate interplay of relationships.
To round out the group, Pei views her existence and relationship with nature as an interconnected whole. Obscuring the figures in her pieces with overlapping layers of foliage, Pei considers the volatility of self by depicting scenes of conflict and harmony within her composition.
Collectively, the trio of artists gracefully acknowledge the uncontrollable through their intimate connections with the world around them. The exhibition portrays a self that both braces for struggle while accepting the inevitability of coexistence.
