PHOENIX Holly Wong Phoenix: Holly Wong SLATE contemporary, Oakland, Spring 2021 “The mind is burning, ideas are burning, mind-consciousness is burning, mind-contact is burning . Burning with what? Burning with the fire of lust, with the fire of hate, with the fire of delusion” —Adittapariyaya Sutta: The Fire Sermon, Buddha PHOENIX SLATE contemporary is pleased to present Phoenix, a solo exhibition of mixed media work by artist Holly Wong, displayed at the Oakland gallery in Spring 2021. This is the first solo show of Wong’s works in the San Francisco Bay Area and the first exhibition at SLATE contemporary since she joined the gallery in Summer 2020. All of the works featured in the exhibition were created during the shelter-in-place order over the past year. They reflect her spiritual and visual responses to the pandemic, social injustice, and her want for personal and social transformation. Wong sees Phoenix as an expression of her desire for purification, cleansing and rebirth. It spans across a wide variety of expressive modes, including both large and small scale works on paper, assemblages, and the monumental drawing-based installation titled Phoenix, to which this show is dedicated. Feeling a deep sense of loss and grief at the state of world affairs, Wong built Phoenix as a large mythical bird, a grand metaphor for struggle and healing that takes place on a personal level (even in the artist’s own body) and on a public level, with current challenges to public health and social justice, to name just a few. Wong’s process begins with the act of improvisational drawing: creating lyrical, tangled forms that are often layered with materials such as drafting film, paint, fabric, and candle smoke. Wong continues to work into the drawings, layering elements. She often cuts up her work and then reassembles it with a sewing machine, making use of her history as a fiber artist. Drawing and sewing sometimes become interchangeable in Wong’s work. For her, the sewn line is a kind of bloodline. Though Wong’s practice is drawing-based, which is typically very intimate, she also utilizes line, shape, and pattern as a jumping- off point to create immersive environments. In the case of her sculptural installations, the immersion is quite literal, as they may fill a room or be large enough for viewers to move around inside of them. With Wong’s smaller-scale two-dimensional works, the worlds she creates are on an almost microcosmic scale, made by layering intricate line work, textures, and patterning. Holly Wong earned her MFA in New Genres from the San Francisco Art Institute, leading to an interdisciplinary studio practice that is apparent in every inch of her work through the variety of materials, details, and sizes. Although Wong’s art is broadly abstract, natural forms such as coral, seaweed, seed pods, and feathers are frequently referenced. Her approach is also inspired by Buddhism, Greek mythology, and the universal power of myth. She is attracted to strong feminine archetypes from ancient cultures, who give her hope as she copes with personal and political challenges of the present day. Some of Wong’s mid-sized framed works on paper are named specifically for goddesses, such as Arachne, Bia, and Persephone, the Greek goddess of the underworld. To Holly, the underworld is the place of the unconscious. The re-processing of psychological trauma is personified through the metaphor of traveling within the underworld. Persephone, as well as many of the other works in the show, represents Wong’s fearless process of looking within her past and through the layers of memory, bringing forth the potential for new life. Hope feels very fragile to Holly Wong. However, with the early efforts of vaccinations taking hold and the new presidential administration, she holds the hope that viewers can find comfort and healing in her work as we pioneer this new era of transition, renewal, and rebirth. Phoenix, 2021 Graphite with drafting film with sewing, suspended from the ceiling with monofilament wire 132 x 132 in AURORA “Aurora is the Roman Goddess of the dawn. I was working on this series as the months progressed into Fall and Winter and the days became shorter. As the pandemic worsened and racial injustice and economic inequality were highlighted, I wanted to create a visual space of silence and contemplation, a drawing inward in many ways, as I began these works with graphite and then layered with candle smoke, gouache, and hand cut drafting film. I think these works reflect my need to look deeper to find solutions both within myself and the world around me.” photo credit: John Janca Aurora I, 2021 Gouache, graphite and candle smoke on paper with hand cut drafting film, netting and thread. 48 x 60 in, framed to 53 x 65 in. Aurora II, 2021 Gouache, graphite and candle smoke on paper. 48 x 48 in framed to 53 x 53 in ARACHNE “For this series, I chose the mythical figure of ‘Arachne’ who was a very talented weaver in Greek mythology. She was so gifted that she challenged the goddess Athena to a weaving competition. Ultimately, because Arachne’s weaving portrayed the hubris of the Gods, Athena transformed Arachne into a spider. As an artist, my work frequently involves the hand weaving of elements that I have drawn and cut out into intricate patterns, as in the Arachne wall assemblages. In many ways, I feel like the artist and the spider that embodies the manipulation of complex elements into a whole like a web. In my self-identification with the spider, I named the piece Arachne.” photo credit: Al Wong Arachne I, 2020 Colored pencil with graphite on woven drafting film, mounted directly to the wall 42 x 42 x 3 SOLD Arachne II, 2020 Colored pencil with graphite on woven drafting film, mounted to a 48x48 circular wood panel wrapped with white linen 42 x 36 x 3 in BIA “For this series, I chose the Greek goddess ‘Bia’ who represented the female personification of power, force, and raw energy. The Bia assemblages were created this past spring under the shelter-in-place order in San Francisco. I felt a sense of helplessness in those early months because so little was known about COVID-19 at the time. In those moments, I chose to reach back into antiquity for the archetype of Bia. The intense color and patterning of this series is an homage to Bia’s raw energy and her sense of resilience.” Bia I, 2020 Colored pencil and graphite on woven drafting film mounted on paper, framed to 26 x 21 x 2 in 24 x 19 x 1.5 in SOLD Bia II, 2020 Colored pencil and graphite on woven drafting film mounted on paper, framed to 26 x 21 x 2 in 24 x 19 x 1.5 in SOLD Bia III, 2020 Colored pencil and graphite on woven drafting film mounted on paper, framed to 26 x 21 x 2 in 24 x 19 x 1.5 in SOLD PERSEPHONE “For this series, I was inspired by Persephone, the Greek goddess of the underworld. In my imagination, the underworld is the place of the unconscious; and, for me, the reprocessing of psychological trauma is personified in the metaphor of traveling within the underworld. These assemblages have an initial layer of gouache and then multiple layers of candle smoke, graphite and hand cut drafting film. These works represent looking within my past and through the layers of memory, bringing forth the potential of new life.” Persephone I, 2020 Gouache and candle smoke on paper, with colored pencil and graphite on woven drafting film, framed to 26 x 21 x 1.5 in 24 x 19 x 1.5 in SOLD Persephone II, 2020 Gouache and candle smoke on paper, with colored pencil and graphite on woven drafting film, framed to 26 x 21 x 2 in 24 x 19 x 1 in SOLD Persephone III, 2020 Gouache and candle smoke on paper, with colored pencil and graphite on woven drafting film, framed to 26 x 21 in 24 x 19 x 1 in JULIET OF THE SPIRITS “I love independent film and especially that of Italian cinema from the 1950's and 1960's. This series of work is an homage to Federico Fellini's 1965 master work of cinema, Juliet of the Spirits. In this wonderful film, a repressed woman discovers her personal sense of liberation by exploring fantasy and the unconscious. In many ways, my artistic practice is a similar journey. These six works on paper explore the many facets of personal myth making and how that unleashes a deeper sense of freedom.” Juliet of the Spirits I, 2020 Gouache, graphite and candle smoke on paper, with hand cut drafting film & fabric, framed to 19 x 16 in 16 x 12 in Juliet of the Spirits II, 2020 Gouache, graphite and candle smoke on paper, with hand cut drafting film, framed to 19 x 16 in 16 x 12 in Juliet of the Spirits III, 2020 Gouache, graphite and candle smoke on paper, with hand cut drafting film, framed to 19 x 16 in 16 x 12 in Juliet of the Spirits IV, 2020 Gouache, graphite and candle smoke on paper, with hand cut drafting film, framed to 19 x 16 in 16 x 12 in Juliet of the Spirits V, 2020 Gouache, graphite and candle smoke on paper, with hand cut drafting film, framed to 19 x 16 in 16 x 12 in Juliet of the Spirits VI, 2020 Gouache, graphite and candle smoke on paper, with hand cut drafting film, framed to 19 x 16 in 16 x 12 in photo credit: John Janca CALYPSO "For this series, I was inspired by Homer’s epic poem The Odyssey and the sea nymph Calypso.