Participating artists: Danielle Leventhal, Jevi, Huiquan Jiang and Sarah Nguyen
In Septeber 2020, we launched our fifth edition of the World of Co@Home Online Artist Residency. During the month, four wonderful international artists from different parts of the world, were learning new skills with WOC Alumni, sharing ideas and creating together, even though online.
Below you can learn more about the participating artists and the works they created as a part of the program.
Danielle Leventhal
Danielle’s work raises the question: How does the artist depict the human being, in all their mystery and depth, in a single frame? Exploring color theory through the application of paint, layers of printmaking and mark-making, she captures the essence of her live sitters. Sometimes working from MRIs, x-rays and other medical scans, Danielle’s portraits aim to reveal the physical and psychological state of her subjects. Danielle lives and works in New York. She received a BFA in Painting with a second major in Art History, from the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis. Danielle is the recipient of the Jeffrey Frank Wacks Scholarship for Fine Arts, the Mary Cowan Harford Award in Watercolor, and the Scholastic National Silver Medal for Painting.
www.danielleleventhal.com / @danielleleventhal
Submerged X-rays
In this series of cyanotypes with watercolor and gouache, my studies of found oyster shells are utilized to expose both the active operation of shelter and spiritlessness of inanimate objects underwater.
Incorporating my detailed drawings of the oyster shells, I captured the skeleton of these organisms through the natural printmaking process of cyanotypes. The cyanotype in this context is an almost reverse process—using the sun to expose the dark blue ocean of the backgrounds, and water to uncover the found objects in the composition.
My own experience receiving regular scans and medical examinations of my body during the pandemic influenced this series greatly.
Sarah Nguyen
Sarah Nguyen is a multi media artist, working primarily with paper. Storytelling is central to her hand cutfiber panels and paintings. The intricate compositions found in her work, are mostly landscape based and feature symbolic motifs—flora, fauna, and an ever-changing moon—to elicit childhood memories of myths, fables, and folklore. Nguyen uses a balance of abstract and representational forms in order to sever the connection between shape and meaning, connecting the viewer instead to the gesture of the brush or cut of the knife, so that s/he becomes complicit in the art. Myths, reverence and refinement of nature, and observance of daily life, are the concepts behind her work. Nguyen’s work has appeared in numerous national and international solo and group exhibitions and publications. Her work has been part of nationally recognized exhibitions in museums and festivals. She received her BFA in Illustration from Rhode Island School of Design and her MFA in Painting from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. She currently lives in Columbia, Missouri, USA with her husband, the writer Phong Nguyen, and their three sons.
Rebecca- Joining
Storytelling is central to this series of cut-fiber panels. The blade-cut, intricate compositions are mostly landscape based and feature symbolic motifs—flora, fauna, and reflecting myths, fables, and folklore about the women named in the Old Testament. The large sheets are hung from the ceiling and away from the wall so that directed light casts strong shadows behind them, a nod to the flickering, fire-lit rituals of our paleo ancestors. Fiber cutting is a means of making drawing three-dimensional for the lacy panels entice us with their complexity and content.
This piece has four scrolls. Three white scrolls represent a veil and are placed in front of large background scroll. In the Old Testament’s story of Rebecca and Isaac, Rebecca covered herself with a veil so that her husband to be could not see what his bride looked like. Face coverings, veils, and masks have a long history and are often controversial. Rebecca’s need to veil herself as an act of love, humility, and faith. Isaac’s acceptance of his veiled bride reflected his love and faith. This work was completed during my World of Co artist residency.
Four hand-cut Tyvek scrolls and 4 wooden rods
86”H x 46”W
86”H x 12”W
86″H x 24″W
86″H x 12″W
Jevi
Jevi is a researcher, developer and emerging experimental interdisciplinary artist. Her research-creation practice explores our individual and societal relationships with technology, privacy, governance, immersion and speculative fiction. Jevi works in a variety of media from video and photography to digital graphic design, interactive installations and computer-generated art. Jevi is a Honours Business Informatics B.ASc. McMaster University graduate, and studied Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence (PCert) at MIT. She has worked in the IT industry over the years as an Analyst, an Ethical Hacker, a Software Programmer, and as a Research Assistant at OCAD University and University of Toronto. She has participated as an artist in the Contingencies of Care, and is a member of the New Media Caucus. Hailed from a family of scribophiles, she also practises photography, poetry and prose, and completed a study of Art & Design at the GBC School of Design graduating with honours, and also studied Digital Media at OCAD University. Jevi is currently pursuing an MFA in Digital Futures at OCAD University.
In Plain Sight
As a researcher, developer and emerging experimental inter-disciplinary artist, my research-creation practice explores our individual and societal relationships with technology, privacy, governance, immersion and speculative fiction. This short film is the first installation of an ongoing “In Plain Sight” series. It is an experimental film addressing the concepts of reality, consumption, and beauty, created as part of World of Co Residency. In the audio mix, this work samples the movie Matrix, and the song “Ice Age” by The Airplane Boys, which in turn samples the 1976 movie “Network”, and “Idioteque” by Radiohead. All four works explore the question of what is real, and the consumption of what isn’t. These works draw on the concepts of hyperreal defined in Baudrillard’s Simulacra and Simulations. The film itself is a contradiction – it pretends to scold while encouraging, pretends to calm without doing actually so, and is intended to be unsettling as the video and audio contradict each other and themselves.
Huiquan Jiang
Huiquan Jiang’s multidisciplinary art is grounded in reverence for nature and the adoration of the occult—the artwork without self-conscious intervening functions as a vehicle of spiritual expression and orientation to visualize the invisible by creating a totemic and intuitive association. Her works are the expression of intuition and the spiritual pursuit closest to purity and sanctity. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Chinese traditional painting from the Central Academy of Fine Art, Beijing, China, and an MFA in 2D painting at Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Boston. She currently lives and works in Boston.
Xeno Series
While I was in World of Co, I consistently investigated relations, dynamics, balance, theology, and other disembodied substances through unconsciously painting with oil pastel and acrylic on canvas. My body and intuition achieved me rather than logic and language.
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