Menu
The New Contemporary Art Magazine

Samantha Wall Draws Portals to the Human Psyche

Portland-based Korean artist Samantha Wall draws perceptive representations of women who exhibit a range of emotions and attitude. Her experience with ‘multi-raciality’ between living in Korea and now the United States inspired her latest drawings, “Indivisible” but it has roots in her previous works. Her simple yet profound drawings are the result of her own experiences and feelings. Emotional desire creates moments of hyper awareness, a characteristic specific to human nature. Wall believes that how we position ourselves in the world directly relates to our bond with others. Read more after the jump.

Portland-based Korean artist Samantha Wall draws perceptive representations of women who exhibit a range of emotions and attitude. Her experience with ‘multi-raciality’ between living in Korea and now the United States inspired her latest drawings, “Indivisible” but it has roots in her previous works. Her simple yet profound drawings are the result of her own experiences and feelings. Emotional desire creates moments of hyper awareness, a characteristic specific to human nature. Wall believes that how we position ourselves in the world directly relates to our bond with others.

Between expression and release is where her subjects live. The basic medium of graphite and charcoal is ‘chipped away’ to reveal their core identity, until race is left totally ambiguous. Some are embodied as faint, dark shadows, while others appear to excrete their own embodiments. Wall describes them as “private encounters with the self” at her website, which is a wealth of personal insight into her work. We are not just subject to our own plurality emotionally, but also physically, as we surround ourselves with material needs. In her series, “In the event of disaster…”, Wall combines these two themes in her version of the Apocalypse. In this bleak vision of the future, everything is obscured by smoke and haunted by ghostly images. It’s a warning not to let our emotions get the best of us and control our lives.

“Indivisible”:

“Shame on Me”:

“In the event of disaster…”:

Meta
Share
Facebook
Reddit
Pinterest
Email
Related Articles
Montreal based artist Nathalie Lagacé plainly draws ties between humans and nature in her latest graphite series of hybrid baby-animals. Titled "Legacy", her drawings portray screaming newborn babies who express the same emotional rollercoaster as our relationship to the environment. In a way, they are almost comical in their bizarre pairings of animals like babies with chicken legs and "duck lips", others posed like a Thanksgiving turkey ready for roasting.
Eric Green's meticulously detailed drawings replicate life beautifully- but there is something off about them. "When you really begin to understand life, everything changes completely all the time. Nothing is ever the same again," he says. Working primarily in colored pencil, Green draws images that are meant to change our perceptions by illustrating the subtleties between moments as light changes and objects are mysteriously moved by unseen occupants.
Italian artist Vesod exhibits a new collection of paintings and drawings in E-horizon, opening today at Mirus Gallery in San Francisco. Viewers will be treated to eight works on canvas and paper, as well as a site-specific installation. Vesod is recognized for his perception-altering creations that offer the illusion of three-dimensionality. He often depicts human figures traversing through geometric environments, which are reflective of the "eternal present". The exhibition is on view through October 29.
Eva Redamonti’s dynamic, hyperdetailed drawings blend futurism and fantasy, her works often packed with tension and movement. Part of that tension can also be found in her approach, as she uses both India Ink on paper and digital coloring methods. Her work often moves between human and machine—with absorbing transitions.

Subscribe to the Hi-Fructose Mailing List