Andrew Chuani Ho, a Los Angeles native, creates vibrant scenes with colored pencil on paper, with works that are both surreal and autobiographical. In his first solo show at Richard Heller Gallery, titled Days and Day, the artist brings his trademark insanity and blending components in a new set of works. The artist cites influences like Matisse, Marquez, and even Henry Darger. From the gallery: “Having a deeply spiritual upbringing, Ho’s work exhibits the use of patterns, colors and symbols to reinterpret myths and fables of yore into meditatively drawn colored pencil drawings.”
The artist injects symbology and products from pop culture into his detailed, flamboyant works, with animal characters often taking the place of or living alongside humans. Even with the artist’s seemingly less busy works, there’s an intricacy to the patterns and perspectives chosen to convey these narratives. Ho, born in 1990, received a BFA from Art Center College of Design (Pasadena) in 2013, and currently works in Los Angeles.
The blend of surrealism and personal interaction adds to the reality-bending aspect of Ho’s works, further bushed by the palettes chosen and his interpretations of shape and spatial reasoning. Several of his works are meditations on one color, with creeping frogmen blending into natural backdrops and patterned shirts and wallpapers melding.