Fay Ku
Fay Ku creates works on paper that combine the bold negative space and calligraphic lines of traditional Asian art with an American emphasis on the figure. Her delicately drawn characters explore the fluidity of identity—sexual, cultural, personal and political—and the ambiguity in relationships with one another. Even as they engage in conflict or violence, their draughtsman-like stylization and sparse colors lend a austere gracefulness to the scenes. “Problematic relationships and issues of socialization are central themes in my work–stories, myths and things witnessed inspire me,” Ku says.
One of Ku’s most recurring motifs is children, often girls, in combat. In Room for Only One II (2005), a girl in a boat is poised to stab submerged swimmers with a sharp pick, in Warrior Girls (2005), three pigtailed girls carry decapitated heads on sticks, while in Not Enough Oxygen (2005) a girl holds a bag over a younger boy’s head. As children, Ku’s protagonists have not yet learned empathy and so reveal the inherently savage side of humanity without shame. “We’re not that much evolved when we become grownups,” Ku says. “We have the veneer of being socialized, but all those tendencies and emotions are barely under the surface.’
Fay Ku …
Fay Ku creates works on paper that combine the bold negative space and calligraphic lines of traditional Asian art with an American emphasis on the figure. Her delicately drawn characters explore the fluidity of identity—sexual, cultural, personal and political—and the ambiguity in relationships with one another. Even as they engage in conflict or violence, their draughtsman-like stylization and sparse colors lend a austere gracefulness to the scenes. “Problematic relationships and issues of socialization are central themes in my work–stories, myths and things witnessed inspire me,” Ku says.
One of Ku’s most recurring motifs is children, often girls, in combat. In Room for Only One II (2005), a girl in a boat is poised to stab submerged swimmers with a sharp pick, in Warrior Girls (2005), three pigtailed girls carry decapitated heads on sticks, while in Not Enough Oxygen (2005) a girl holds a bag over a younger boy’s head. As children, Ku’s protagonists have not yet learned empathy and so reveal the inherently savage side of humanity without shame. “We’re not that much evolved when we become grownups,” Ku says. “We have the veneer of being socialized, but all those tendencies and emotions are barely under the surface.’
Fay Ku works have been exhibited nationally and internationally. She has been awarded solo museum exhibitions at the New Britain Museum of American Art in Connecticut and The Contemporary Museum in Honolulu. She has also had solo shows at Englewood Art Center in Florida, Eight Modern Gallery in Santa Fe, and Baum Gallery at University Central Arkansas, in Conway, AK. Ku was the subject of a Sundance Channel feature in 2008 and is the recipient of an Urban Artist Initiative grant, Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation grant, and New York Foundation for the Arts fellowship award.
