Going Forward, Looking Back Collective Works by Brenda Louie
September 2015 ,8 – October 2015 ,24
California State University, Sacramento, University Library Annex Gallery.
Going Forward Looking Back is an exhibition of two and a half decades of work by visual artist Brenda Louie. The exhibition’s selected works provide viewers with a reflective survey of Louie’s evolving styles, highlighting the breadth of her artistic practice. Evident in her diverse styles and the range of media with which she works, is a sense of restlessness in seeking to realize or pinpoint the underlying themes and intersections of aesthetics and theory that distinguish her native culture. This career-long focus has developed alongside an interest in communicating her experiences as a migrant artist who identifies borders in order to defy them. This restlessness can also be found in Louie’s consummate formalism, as the viewer will note that it is difficult to categorize her work. Louie’s Chinese background and the imposing cultural history that accompanies it—a history of civilization and innovation spanning millennia—has provided endless inspiration for the artist while also motivating the refined technical details and laden concepts that are integral to her paintings and installations. At the same time, Louie is well versed in the history of Western art and fully immersed in the development of contemporary art in the United States, where she has resided for decades and received advanced training. Effortlessly merging divergent aesthetics to achieve new forms of signification and alternative pictorial structures, essentially challenging the traditional parameters of painting across East and West, Brenda Louie exemplifies the limitless vision of a twenty-first century hybrid artist. The Farhat Art Museum is pleased and honored to support Going Forward Looking Back and its publication, and to have Brenda Louie’s work as part of its permanent collection. —Naim Farhat, founder and director, Farhat Art Museum. Beirut, Lebanon.
“Mapping of Memory Series – Foot Journey Series I,” mixed media, 84 x 180 in., 2010-1993. This work was exhibited at Stanford Gallery, Stanford University, Stanford, California, 1993, Judith Weintraub Gallery, 1993, and at Solomon Dubnick Gallery, Sacramento, California, 2001. Courtesy of Farhat Art Museum.
“Leaving Home Series, OP-III,” oil, and oil pastel on canvas, 84 x 192 in., 1995. This work was shown at Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, California, 1995. Courtesy of Farhat Art Museum.
“Flowers from the Sky Series 007 ,006 ,005 ,004 ,003 ,002 ,001 :2015, and 008,” watercolor, graphite white Ink, and Chinese ink on linen paper, mounted on linen paper, each 10 x 14. in., 2015. This series is inspired by the “cycle of life” concept. It is the beauty and celebration of any human success and the lamentation of loss; the fortunate and the misfortunate are viewed as an integral part of a complete life. Courtesy of University Library, California State University, Sacramento.
“The Voices of Lotus Lovers Series II,” oil on canvas, 66 x 119 in., 1991. This work was shown and sold at Judith Weintraub Gallery, Sacramento, California, 1991. The painting was first acquired from a Northern California art auction house by Naim Farhat in spring 2010. Courtesy of Farhat Art Museum.
“Rivers United Series 02-2013,� acrylic on canvas,72 x 216 in., 2013. This work was exhibited at Blue Line Gallery, Roseville, California, 2013. Courtesy University Library, California State University, Sacramento.
“Mapping of Memory – Foot Journey Series III,” mixed media, 84 x 180 in., 1993 This work was exhibited at Stanford Gallery, Stanford University, Stanford, California, 1993, Judith Weintraub Gallery, 1993, and at Solomon Dubnick Gallery, Sacramento, California, 2001. Courtesy of Farhat Art Museum.
“Crazy City Series II,� oil on canvas, 68 x 96 in., 1990. This work was inspired by the childhood experience of shifting from a remote village in Southern China to the cosmopolitan Hong Kong in 1963. It was exhibited at the Lincoln Art Center, Lincoln, California, 1992, and at Delta Gallery, San Joaquin Delta College, Stockton, California, 1997. Courtesy of Farhat Art Museum.
“Garden Series 101, Under Troubled Waters III,” oil on canvas, 66 x108 in., 2010. This work was exhibited at James Kaneko Gallery, American River College, Sacramento, California, 2010. Courtesy of Farhat Art Museum.
“Sky Garden Series VIII,” oil on canvas, 96 x 66 in., 2011. Courtesy of Farhat Art Museum.
Brenda Louie Biography
Born in 1953 in the southern Chinese province of Kwangtung, Brenda Louie is a California-based multidisciplinary artist who has exhibited in local and international museums and galleries since the late 1980s, including the Crocker Museum of Art, the Monterey Museum of Art, the University of California Davis’ Nelson Art Gallery, and the University of California Berkeley’s Institute for East Asian Studies Gallery. Louie holds a Master of Arts from California State University Sacramento (1991) and a Master of Fine Arts from Stanford University (1993). While at Stanford, she received her artistic training under esteemed contemporary artists such as the late Nathan Oliveira and was the recipient of the Gorden Hampton Fellowship, the Robert Mondavi Fellowship, and the San Francisco Foundation’s Edwin A. and Adalaine B. Cadogan Scholarship. Her work is housed in private and public collections in the United States, China, and the Middle East, notably the Crocker Museum of Art in Sacramento, the University of California Davis, the China Academy of Arts in Hangzhou, and Ningbo University in China. Louie is a faculty member of the Art Department at California State University Sacramento, where she has taught studio art since 1996. She has held several residencies during her decades-long career at such institutions as Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, and Normal University in Hangzhou, China. Louie’s artistic practice is based on continuous experimentation and research, drawing from a wide range of artistic and scholarly sources, often vis-à-vis themes that reflect her diverse history. Prior to immigrating to the United States as an adolescent, she lived between a rural town in southeast China and Hong Kong and studied classical Chinese literature and calligraphy under her father, Lui Chiu Sheung, a Chinese scholar and calligrapher, while also training in Chinese brush painting under Master Au Ho-Nine. She immigrated to the United States in 1972 and originally studied economics before rekindling her life-long interest in aesthetics. Although
her formative years in China were steeped in its centuries-old visual culture and traditional artistic practices, in the United States she was drawn to the fluid and spontaneous brushwork of Abstract Expressionism. Through the lessons of seminal American art movements, she began to work in conceptually driven approaches that emphasize the intellectual and philosophical connections of her bicultural training in painting. Consequently, as her work has evolved, she has become increasingly engaged in exploring diasporic narratives, frequently recalling her own experiences of a childhood spent amidst the sociopolitical turmoil and hardship that led to China’s 1961 famine, which spurred her migration at a young age. A monograph on the work of Louie will be published in Fall 2015 with essays by art historians Mary-Ann Milford-Lutzker (Mills College of Oakland), Elaine O’Brien, M.L. Pattaratorn Chirapravati (California State University in Sacramento), Chris Daubert (Sacramento City College), Shaker Laibi, (University of Gabes, Tunisia), and Farid Zahi (University Institute of Scientific Research in Rabat, Morocco). For more information, please visit www.brenda-louie.net
Brenda Louie Biography
EDUCATION: M.F.A. Stanford University, Painting/Drawing/Art Installation, 1993 M.A. California State University, Sacramento (CSUS), Painting/Drawing, 1991 B.A. California State University, Sacramento (CSUS), Economics, 1982 SOLO EXHIBITIONS: 2015 “Going Forward, Looking Back,” University Library Annex Gallery, CSUS, Sacramento, CA, September- October 2013 “Rivers United Series: New Works,” Blue Line Gallery, Roseville, CA, September-October 2011 “Book of Zero Series VIII,” mixed media art installation, University Union Gallery, CSUS, Sacramento, CA, October-November 2010 “Garden Series 101,” James Kaneko Gallery, American River College, Sacramento, CA. January-February 2008 “Cycle of Life Part IV,” Institute for East Asian Studies Gallery, UC Berkeley, CA, January 2007 “Cycle of Life Part III,” Ningbo University, Ningbo, P.R. China, November “Cycle of Life Part II,” University Library Gallery, Sacramento, CA, October-November “Cycle of Life Part I,” Pence Gallery, Davis, CA October-November 2005 “Living with Art,” Annual International Art Fair, Shanghai, P.R. China, May 2004 “The Book of Zero Series: A Mixed Media Art Installation,” Richard L. Nelson Gallery, Art Department, UC Davis, CA, April 2 – May 21 2001 “Mapping of Memory – Mixed Media,” Solomon Dubnick Gallery, Sacramento, CA, September
1999 “Brenda Louie - New Works," b. sakata garo, Sacramento, CA, April-May 1998 “The Rat Fest: An Art Installation,” Michael Himovitz Gallery, Sacramento, CA, October 1997 “Brenda Louie – Painting,” Delta Gallery, San Joaquin Delta College, Stockton, CA, February “Brenda Louie - Mixed Media,” Lambda Community Center, Sierra Health Foundation, 1996 “A Letter from Home: an Art Installation,” Davis Art Center, Davis, CA, October-November “Window - Inside, Outside: An Art Installation,” University Union Gallery, CSUS, Sacramento, CA, 1995 "Brenda Louie – Paintings," American River College Gallery, Sacramento, CA, March-April 1993 "Some Light on the World – Mixed Media," Judith Weintraub Gallery, Sacramento, CA, October 1992 "Reflections on Things at Hand III: An Art Installation," 1078 Gallery, Chico, CA, September-October "The Stanford Series: Drawings," Judith Weintraub Gallery, Sacramento, CA, September "Intuitive Beginnings: Paintings," Lincoln Arts Gallery, Lincoln, CA, December 1991-January 1992 1991 "Reflections on Things at Hand II – Mourning," mixed media art installation, New Works Awards Program Grant Show, Institute for Design and Experimental Art, "Brenda Louie - New Works," Judith Weintraub Gallery, Sacramento, CA, March 1989 "Reflections on Things at Hand I – Mixed Media," New Works Awards Program Grant Show, University Student Union Exhibit Lounge, CSUS, Sacramento, CA, A monograph on the work of Louie will be published in Fall 2015 with essays by art historians Mary-Ann Milford-Lutzker (Mills College of Oakland), Elaine O’Brien, M.L. Pattaratorn Chirapravati (California State University in Sacramento), Chris Daubert (Sacramento City College), Shaker Laibi, (University of Gabes, Tunisia), and Farid Zahi (University Institute of Scientific Research in Rabat, Morocco). For more information, please visit www.brenda-louie.net
CREDITS Special thanks to‌ Phil Hitchcock, director, CSUS University Library Gallery Show Installation and Lighting by Kevin Ptak California State University, Sacramento Photography by Gary Gordon Naim Farhat, founder and director, Farhat Art Museum