Kristen Liu Wong

Louise Campion Dynamics 7, 2020 Oil on canvas 91.5 x 122 cm

Irresistible Strength, Drama & Details

Kristen Liu-Wong

Los Angeles, USA www.kristenliuart.com

Los Angeles-based artist, Kristen LiuWong is an icon in the making. Originally from San Francisco, Kristen studied Illustration at Pratt Institute and since graduating in 2013, she has experienced a meteoric trajectory through numerous exhibitions and brand collaborations.

Her highly detailed and meticulous work blends her strong personal narrative with an array of sources of inspiration that go from her love of architecture, to her fascination with mythology, American folk art, cartoons she watched as a kid and even Shunga (Japanese erotic art).

Using vivid and candy-like colors, which are often at odds with the dramatic and sometimes sinister scenes she creates, Kristen reflects her own personal growth in her paintings while leaving ample space for the viewers to interpret and enjoy the stories she portrays.

Special Interview with

Kristen Liu-Wong

conducted by RICE Founder, Daniela Zamora & guest journalist Sandra N. Skriver “I am 28 years old. And my favorite number is 8 (or 3). I was raised Catholic but I consider myself an atheist who is open to possibilities. I’ve always loved to read a lot but I definitely stopped reading as much as I used to once I began to seriously focus on my art career. For a while I was such a workaholic that I almost only made art all the time but for the past year or so I’ve actively been making time to read again and now it is such an incredible reprieve from all of the chaos that is happening in real life. It’s nice to enter someone else’s world instead of focusing on mine so much. ”

So, looking at your work our best guess is that that attracts you to paint so much drama? you love candy. Is there a story behind the 50 shades of pink you use? I’ve always appreciated a good story (probably

I do like candy, which is why I can’t let myself A good painting is like a good book or a good buy it too much although I’ll usually take a salty opera—it can simultaneously reflect your world snack over dessert. When I was a little kid I while heightening it and putting a new persactually used to dislike pink because I thought it pective on it that opens viewers up to new was too “girly” and I was into dinosaurs and possibilities. When your life is crazy, it’s nice to planets. As an angsty teenager I only drew in see some of that drama reflected back. When black and white and I only wore black hoodies. your life has become mundane it’s exciting to Once I got to art school (Pratt), I was forced out experience work that has such high stakes. of my comfort zone and took a Light, Color and Design Class where I learned that I didn’t need A good story and certain hunger for the to be intimidated by color or paint. It took me female body, is there a story behind that? awhile to find my groove but by the end of a part of the reason I majored in Illustration too). Junior Year I had begun to find my way and my For a long time, and still to an extent to this work became very colorful and the ancestor of day, I was extremely uncomfortable with my bowhat my current work is. I like how the bright, dy and my own sexuality. I never would let myself eye-catching colors draw viewers in and I wear a skirt or anything form fitting as a teen and appreciate how the brightness of the colors is sexually I was quite a late bloomer. Once I got to often at odds with the content of the image. college, I realized that I could either spend my entire life hiding behind loose hoodies and

The contents are strong and dramatic. We avoiding/fearing men and intimacy, or I could cannot help but wonder, what is it with your life make myself uncomfortable and see what happens. # 76

Kristen Liu-Wong Pentheus Was A Disbeliever, 2018

happens. It took a long time, and as I said I’m still a work in progress, but you can almost visually see my confidence in form and in myself grow in my work. When I first started drawing the figures that are the predecessors to my current figures, they were much more stickish and generalized and very heavily influenced by my love of American folk art. My current figures are much fleshier and dimensional. They act as more direct reflections of myself now too as I often have to model the poses on myself, their body hair reflects mine, their pimples reflect my pimples, their belly bulges reflect mine, etc. Their bodies are likely to change as mine does.

So, somehow they mirror your own personal evolution. How attached are you to the pieces you create? Whenever you finish a piece, are you ready to let it go? Is there one that you feel you will never want to let go of?

I’m attached to them to a certain degree. I’m not like a Tibetan monk—if they were to be destroyed upon their completion, I would lose my shit. But I am able to always relinquish them to a new owner should they get one—and so far, every piece I’ve made that’s been my favorite has been purchased. I have bills so holding onto a big, good piece isn’t really an option for me yet,

“I think people can really tell when someone has lovingly labored by hand over an object so I never allow myself to rush or cut corners simply because I’m tired but I’ve also realized the quality of the work suffers if you don’t allow yourself time to also just be a person, especially since art is often about just that. Kristen Liu-Wong She Was Passionate About Her Collection, 2019 but it does make me happy knowing my pieces

only take off one day a week if that, but as I near 30, I’m trying to be healthier this year because the stress and lack of sleep does eventually get to you. I think people can really tell when someone has lovingly labored by hand over an object so I never allow myself to rush or cut corners simply because I’m tired but I’ve also realized the quality of the work suffers if you don’t allow yourself time to also just be a person, especially since art is often about just that.

So, no cutting corners when you’re tired, but what about creative blocks? How have you been

dealing with them lately? get to go on to live with someone else—it’s in- It’s been especially difficult to feel inspired or credibly fulfilling to know that people like my like what I’m doing even has any worth in these work enough that they will choose to hang it up times so overcoming creative blocks has proved in their homes. particularly challenging. Usually I’d go to an art show or museum, or visit somewhere cool/do

Without a doubt, because it’s beautiful, so something new to refresh myself creatively but meticulous and full of details. How long does it since that is not an option during quarantine, I usually take you to complete a piece? look at a lot of my art books, watch new films or I’ll take a day to just read and zone out. A lot of

A painting, and it really depends on size and work has been cancelled or delayed so I’m also complexity, can take anywhere from one to four learning to not push myself to be on constantly weeks and I usually work from like 10:00 am to and really let myself take time to come up with 1:00 or 2:00 am. I used to work until 4:00 am and an image I’m truly invested in. # 79

Sounds like a lesson in progress, do you feel your work has been affected by the quarantine in other ways?

It definitely has. As I mentioned, it has been incredibly hard to stay inspired and focused when there are so many huge events taking place and society and the economy has been thrown into chaos. I’ve already had multiple jobs and shows cancelled or indefinitely postponed and since art is ultimately a luxury good, I anticipate that business will continue to tighten. Some days I feel like what I’m doing is stupid and of no consequence and who cares if I finish a dumb drawing anyways when there’s so much pain and suffering and injustice in the world. And then some days, I’m reminded of why I love art so dearly—it can be surprisingly cathartic to paint a rainbow pattern mindlessly for hours, an escape that brings joy through the simple act of creation.

We certainly hope the implications of this recent period will pass and you’ll be able to return to doing collabs with brands, exhibiting your work at amazing galleries and even booking your exhibits one or two years in advance, so we have to ask, how did you make it? You graduated in 2013 Illustration at Pratt institute but your professional progression has been so quick, would you mind telling us a bit about your story?

Kristen Liu-Wong The Craving, 2019

Kristen Liu-Wong

A Bouquet For My Dear Friend, 2019

I think my success had been a combination of luck and hard work, like many people’s suc“If I didn’t have art jobs, I cesses. My first art shows were given to me as would create jobs—at opportunities by professors who liked my work from school and had been asked to curate one point I even did 6 x shows—an important reason to always do your 6 paintings for people homework and try hard in school even if it isn’t the “real” world yet. People saw my work in for $15 just because I those shows and gave me further opportunities from that. Every opportunity I got I put every- knew I needed to keep thing I could into it—I would put in as many painting and I needed pieces as I could, I would paint murals for my portion of the wall if allowed, I would show up to extra cash.” the opening no matter how small.

Simultaneously, I started a Tumblr my last year # 81

“If you want to be able to do art as a living, you’re going to have to be flexible and resourceful.” of college and submitted my work to any blog that would accept it. Tumblr was how I got my first group show in LA—one of the curators found it on there—that then led to my first three person show with a bigger name gallery, when the owner saw my work in the group show. I worked for a couple years after graduation in a print studio so I could pay bills and I would paint on nights and weekends. If I didn’t have art jobs, I would create jobs—at one point I even did 6x6 paintings for people for $15 just because I knew I needed to keep painting and I needed extra cash. When I first graduated, I sent out over 100 emails to art directors and even met with a few in emails to art directors and even met with a few in person and got literally zero job offers from any of them. Many of them told me my work would do better in galleries, and they were partially right because that is where I first started getting momentum. When I moved to LA in 2015 I didn’t have a regular job lined up, so I decided to give freelancing my everything while I lived off of the money I had saved up from my studio job. If you want to be able to do art as a living, you’re going to have to be flexible and resourceful. I had my first sticker and print company with my best friend in high school, so I’ve always tried to be proactive when it comes to my career—and by “company” I mean we would literally sit in the street and try to sell our stickers we made at super low budget. kinko’s to passersby, it was Louise Campion Dynamics 7, 2020 Oil on canvas # 82 91.5 x 122 cm

Kristen Liu-Wong There Is A Certain Pleasure In Weeping, 2019

Jillian Evelyn Break, 2020 22.86 x 30.48 cm

What is the best piece of advice you have received on your journey as an artist?

This is a bit of practical advice, but I still use this all the time so whatever: one of my favorite professors, Kenichi Hoshine—he is an amazing painter and artist but no longer teaches at Pratt—taught me to use black gesso as opposed to black acrylic for any line work since it’s super fluid but also nicely opaque so you don’t need too many coats. It’s also great for large flat areas of black, of course you can mix a more nuanced black but since it is so fluid, I use it as a base for mixing other blacks too. Practical and technical tips are some of the most valuable knowledge we can share with other artists so I hope that helps some other painters out there.