Thiang Uk

                                            Artist Statement

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                My recent work explores a collision of different cultures and methods of pictorial representation. My references are chosen based on my personal relationship with a number of specific locations and cultures, forming a diagram of my own immigrant journey across the globe. Western representational traditions (from Renaissance painting to Florida regionalism landscapes), Chinese landscape painting, and the Indian pictorial tradition that has influenced the Burmese arts all make an appearance in my work. 

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              As humans, we embody the sometimes awkward collisions of beliefs and cultures that we have been exposed to. In my work I try to address feelings of loss, confusion and fear of never belonging, while taking comfort in recognizing my own resilience and ability to adapt. Disparate images and patterns seem to clash and then bond together onto my combinations of figure and landscape to such a degree that they become part of the body and also merge with the background. The surface is activated through the thickness and speed of the brush strokes. These shift along with the scale of the images from one area to another within the frame. The paintings are composed using one-point perspective but, inside the figure, patterns and imagery often use isometric space. The color palette is dominated by a warm-cool modulation, from skin tones to colors of sky, forest and earth.