Overview
Phillip Hua is a South Bay Area native whose art speaks of the delicate relationship between nature and commerce. As someone familiar with the ever-changing landscape of the Silicon Valley, Hua visualizes this shift in his art using unique processes that combine creative digital and traditional techniques. His work presents a call to be aware of how we're affecting the world around us and to question what our priorities are. This exhibition will include a selection of the artist's 2D works.
Artist Statement
When I was growing up in San Jose, fields, orchards and wild, undeveloped lots were abundant. In the house that I spent most of my adolescent years in, there was a small personal farm behind our backyard. I could hear crickets when I went to bed. Today, that small farm is now replaced by new housing. The nights are mostly silent. The fields and orchards that I remembered are now office parks and commercial spaces. Where the change has been an economic boon to the Bay Area, I question what was replaced. The tide of redevelopment fueled by the relentless march of tech washed away so much of the beauty of nature. My memories of San Jose no longer align with what it is today.Â
My artistic process is a blend of traditional and digital techniques, revolving around creating photo composites that I print, rework, scan, and digitally rework again. I incorporate dots to represent printing, ink bleeds to represent painting, and squares to represent pixels, influenced by our blended digital and corporeal lives. I draw inspiration from Asian brush painting, technology, and nature. While political, my goal is to always lure the viewer with beauty and color to provoke contemplation.
This exhibition draws from over 17 years of work, ranging from portraits that invoke nostalgia and childhood to works that portray the intersection of the environment with the economy.Â
Artist Biography:
Born in San Jose, California in 1979, Phillip Hua was raised in the city that would eventually become the heart of Silicon Valley. The child of Vietnamese immigrants, he spent his childhood days exploring the many fields and creeks now replaced with redevelopment fueled by the tech industry. In 2003, he received his BFA in Illustration from the Academy of Art College (now University), where he taught Digital Media from 2009-2021. He currently lives and works in San Francisco.
Hua's art has been exhibited in galleries and art fairs nationally and internationally. His public art commissions can be seen in the Southeast Community Center in San Francisco, 19th Street Oakland BART station, Sunnyvale City Hall, and the cities of San Francisco, San Mateo, Dublin, David, and Palo Alto. This is his first solo museum exhibition.
Marquee:
Phillip Hua, Missed Opportunities, no date, pigmented ink and packaging tape on the Wall Street Journal newspaper, mounted on Dibond.