Yowshien Kuo's "A Most Obligatory Gesture"

Yowshien Kuo b. 1985 is a Taiwanese-American Artist educated in both the U.S. and Taiwan.  Influenced by his Asian American background, Kuo uses American folklore motifs to address the dissonance between “the stories and characters presented in literature and media and…my own identity and the identity of those who occupy my environment. Kuo was selected as one of the recipients of a longstanding CAM program, the Great Rivers Biennial, entailing a financial award and solo exhibition at the museum in fall 2022.

For the first time, this book presents the idiosyncratic text in accompaniment to the images and is intended to be a powerful component of Yowshien Kuo's recent work. The necessity of text has become increasingly evident in recent months: how words behave and congregate to elevate the sincerity of historical critique and contemporary affections—revealing what lies beneath the armor of fluorescent colors, glimmering jewels, and dazzling glitter. These shimmering surfaces are bound to a cast of characters who reveal their desires, imaginative universes, and unspoken secrets aroused by misguided provocations towards self-preservation. A discourse that accounts for and reaches beyond both public and private experience.

Includes a one-of-a-kind painting made with gesso, acrylic, and glitter on cold-pressed acid-free paper. 140lb / 300gsm 

4x6 inches

10.16 cm x 15.24 cm

2024