WHEN + WHERE

Opening reception: Thurs. September 25, 5 - 7pm

Exhibition on view: Sep. 26 - Oct. 14, 2025

Gallery hours: Mon - Fri, 9am - 4:30pm, by appointment

Gayle and Ed Roski Gallery, Roski Studios Building (IFT)

ARTIST STATEMENT

Once Upon a Time, fraternity bros from Harvard University, the U of Cambridge, UCLA, Oxford, and other party schools would join the Communist Party instead of JPMorgan Chase after leaving campus—or they would join a more secret fraternity called KGB. There, they undermined their fathers' businesses and supported the liberation of Third World peoples. Later, due to various complex reasons, the club ceased to exist, and no cisgender white men were willing to leak classified information from MI6 or the Pentagon anymore. Their story tells us that individuals are not confined to the roles prescribed by gender or class, and everyone has the ability to break free from society's predetermined expectations.

In this exhibition series, I transform real cisgender white male communists into cartoon animals. By employing cute imagery and illustration styles that align with Asian pop culture aesthetics, this series of works create a humorous contrast with the real world. Through this stark contrast, the series aims to draw attention to overlooked voices and provoke reflection on the complex relationships between the individual and the collective, as well as ideals and reality.