Nominated by the School of the Art Institute of Chicago The work begins when we lose sight of the real complexity of the living process; my attention lies in the simple and subliminal appearance of life. An aesthetic that affirms the gaps between the flow of identity and fixation of signs, the layers of ineffable feelings and those indelible preconditions that come before, the uncanny and the familiar, the unrealized and the lived. The gaps are acknowledged as the grief of absence that solicits oppositions, doubles, and loss. I make persistent attempts to bridge the gaps by “dissolving the familiar signs of life” as well as “acquainting with the nameless phenomenon,” this inevitably lead to an increased sense of instability, complexity and oddity. As the result, artistic practice becomes inherent to me when the work is to make sense of my position as an outsider within. Painting is no longer a playful décor, but an urgent solution to forestall the barely acknowledged fear, and to avail myself of new perceptibility. Therefore, my painting practice naturally crisscrosses with a mixture of materials and processes that may or may not have established names; industrial insulation pipe, digitally rendered sounds, common household objects, worn or found cloth, words my parents said, google image-reverse search, photos from my phone, sponge rubber, written thoughts, furry fabrics and conventional paint remain surface in my paintings. Image: I Don’t Know How to be a Woman, laser print on fabric, laser print on transparent paper, acrylic, stretcher bar 48”x60”, steel rod, spray foam, sponge rubber, 80”x120”, 2017