Artist Statement: Is identity a springboard or burden in art? #2
Writing My Artist Statement by Anthony Le
This blog is about why writing my Artist Statement has been hard, how a decision to open up has made it better and some tips I’ve found online.
This is the 2nd blog in this series. Listen to the 1st blog in the series “Is identity a springboard or burden in art? #1: A podcast listening (audio-only) party by Anthony Le.”
The past month has been another heavy application period in DC. There’s been a lot of interesting group shows and of course, solo show calls for next year. Check out East City Art for local open calls. I’ve been working and reworking my artist statement for each application. Although it is often the most frustrating task, it makes sense that it’ll continue to change as my art practice evolves with new questions and new threads to pull. That’s really advice to myself so I can feel a sense of accomplishment and expansion every time I want to toss my keyboard across the room.
When talking about my art, I’ve always been conflicted about how much I should talk about my own trauma. I want to explain how my perspective was shaped, but I don’t want to be subjected to tokenism because of my race. Dominique Fung told a story about how she painted this abstracted image of her friend holding a piece of clothing, and the collector who bought the piece asked about its meaning and was disappointed that it didn’t have this essentially Asian cultural/orientalist backstory. This of course didn’t happened to me, but I think a lot about how much the audience should know about what the paintings mean to me personally.
Because I create fictional narratives, I want the audience to fill in some narrative details of what’s happening in the paintings because it’s participatory and that’s how I personally enjoy other’s paintings. There’s also an appeal to being an artist who is mysterious and doesn’t give the audience full access, but that might only be a space that white male artists can occupy with their tight-lipped stoicism.
Ashley and I have been talking a lot about not closing doors for people to enter the work either in titles or descriptions. We know that our work is not for everyone, but by taking more of a poetic abstract approach to naming the art, people might want to dive into the work more and potentially want to buy it more.
I identify as Vietnamese American and nonbinary, so on the other hand, I want to foster representation and community for those audiences too. The fear of vulnerability when making art about identity is real, and I thought that by not naming that when I speak about the work, I could maybe avoid feeling that pain. But if that’s what my artwork is about, there’s no hiding from it. The real purpose of the Artist Statement is to provide a lens into the art, so when I realized I should just open the doors, the writing became clearer.
Oh I’m also trying out Netvvork, which is a paid online subscription/community that is supposed to help me get more shows and grants. It’s hard as a self-taught artist to know how to do any art thing “in the proper way,” and my art philosophically stands in resistance to anything “proper” already, so I hope to at least steal some procedural advice from the subscription. I watched the Artist Statement writing curriculum (see notes at end of blog), and I reviewed past statements. I keep a notes app where I keep a copy of each Artist Statement version I’ve ever submitted since 2021. This helps me because some days you really explain things better than others, and a lot of times you go back to an idea in a new way.
So here’s my current Artist Statement. It’s probably too long, and I’m on the fence about the influences paragraph, but I can always cut back later perhaps. Do y’all think it makes any sense?
My art practice harnesses the power of self-acceptance to uplift underrepresented stories. Growing up as a first generation Vietnamese American in the Southern United States, I look for signs of commonality and shared humanity. I investigate masculine stereotypes in our patriarchal society and offer counter-narratives of vulnerability as strength. I honor my Asian and nonbinary identity by telling stories of resiliency, love and solidarity.
My influences stem from POC and Queer painters: Hung Liu’s recontextualization of the Asian figure, Kerry James Marshall’s filling in art history’s lack of POC representation, Doron Langberg’s large strokes of Queer love and Dominique Fung’s reaction to orientalism and fetishization. Following their legacy, I want to uplift marginalized stories through the power of representation.
Identity politics can feel limiting, so I find moments of humor, joy and confusion to show how identity can instead feel expansive. I make surreal images of people close to me, pop culture references and my own self-image as protagonists in fictional narratives about bias, power and the joy of nonconformity.
I paint portraits and group interactions with acrylic and pastels. My colors gravitate around golden hour yellow light that naturally occurs at sunrise and sunset. I use this because as an Asian, I am “Yellow,” and golden hour light imbues a restorative energy of contemplation and self-determination. I choose between red and green color palettes depending on emotional tenor, and I explore how the saturation of light conveys darkness. My portraits are often life-size, and I explore space and placemaking in my compositions through the lens of my landscape architecture background.
My printmaking practice remixes Asian iconography into messages of hope, solidarity and mental wellness. I co-founded the Model Mutiny art collective with Ashley Jaye Williams, and we collaborate on sculpture, performance and fashion with a focus on body acceptance, gender expression and subverting stereotypes.
Tips for writing Artist Statements from Netvvork:
What an artist statement should answer:
Medium
What does work look like
Scale
Where is it shown? Gallery, public art, etc - maybe less important if gallery
Why was it made? Ideas driving work? Historical tradition?
Why does it matter? Audience?
Once sentence should explain what you make and why - this is often used by others in press, websites and promotional materials
Avoid passive voice:
Direct action gives you more agency and ownership of what you're making vs past tense
Example: "my work is about climate change" vs "I make paintings about climate change"
Verbs to avoid: are, is, was, were, could have, would have, has been, have been
Avoid using "ing"
Move adjectives earlier: "Jack Whitten was an influential sculptor who died in 2018" vs "The influential sculptor, Jack Whitten died in 2018."
Short Version: three sentence description for website and useful as elevator pitch
What you make - medium
What does your work look like - size, scale, material, visual metaphors
Why it matters - motivation, emotional point of connection
Watch this Creative Capital Webinar too:
Objectivity, an accounting, existentialism
A lens into your work. How do you invite someone in? Exercise in empathy.
What's the gap between what you've done and what you're aiming for?
Convert your audience to the light in the darkness but also establishing the need for the light
Translation document that doesn't erase the experience of viewing the work
Repeating motifs between 3 works
Aqua Plugs:
Model Mutiny clothing pop up at Black Cat (1811 14th St. NW, Washington, DC 20009) on 9/23 from 12-3pm. The event will feature 10+ local secondhand-focused businesses of all mediums, DIY workshops/activities, and local organizations. There will be a DJ too!
Anthony Trung Quang Le (he/they) is a DC-based multidisciplinary artist and identifies as Vietnamese, American and Queer. They work in painting, video, sculpture, printmaking, performance, writing and curation, exploring the joy of nonconformity. View Anthony's work atAnthonyLeArt.com and follow@AnthonyLeArt.