Exhibitions > Sordid Gaze at Martin Wong Gallery

Sordid Gaze explores the experiences of chronic migraine and coming of age between the years of 2018-2020 during Trump's first term and the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. These years were formative for me at the ages of 18-20, and I often used art as an outlet for pain, emotional stress, and as a means to understand the world changing around me. Growing Pains reflects the struggle with chronic pain, depression, anxiety, and discomfort similar to Headaches. Another common theme is dissociation—something that became familiar to many of us during the 2020 quarantine—as explored in the Pandemic series. Lastly, In Greed We Trust examines the politics of 2018 that normalized violence, racism, and corporate greed. Blending pop-art and surrealism, I used Dr. Suess’s Oh The Places We’ll Go to symbolize the racist landscape we are currently witnessing (Suess has used racist imagery in his illustrations), emphasizing the issue of selling personal data through social media apps and media addiction, touching on violence overseas, pollution, and climate change