Saturday: Sylvia Ji at the White Wall Gallery
Sylvia Ji
White Wall Gallery (835 Larkin St.)
June 14, 2008
Notes and Photos by Edward Paik
Sylvia Ji admits that she isn’t the best at elaborating on her art. But who can blame her when her pieces contain juxtapositions somewhat hard to verbalize. Ji's gallery at the White Walls in downtown San Francisco is both a tribute to the beauty of youth and a celebration of death.
A quick glance at the walls will tell you that these black frames hold cautionary tales - of women, of sexuality, of fate. Contemporary in the aspect of immaculate details, but vintage in influence from Mexican imagery and La Catrinas like “Lady Death.”
Ji’s art is surreal - most portraits feature skulls of death tattooed onto faces of youth. On closer inspection, one will notice the finer details in the painted bone structure - a key-lock on one woman’s temple; half-broken and upside-down hearts on another's.
“It’s a perspective that us men can’t really grasp,” said Andres Guerro, co-owner of White Walls Gallery and Ji’s personal friend.
The 30 acrylic paintings are reflections of the artist, of people she’s known, some she’s never met -- of a woman whose art evokes personal emotions. It can be seen through the symbolic images of black widows and golden bees, to roses in a figure’s hair. In monochrome scales, different solid shades are key to the artist's emotions, yet even the colors yield a sense of sexuality or its lack of as if in the woman’s discontent.
The mystery lies in the brooding aspect of the face, and the ability of the birch wood canvas and low-detailed hair to draw viewers into focus with the skull. These portraits look hauntingly back at you, all of them.
But the simplified tones around the focus attribute to Ji’s emotional message. “White Widow” uses the birch surface to compliment the figure’s pale skin, showing an almost fading figure of youth as bees of fertility ascend toward the woman’s face, though already occupied by the presence of black widows.
In the alluring and timeless beauty, in the perfection of articulate detail, the tone lies the same in every portrait, in the fact that death is an inescapable fate. Yet, it is what the Mexican imagery, Ji’s influence, celebrates. Though the feminine beauty of youth decays in the artist’s frames, it’s simply a modern take on the beauty of life and death.
Critic’s Notebook:
Random Detail: A San Francisco native, Sylvia Ji is a graduate of the Academy of Art University where she graduated with the distinction of a being finalist and award recipient in the 2005 Society of Illustrators New York Student Competition.
By the Way: Sylvia Ji’s gallery at the White Walls will continue on through July 5 and artworks are available for purchase.
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