Hai-Hsin Huang

Region: Northeast

Website: http://haihsinhuang.com

City / State: Brooklyn, NY

My work is both an observation and depiction of contemporary life, with a specific focus on its seemingly banal aspects. I draw and paint familiar scenes, taken from family photos and scenes at tourist attractions or at institutions such as museums, banks, and barbershops, in order to reveal what lies beneath the surface of daily habits. To me, most aspects of life have the potential to be ridiculous, absurd, awkward, funny, tragic, frail, and meaningless all at once. As part of a generation marked by hedonism, I see that people seem to know more but feel less. As catastrophes become assumptions, people respond to suffering and crisis with laughter. I try to highlight the easy and comfortable lives of this generation, in particular the lightness of their being. At the same time, I try to show audiences the beauty and uncanniness of single moments, the humor and tragedy that is in us, life’s grandeur as well as the frailty of humanity.