Today we’d like to introduce you to visual artist Ivy Wu.
Hi Ivy, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I was born and grew up in Shanghai, China. Shanghai is a melting pot of cultures, and this fusion deeply influences spirit of my work. My mother planted the art seed in my heart. Some of my earliest memories are how she decorated the home, stitched cute cartoons on my pants, made cloth and knitted sweaters for me. She took me to learn calligraphy with a bamboo sumi brush. In middle school, I added drawing and painting in Gouache to experience. After I immigrated to the States in 2013, I switched the material to oil paints and enjoyed capturing lights and colors in nature, mostly through plein air with other artists and friends. I took portraiture commission jobs to hone my representational painting skills. In my study in the MFA painting department in the Savannah College of Art and Design, the coursework there provided me a systematic understanding of contemporary art and exposure to many different materials. My current work is mostly acrylic. Acrylics give me a sense of flowing watercolor and saturated beautiful color schemes.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
The path of creation is a lonely one and it has taken me many years to evolve my work to an expressive way. Finding inspiration is the most challenging part. My early work sought inspiration from inside out, painting from personal thoughts and imaginations. In later work, I struggled to adopt an outside-in mindset, absorbing what’s around me as my source. Now I’m thinking of creating in a conceptual way, I’m fascinated by William Anastasi’s Subway Drawings, my next challenge is to find the charm of artistic indeterminacy.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
While I used to paint figurative work, the more I paint, the more I find expressive abstraction painting to be my passion. I am a big admirer of Lee Krasner, Cecily Brown, and a Chinese master Zao Wou-ki. I feel the freedom and joy of vivacious strokes on a large canvas. I am mesmerized by colors, and I paint rapidly in an intuitive way. My work is the synesthetic response to the complexity of the world.
Is there anyone you’d like to thank or give credit to?
Throughout my art career, I’ve benefitted tremendously from many artist friends, educators, and collectors. They are my biggest advocates. The professors in SCAD, and President Paula Wallace, have generously given me lots of encouragement and their devotion to art is contagious. I love attending community events, art exhibitions in Metro Atlanta and other states. My works are supported by Hollis Taggart Gallery in NYC. Because of Covid, currently, I exhibit paintings online to Chinese audiences supported by brilliant art critic and curator Hsingyuan Tsao. I’m seeking for more opportunities to build connections between the West and the East culture.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.ivywuART.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ivy.wu.art/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Ivy.Wu.VisualArt
Image Credits
Ivy Wu
