September 6 - October 20, 2021
To view the artist talk on October 7, 2021, go here.
From the Wright Gallery:
“The Wright Gallery in the College of Architecture at Texas A&M University presents a solo exhibition of graphite drawings by Houston-based artist, Mayuko Ono Gray, titled: 見て分からんものは聞いても分からん_ A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words. Mayuko is represented by Hooks-Epstein galleries in Houston, TX, and Galeria 910 in Oaxaca, Mexico. The exhibition at the Wright Gallery runs September 6 through October 20 and is free and open to the public. A Virtual Artist Talk will premiere on YouTube on October 7th featuring discussion and Q&A with the artist, curator Rebecca Pugh and art historian, Dr. Tianna Uchacz.
Referencing traditional Asian art-forms, Mayuko’s work at the Wright Gallery combines drawn imagery and calligraphic text. In each graphite work, a proverb is drawn as an abstract calligraphic line that follows the direction of traditional Asian writing, continuous from top right to bottom left. The artist describes that hiragana and kanji characters in her work intertwine and form a single line with “only one entrance and one exit [… as] a metaphor of a life: one entrance as birth of physical body, and one exit as death and loss of physical body, and all the complicated experiences during physical existence between these two.” In the drawings, Japanese proverbs are combined with self-portraits and commonplace still life scenes with tabletops full of items from her surroundings.
The exhibition features small and large autobiographical drawings that reference the artist’s daily life and experience living in Japan and the US. Mayuko’s background as a child and teenager growing up in Gifu, Japan, included training with a calligraphy master as well as studying Western drawing practices in graphite and charcoal in high school. The artist continued studying art through graduate studies in the US, earning her MFA in Painting from University of Houston. Cultural styles merge together in these works, along with subjects that are true to what she enjoys to draw such as her cats, family and colleagues, and a fish that the artist caught from the Texas Gulf. Lighthearted subjects are combined with timely and relatable scenes during a global pandemic including take-out, a boardgame surrounded by Coronavirus particles and time spent at home.
Located in Langford Architecture Building A at Texas A&M (College Station), the Wright Gallery is open weekdays 8 am – 4 pm. Masks are strongly encouraged. To learn more about the Wright Gallery, please visit https://www.arch.tamu.edu/inside/services/wright-gallery/.”
Artist talk: October 7, 2021 | 4–5 pm
Virtual artist talk via Youtube. See event description for details.
Wright Gallery, TAMU College Station
College of Architecture, Texas A&M University, 3137 TAMU, Langford Architecture Building A
College Station, 77843 Texas
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