pretty boys kill me (Press Release – PDF)

Gallery FUKAI
602 East Hastings St
Vancouver, British Columbia

April 6 – 27, 2013
Opening: Friday, April 5, 2013 from 8 pm – 12 am

Gallery hours: Saturday & Sunday, 1 – 4 pm, or by appointment: galleryfukai@gmail.com

Solo exhibition, April 6 – 27, 2013
Gallery FUKAI
Vancouver, Canada

In pretty boys kill me, I address the subtle distinction between desire and obsession, with soft-featured young men serving as muse. Through my drawings, I continue to reference both public and personal histories.

Poster-sized drawings of many pretty boy faces, arranged in pattern, present an aesthetic ideal of beauty. Each face was meticulously drawn one at a time, only then were sections erased to reveal snippets from text messages sent and received during past romantic relationships. While formulaic repetition provides the drawings a mechanical tone, their subject, their dimensions, and the use of coloured-pencil are reminiscent of the lovesick teenager. A series of smaller portraits blend multiple faces to create monstrous amalgams – desire’s derangement of the senses. One gallery wall is covered with wallpaper I created that was inspired by Charles Dana Gibson’s ‘Design for Wallpaper – Suitable for a Bachelor Apartment’ (1902). Gibson’s satirical interpretation of romantic longing and female beauty is here replaced by an earnest look at male beauty as the object of affection.

Process and object are both important in this exhibition. At the outset, I was interested in whether my drawing capability and the quality of the work would suffer because of the intense repetition. The show’s ambiguous title, pretty boys kill me, gestures at the project’s and my own masochism. Having drawn about 300 faces, I injured my right hand and was unable to draw for several months. To be sure, pretty boys kill me speaks to the deleterious effect of obsessive desire. Love becomes an inoperable illness that cannot be removed without destroying the patient. The drawings touch equally, however, on the enabling aspect of obsession, its ability to focus the senses and intellect in pursuit of its object.

[Download PDF press release]

Love is Touching Souls

Banff Town Hall
Banff, Alberta

2014-2015 (exact dates to be announced)

This work was selected from an open call for work by Canadian artists and is part of a 5-year long program of public art on the Banff Town Hall exterior. Three artists (local, regional and national) were chosen to have their works displayed for 18 months at a time.

The pop-up shop features goods made by over a dozen artists, including: Jocelyn C, Janice Cheung, Lisa Cinar, Joji Fukushima, Anna Gukov, Roselina Hung, Karina Irvine, Choo KeinKua, Brennan Kelly, JP King, Michael Lee, Amy Novak, Suze and Rotolo, Jonathon Wayne, Erica Wilk

Project Space is a volunteer-run bookshop, publisher and project space by the non-profit OCW Arts & Publishing Foundation. Art Market is a project by Michael Lee, with support from Vicki Lee, Julia Hong and Project Space.

Art Market: A Project Space Fundraiser

Project Space
222 East Georgia Street
Vancouver, British Columbia

Pop Up Shop: November 23 – December 16, 2012
Grand Opening: November 23 at 8pm

For more info, please visit the Project Space website.

Self Impersonations & Other Attractions

Surrey Art Gallery
13750 – 88 Avenue
Surrey, British Columbia

November 17, 2012, 2 - 3 pm

For more information on the talk and exhibition, please visit the Surrey Art Gallery website.

While I was on the SÍM Residency in Reykjavik, I produced a limited edition artist book, pretty boys kill me.  It is a 12 page book of drawings from my pretty boy series. The book is limited to 50 numbered editions and 6 artist proofs. They are available for sale in the Editions section of my website, as well as in Reykjavik at the bookstore Útúrdúr

pretty boys kill me
limited edition artist book
by Roselina Hung

12 pages, 5.75″ x 4.25″
limited edition of 50 + 6 artist proofs

A full preview of the book is available here.

To buy the book, please check the Editions section of my website.

Splash 2012: Defining Silence
MC: Gloria Macarenko (co-host, CBC News Vancouver)

CBC Vancouver
700 Hamilton Street
Vancouver, British Columbia

Saturday, October 13, 2012
6:30pm on into the night

To buy tickets to the gala event, please visit the Splash 2012 website.

Laurence writes, “Hung uses both personal snapshots and art-historical portraiture as source material for small, highly realistic oil paintings of herself, which she renders with exquisite facility. Some of these portraits, such as She wanted to do more than just pass…, are allegorical and clearly modelled on art-historical precedents (in this case, Raphael’s Portrait of a Young Woman With Unicorn). Others, such as Self-Portrait (The Past Five Years), explore the ways that contemporary lives are densely documented by incidental photographs.

Part of what’s interesting in Hung’s imagery is the tension between the incidental and the labour-intensive, the ephemeral and the lasting. In fact, that existential tension occurs in most of the self-portraits in Scenes of Selves. Eventually, death will take us all out—and time will pretty much obliterate whatever means we choose to represent ourselves.”

The review, in its entirety, can be read on The Georgia Straight’s website here. Or click the image below for a larger scan of the paper.

Click the image for a larger image of the review

F L O E / New Work

SIM Residency
Seljavegur 32,
Reykjavik 101, Iceland

5 – 7 pm, September 27 2012

This exhibition features artworks by 8 international artists who are currently taking part in the SIM Residency in Reykjavik, Iceland.

The artists in this exhibition are Roselina Hung (CAN), Patricia Hurl (IRL), Linda Lenssen (HOL), Victor Medrano (AUS), Justy Phillips (UK/AUS), Therry Rudin (SWL), Ryan Wood (CAN) and Margaret Woodward (AUS).

Splash Art Preview Exhibition

Pendulum Gallery
885 West Georgia Street
Vancouver, British Columbia

September 24 to October 5, 2012

For more information on the exhibition or to buy tickets to the fundraising gala, which will be held on October 13 at CBC Vancouver, please visit the Splash 2012 website.