Drawings from a Hotel
May 28 – June 18, 2022
Kuo Yen Fu’s Drawings from a Hotel inaugurates a series of exhibitions at Rusha & Co.’s temporary project space The Summer, located at 1021 Alpine Street in Los Angeles’ “Forgotten Edge” neighborhood (located off Sunset Boulevard just below Elysian Park and adjacent to the Pasadena Freeway).
Kuo Yen Fu (郭彥甫) completed all the works in Drawings from a Hotel at the Caesar Park Hotel in Taipei. The works are presented on tables in the space, echoing the origins of their production. Kuo Yen Fu only draws the things he knows or has experienced first-hand, whether it be an iconic scene from a film played over and over in his parents' video store or athletes at stadiums (often their failures or injuries). The works on paper are rendered with more tenderness than might be expected, his marks lonely among the paper and his compositions rooted in an element of sparity. Also featured are drawings of small private moments: a suitcase packed for yet another solo trip, either to a film shoot or an acting job. There is often a sadness on the surface of these pieces, but deep down can be found the generosity of a journey about to commence or just completed.
Singer and entertainer-turned visual artist Kuo Yen Fu was born in 1979 in Taiwan, where he continues to live and work. He began his full-time painting career in 2015, garnering international acclaim for his Suitcase series of paintings. Kuo Yen Fu will present a much anticipated solo exhibition at the Rusha & Co.’s main space in downtown Los Angeles in August 2022, his first large scale solo presentation in the United States.
The Summer is a project space presented by Rusha & Co. operating from May through September of 2022 at 1021 Alpine Street, Los Angeles, 90012. The gallery will be situated in a broader community project on the site which will feature a modern Korean restaurant, vegan bakery, cafe, and community garden.
