Giant Robot Store and GR2 News

Lawrence Yang lives in San Francisco and has shown at Giant Robot a few times and is now teaming up with Martin Hsu for their Giant Robot 2 exhibition: Undercurrents set to open Saturday, October 15th. His day job is a tech firm in the Silicon Valley and he paints to un-fry his mind. His work is beautiful and serene and we’re happy to host him.

 

 

GR: How did you get started in art?
LY: I’ve been drawing since I was a kid, but I didn’t really start spending a lot of time on it until I graduated college and moved to San Francisco. Here, with a new home, a new job, and limited friends, I found I had a ton of time to myself. So I started painting, and eventually started posting to a blog. A gallery somehow found me online and asked if I wanted to be in a show. I’ve been showing my work ever since!

GR: What’s your day time life like? Can you mix that with your art work?
LY: I have a full time job in the South Bay, which when taking the company shuttle means about an hour and a half door to door ride. I work as an information architect, so I spend my day thinking about user experience and content hierarchies. I usually get home around 7 or 8, eat something, and if I’m not too tired – then I would start to paint. I feel like my job and artist life complement each other very well – it makes for a nice balance of structure and freedom! Now if only there were more hours in the day…

 

 

GR: You live in the bay area, can you talk about how the environment touches your art?
LY: The Bay area is a great place to live as an artist. The people are interesting and the environment is varied – ocean, bay, hills, redwoods, vineyards, mountains… Inspiration is everywhere.

Continue reading
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – Art Exhibition at GR2 Undercurrents New Artwork by Martin Hsu and Lawrence Yang October 15 – November 16, 2011 Opening reception Saturday October 15, 6:30-10pm GR2 2062 Sawtelle Blvd Los Angeles, CA 90025 gr2.net (310) 445-9276 Currents are the source of life and death. What lies beneath the surface is unseen and often forgotten, but it’s also where much light and magic can be found. This series of paintings explores the color, vibrancy, and luminosity of the deep. Angelic creatures serve as messengers of life. They examine undiscovered feelings hidden away from the obvious by bringing light to the darkest places. There’s much beauty in the dark and life is brighter than we think. Martin Hsu is an artist and designer based in San Francisco. He takes much inspiration from nature, animals, and Hayao Miyazaki. The series of paintings he created for Undercurrents is based on the concept of life arising from death. It’s also infused with his fascination for vibrant and fantastical creatures from the deep. At this moment, he’s still pinching himself for having the opportunity to show a body of personal works at Giant Robot. He hopes this is not a dream.” Lawrence Yang wrestles with informational abstractions by day and paints by night. Influenced by graffiti art and traditional Chinese painting, he employs ink, marker, and watercolor, as the permanence of this media adds a sense of immediacy to his work. Lawrence’s paintings make use of color to communicate atmosphere and emotion, and they are concerned primarily with creating order out of chaos (and vice versa). Lawrence once ate an entire bag of Fun Size Three Musketeers™. He lives in San Francisco with his imaginary pets, Cholo and Binky. Giant Robot was born as a Los Angeles-based magazine about Asian, Asian-American, and new hybrid culture in 1994, but has evolved into a full-service pop culture provider with shops and galleries in Los Angeles as well as an online equivalent. Eric Nakamura Giant Robot Owner/Publisher eric@giantrobot.com (310) 479-7311
Continue reading