Gray Magazine "Pop" by Rachel Gallaher
Gua currently has a show of Pop Hybrids at Bilinear Art Consulting at the Seattle Design Center that will run through September.
Troy Gua, The Davids 2.0 (Michelangelo's David + David Bowie), Resin coated metallic c-print on wood, 36" x 36" x 1 3/8"
Troy
Gua admits that he was an ”art kid” in school. “I never really chose to be an
artist,” he says “it’s just something I’ve always done since I was little.” But
even though he embraced his creative side at a young age, the Seattle-based
artist admits that after high school he wandered away from art, shelving his
talent and trying to figure out what he wanted to do with his life.
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Troy Gua, The Amazing Graces (Grace Jones + Grace Kelly), Resin coated metallic c-print on wood 36" x 36" x 1 3/8" [Sold]
Troy Gua, The Jacks, or On the Road to Camelot (Jack Kerouac + John F. Kennedy), Resin coated Acrylic on Canvas, 36" x 36" x 1 3/8" [Sold], 12" x 12" x 1" [Sold]
“It wasn’t until 2006
when I met my current wife and she saw some of the paintings I had done that
she convinced me that I needed to follow my dream and get back to creating
art,” he says. In response, Gua began working on a set of surreal paintings
that dealt with personal hardships, and then he started selling them, But after
a few of the painting were purchased, he began to feel uncomfortable about
letting them go.
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Troy Gua, The Man Ray Charles, or Sound and Vision (Man Ray + Ray Charles), Resin coated acrylic on Canvas 36" x 36" x 1 3/8"
“It
just felt strange to me because they were really deep,” he says. “I wanted to
figure out how to make something that was personal but didn’t feel like I was
giving away part of my soul.”
Troy Gua, The Brains and The Beauty (Albert Einstein + Marilyn Monroe), Resin coated metallic c-print on wood 36" x 36" x 1 3/8"
As a self confessed
pop culture junkie (especially Star Wars and Prince), it’s not too surprising
that various iconic images started making cameos in his work. In 2008 while
trying to decide his next steps Gua began experimenting with several different
mediums, including paint and various paper cutouts of celebrities. One day he
realized that he could combine the two, so he painted the face of da Vinci’s Mona
Lisa layered on the face of Lisa Marie Presley. The resulting Image (The
Mona Lisa Marie), painted in shades of khaki green, was the first piece in
his Pop Hybrid series, which includes more than 50 celebrity combos.
Left to right:
Troy Gua, The Queens of England (Queen Elizabeth II + Boy George), Resin-coated metallic c-print on panel, 12" x 12" x 1" [Sold]
Troy Gua, Tim Burton + Edward Scissorhands + Johnny Depp, Resin-coated metallic c-print on panel, 12" x 12" x 1"
Left to right:
Troy
Gua, "The Brides (Uma Thurman as The Bride + Elsa Lanchester as The
Bride of Frankenstein)", Resin-coated metallic c-print on panel, 12" x
12" x 1"
Troy Gua, "The Salvador Dali Lama (Salvador Dali + The Dalai Lama)", Resin-coated metallic c-print on panel, 12" x 12" x 1"
Soon after The
Mona Lisa Marie sold, the images quickly gained popularity, and gua
realized that it was too time consuming to hand-paint each one. So he started
creating the images digitally, printing them out on metallic photopaper,
mounting them on a panel, and then finishing them off with a “smooth-as-glass”
resin coating. Each of the Pop Hybrids comes in a run of 5-10 prints–limited,
but more affordable.
Left to right:
Troy Gua, Woody Allen + Allen Ginsberg, Resin-coated metallic c-print on panel, 12" x 12" x 1"
Troy Gua, The Pharaoh Fawcett (Farrah Fawcett + Akhenaten), Resin-coated metallic c-print on panel, 12" x 12" x 1"
Troy Gua, Clint Eastwood + Toshiro Mifune, Resin-coated metallic c-print on panel, 12" x 12" x 1"
Left to right:
Troy Gua, The Elton John Wayne, Resin-coated metallic c-print on panel, 12" x 12" x 1"
Troy
Gua, The Importance of Being Ernest, or Men Without Women (Ernest
Hemingway + Oscar Wilde), Resin-coated metallic c-print on panel, 12" x 12" x 1"
Troy Gua, The Doctors, or On the Couch (Sigmund Freud + Dr. Phil McGraw), Resin-coated metallic c-print on panel, 12" x 12" x 1"
“I
really wanted more people to be able to purchase my art, and I will keep
creating Pop Hybrids until there is no more interest,” Gua says, It’s something
that I can keep coming back to because the subjects are endless, and I don’t
plan on walking away any time soon.
For more artwork on show (Click Here)
"Pop" art show runs until 8/31/13
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