"Pop" Art Opening, 6/20, 6-9pm
Bilinear Art Consulting at Seattle Design Center, Plaza Suite 260
Gua currently has a show of Pop Hybrids at Bilinear Art Consulting at the Seattle Design Center that will run through September.
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. |
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.”
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.
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"
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.
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"
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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