Tiny Wonders: Fiber Art Solo Exhibition by Yunan Ma
Opening Receptions:
January 22, 2022, 6pm-9pm
and
February 4, 2022, 6pm-9pm
Exhibition dates: January 14th to February 13th, 2022
To see a world in a grain of sand
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand And eternity in an hour.
- “Auguries of Innocence” by William Blake
Growing up learning drawing and painting, Yunan Ma loved to express cheerful emotions through drawing from a young age. Yunan pursued education in fashion design in college, worked as a leather handbag designer, and graduated with a master degree in knitwear design in 2018. She was introduced to hand woven craftsmanship when she worked as a handbag designer, and mastered knitting technique in graduate school. Yunan naturally merged her background and experience with her perceptive attention to beautiful objects, and started becoming a fiber artist.
Yunan works with natural fibers in her art pieces, including Corriedale Wool, Merino Wool, Alpaca Wool, Cotton, and Silk. She experiments with different quality of fibers such as roving, felted wool, silk blend, and core spun yarn, and she creates unique textures with their characteristics. Yunan plays with cross cut section of fibers, using it as a “dot”, and fill up the circular loom with thousands of “dots” as if painting with dotted brush strokes on a canvas. She finds the interior of fibers more fascinating than the exterior, and it manifests with the intricate details and mesmerizing patterns in each piece. Yunan gives a twist on the traditional hand knotted technique used on making carpets, and applies it in a modern way on her wall art. On top of that, you will also find trimming, felting, dimensional shaping and other creative uses of fibers in her artwork.
“ Tiny Wonders” is a collection of fiber art pieces that Yunan made between 2019 and 2022, delivering a storytelling experience inspired by the artist’s perspective of love and life. She finds the energy of life in fresh flowers, in satellite images of Earth, and in cells of plants and insects from Ernst Haeckel’s illustrations. She absorbs the energy, and transforms it to art forms with both realistic and abstract approaches. You will see hand felted flower petals in various shades of red to imitate shadows and lights. You will also see hundreds of polka dots gathering as if a galaxy is in front of you. Yunan believes there is a complex universe inside of any life, big or small, quiet or loud. She captures the cheerfulness in life by using daring color palette in circular movements inside of a loom, to showcase the essence of not paying attention to start and end. She emphasizes the love in life by giving blooming fuzzy furs to the artwork, to scream the beauty of affection. The vision in us can be sparse but little as it can be, unlimited enthusiasm shines through. Yunan hopes this thoughtful collection give her audiences a heartfelt narrative of how little curiosities magnetize to big charms.
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand And eternity in an hour.
- “Auguries of Innocence” by William Blake
Growing up learning drawing and painting, Yunan Ma loved to express cheerful emotions through drawing from a young age. Yunan pursued education in fashion design in college, worked as a leather handbag designer, and graduated with a master degree in knitwear design in 2018. She was introduced to hand woven craftsmanship when she worked as a handbag designer, and mastered knitting technique in graduate school. Yunan naturally merged her background and experience with her perceptive attention to beautiful objects, and started becoming a fiber artist.
Yunan works with natural fibers in her art pieces, including Corriedale Wool, Merino Wool, Alpaca Wool, Cotton, and Silk. She experiments with different quality of fibers such as roving, felted wool, silk blend, and core spun yarn, and she creates unique textures with their characteristics. Yunan plays with cross cut section of fibers, using it as a “dot”, and fill up the circular loom with thousands of “dots” as if painting with dotted brush strokes on a canvas. She finds the interior of fibers more fascinating than the exterior, and it manifests with the intricate details and mesmerizing patterns in each piece. Yunan gives a twist on the traditional hand knotted technique used on making carpets, and applies it in a modern way on her wall art. On top of that, you will also find trimming, felting, dimensional shaping and other creative uses of fibers in her artwork.
“ Tiny Wonders” is a collection of fiber art pieces that Yunan made between 2019 and 2022, delivering a storytelling experience inspired by the artist’s perspective of love and life. She finds the energy of life in fresh flowers, in satellite images of Earth, and in cells of plants and insects from Ernst Haeckel’s illustrations. She absorbs the energy, and transforms it to art forms with both realistic and abstract approaches. You will see hand felted flower petals in various shades of red to imitate shadows and lights. You will also see hundreds of polka dots gathering as if a galaxy is in front of you. Yunan believes there is a complex universe inside of any life, big or small, quiet or loud. She captures the cheerfulness in life by using daring color palette in circular movements inside of a loom, to showcase the essence of not paying attention to start and end. She emphasizes the love in life by giving blooming fuzzy furs to the artwork, to scream the beauty of affection. The vision in us can be sparse but little as it can be, unlimited enthusiasm shines through. Yunan hopes this thoughtful collection give her audiences a heartfelt narrative of how little curiosities magnetize to big charms.