Diane Williams

Recollection of childhood events with my family and friends are fragments that I constantly strive to piece together. Coming from an ethnic background now living in Los Angeles, my work reflects my identity as an Asian American female with conflicting dualities of culture and personal struggles to reconnect my childhood memories to my adult life.

In my work I present a psychological space that relates to the subconscious, using imagery based on Freud's notion of The Uncanny where something rather familiar and old manifests itself as fear and anxiety. In the process of studying and understanding this concept, I create an imagined, surrealist space often based from memories, imaginary tales and narratives that connect the obscurities of repressed memories. My images are compressed, cropped and pushed with hidden or signified objects. Representational figures of women and animals are used as metaphor for the self as they represent the instinctive nature in humans. Different methods of mark making are examined by employing diverse materials and mediums. Geometric shapes such as squares and rectangles are seen with detached images or silhouetted figures and solid forms.

Education

2013 BFA Drawing and Painting - CSU Long Beach School of Art

Solo Show

2013 To Fear The Uncanny, Gatov West Gallery-CSULB, Long Beach, Ca

Group Shows

2014 Figure-ing It Out, Werby Gallery, Long Beach, Ca

2013 Holiday Salon, Art Exchange Gallery, Long Beach, Ca

2013 BFA Group Show, Gatov East and West, Long Beach, Ca

2013 2nd Saturday, Art Exchange Gallery, Long Beach, Ca

2013 CSU Summer Arts, CSU Monterey, Seaside, Ca

2013 Progressive Views on Gender and Sexuality, Art Exchange Gallery, Long Beach, Ca

2013 Still Beautiful, Dutzi Gallery, CSULB, Long Beach, Ca

2013 Moments of Turbulence, Dutzi Gallery, CSULB, Long Beach, Ca

2013 Food, Dutzi Gallery, CSULB, Long Beach, Ca

2010 OCCCA-Orange County Center for Contemporary Arts, Santa Ana, Ca

2010 Summer Studios Art Academy, Lomita, Ca

2010 Student Show, West LA College Gallery, Culver City, CA

2010 Culver City Holiday Art Show, Culver City, Ca

2009 Student Show, West LA College Gallery, Culver City, CA

Awards and Scholarships

2013 CSU Summer Arts Monterey, Chancellor’s office, Long Beach, Ca

2013 Awarded Scholarship to attend CSU SummerArts, Seaside, Ca

2010 2nd Place, Group exhibit, Culver City Holiday Art Show, Culver City, Ca

2010 3rd Place, “Under The Sea”, Culver City Holiday Art Show, Culver City, Ca

Articles and Publications

2013 EYE ON ART: Art Exchange Exhibit Tackles Sexuality, Grunion Gazette Newspapers

2013 The Chancellor’s Gallery, CSU Summer Arts 2013