Inhale a profusion of events and exhale a reflection; thoughtful, provocative, inconclusive, wry. Being from Hawaii, long living in New York City, with an hyphenated identity, can produce unique assumptions on belonging. An unstable cultural perch encourages a questioning viewpoint. Conjuring stories that champion absurdity and acceptance, hubris and redemption, I paint innocent observations of the human condition. Made in a process of discovery and revelation, these paintings offer an archeology of their own creation; pentimenti belies false starts, buried metaphors and associations. These are meditations on a secretive dynamic between our subjective and objective selves. Wave fields conjuring micro-radar-electromagnetic-gravitational forces tighten the space. Nested in this thrumming background are images that sing songs of echoes glimpsed. My paintings resist complicity with a mass-media’s dehumanized generalities. Battered, scarred, self-doubting surfaces evoke a contemporary condition. —Charles Yuen, July 2020 Charles Yuen has shown nationally and internationally, including Elizabeth Harris Gallery; Studio10; Art in General; The Asian American Arts Center; The New Museum; The Brooklyn Museum of Art; Artists Space; and The Newark Museum. He was awarded a 2018 Guggenheim Fellowship, and a 2011 grant from the Adolf and Esther Gottleib Foundation. Critical analysis has been published in ArtCritical, Hyperallergic, Art in America, The New York Times, TimeOut, and The Brooklyn Rail. Originally from Hawaii, Yuen has lived in the New York City area since 1981.