Paintings of inter-generational love and tension, human experience in casts, and photographed beautiful moments coming into the world. See them all on exhibit at Academy of Art University’s Sutter galleries.

Saturn Devouring His Son
Tao Sang
625 Sutter
June 7-27, 2019 

“The inspiration comes from the conflicts I have been going through between the generation of my parents and my generation,” explained Tao Sang. Her parents were born on the cusps of the Chinese Cultural Revolution, and grew up in a time when absolute worship of their leader Mao was deeply rooted in their consciousness, along with a firm, unwavering belief in collectivism.

Meanwhile, Tao Sang, BFA Painting and Drawing, was born in the 1980s, a time when individualism was becoming more prominent. Their generation believes in self-liberation.

While there is a natural bond and love between these two generations, there also tension. Her paintings and sculpture show how both can coexist, despite the tendency to fall into conflict. As she embodies personal, private feelings into small paintings, she expands to a much bigger scale using sculptures to show the transition from the personal to the public, the individual to society.

Saturn Devouring His Son is on exhibit at the Academy Gallery on 625 Sutter until June 27, 2019.

Becoming
Samira Akbari and Homai Vahidi
688 Sutter
June 7-30

For Samira Akbari, MFA Fine Art Sculpture alumna, retelling her own stories is her way of talking about the universal human experience. She also believes that culture and architecture influence the way humans are. In using body casting on the human body, and then later on casting them in Ceramic and Bronze, and placing them inside vintage frames, Samira is referring to the physical structures that society, culture, and religion impose upon the human experience.

“I believe we should be aware that we are [result] of the environments that we live in also in the every day life.”

Meanwhile, MA student Homai Vahidi shares his collection of photographs gathered throughout a span of seven years. These years, according to him, were “wonderfully surprising, eye-opening, and inspirational. I found beauty in the most unexpected places and experienced unforgettable moments.”

His photos from the Middle of Black East series depict symbolisms of the contrast that a young Iranian woman goes through, in her private and public life. Her modern self remains inhibited through government rules that limit freedoms upon them.

At the end of the day, he firmly believes that this is what photography’s ultimate purpose is: to bring beautiful moments into the world.

Becoming is on exhibit at 688 Sutter until June 30, 2019.

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