The reception for the MFA thesis exhibition of multidisciplinary artist Suyun Son will be at the Hite Institute of Art and Design’s student gallery space in Portland on Friday. Featuring the painting and fabrics installation work of the Korean-American artist, punctuated by a poetry reading.

Son—who currently has five pieces in the group exhibition Girl Crush at ARTPORTAL—works with mixed media on canvas. Her primary medium is acrylic, and she describes her process by breaking it down into distinct concepts: “Paint is color, but also texture and texturized color. Texture presents the physicality of color. That physicality creates a tactile response. I create texture by layering.” Her work layers colors and textures in a way that is evocative of music. In her MFA exhibition, this musicality is especially apparent in her large-scale fabrics installation.

Some of Son’s work has symbolic meaning, particularly when she uses Hangul, the writing system for the Korean language. She uses text from the Hunminjeongeum, the 15th-century historical document that described the creation and usage of the Korean language. In this way, Son presents a playful interpretation of the interplay between the authentic and the artificial. The exhibition will be open until April 1.

Authentic Fake
Friday, March 8
5 p.m.
1616 Rowan St.

Free entry