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Veerakeat TongPaiBoon’s “urban expressionism” captures movement through exaggerated angles and bright colors.
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APA Artists Reveal Themselves at SF Open Studios
By Allison Lee
Special to AsianWeek
Have you ever wondered what Pablo Picasso’s studio was like? If Salvador Dalí kept strange and surreal found-objects around him while he painted? Whether Frida Kahlo surrounded herself with mirrors or drew just from her imagination?
The artist’s space is a fascinating arena and the San Francisco Open Studios — the biggest and oldest open studios program in the country — continues its 27th year of showcasing the space of both renowned artists and emerging talent this month.
In 1975, a small group of artists who wanted to make artwork accessible to the public founded San Francisco Open Studios. Through this program, artists around San Francisco open their studios to the public during the four weekends of October. The event features painting, sculpture, mixed media, ceramics, printmaking, furniture, glass, jewelry and photography.
Many Asian Pacific American artists participate in San Francisco Open Studios, which has over 100 artists total.
One of the featured artists is Thai-born Veerakeat TongPaiBoon, who came to the United States at the age of 22. TongPaiBoon says that he grew up in a place that did not put much emphasis on the arts, but persevered and went to one of three art schools in Bangkok. TongPaiBoon received a bachelor’s degree in architecture and traces much of his talent back to what he learned in those days. He says that architecture training influenced him, as most of his work incorporates big open spaces.
TongPaiBoon loves San Francisco, a city whose style matches his own, which he calls “urban expressionism.” In his work, realistic cityscapes are manipulated through bright colors and exaggerated figures into new creations. Instead of portraying static scenes from the city, he prefers to depict cars moving fast, or buildings caving in. “The whole point,” he says, “is to make people feel like they’re in that car, or standing under those high-rises. When a person goes downtown and looks up at the buildings, he or she does not see perfectly straight forms.”
TongPaiBoon continuously strives to capture realistic perspectives in abstract ways. Compared to early on in his career when he paid close attention to detail and authenticity, he now chooses to symbolically reference objects from everyday scenery. TongPaiBoon notes that people often ask him, “Is that an earthquake painting?” TongPaiBoon’s studio will be open during the third weekend in October at 2613 Pine Street.
Another talented artist participating this year is Chinese American painter Cynthia Tom. Tom is not strictly limited to canvas. She remarks, “I like to paint on anything. Lately I’ve been painting on plywood. Basically I do whatever gets me excited.”
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Cynthia Tom’s surrealist paintings will be on display at her studio in Hunters Point at the end of October.
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Tom works intuitively, constantly aiming for aesthetic appeal while interpreting the meaning of her work later. Many of the themes of her work come from a strong group of influential women she has been surrounded with throughout her life, especially her mother, grandmother and great-grandmother.
As a main objective, she explains, “I want to gravitate women to trust their intuition and each other, because our society does not encourage us to do so.”
She devotes much of her work to preserving a history that she observes, is “leaking away.” Tom is currently working on portraits of female Angel Island immigrants, with a written story next to each face, to bring these women to life.
To Tom, art is also a mechanism of self-acceptance, a way for her to come to terms with hovering anxieties. Tom says, “I like painting women with curves. I think I’m trying to embrace my own body, because I’m not skinny by any stretch and being an Asian woman with large breasts — I’m politically and culturally incorrect. In fact, my grandmother used to bind my mother’s chest with an ACE bandage — [it] didn’t work.”
Tom’s Hunter Point studio will be open the fourth weekend of October.
To find more information on where you can locate this array of talented artists, visit www.sfopenstudios.com.
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