Killing Me Softly

Ann Thornycroft

Ann Thornycroft (b.1944) was born and raised in the United Kingdom, and she now lives in Venice, California. She received her Bachelor degree from the Central School of Art in London and a Higher Diploma in art from the Chelsea School of Art.

Ann Thornycroft’s masterful paintings are simultaneously structured and very free, using her own capricious color choices in tandem with a very organized framework of painting rules. Thornycroft formulated her distinctive grid patterns in New York in the 1970s, and expanded these works in California by incorporating the rich colors of her environs. An innovative mashup of Matisse, Mondrian, and Frankenthaler, these luscious works nod to history while being a perfect complement to contemporary abstraction.

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이서형 Kay Seohyung Lee

Kay Seohyung Lee (이서형) (b.1995) was born near the US Army Garrison Yongsan Base in South Korea. She holds a BFA from Washington University in St. Louis (2018) and an MFA from the University of Pennsylvania (2021), currently residing in Philadelphia and working as a part-time lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania.

Lee's art unfurls like a cartography of her innermost desires and deepest despairs. Her inside jokes with the world, snippets of current social imagery, and countless bruises and cuts she gained during her lifetime live together harmoniously in the strange scapes Lee creates. In her most recent body of work, "hellscapes," Lee explores her complex relationships with her own body, gender identity, sexuality, religion, culture, language, relationships, and surroundings. Within her art—whether paintings, drawings, sculptures, installations, or VR creations—she creates dreamlike landscapes where feelings of hate, acceptance, and mild discomfort coexist, providing a glimpse into the layers of the human experience.

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