Fay Ku: Asa Nisa Masa

May 31, 2013–July 14, 2013

131004 Audition
131004 Birdfight
131004 Development
131004 Harpy
131004 Harpy (Late Stage)
131004 Local Weather
131004 Luncheon
131004 Paper Tiger
131004 Paper Tiger
131004 Paper Tiger
131004 Paper Tiger
131004 Preen
131004 Rain or Shine
131004 Threat
131004 Woman and Seven-Headed Beast

PRESS RELEASE – Fay Ku: Asa Nisa Masa

Eight Modern is pleased to announce its upcoming exhibition, Fay Ku: Asa Nisa Masa. Ku stages mythic tableaus of transformation and tension performed by young women (and the occasional boy). The refinement and subtlety of Ku’s technique offer an arresting contrast to the raw psychological charge of the scenes she depicts. Ku is inspired by […]

Santa Fe Reporter – Half and Half

Fay Ku’s creations. “It’s a recurring motif I’ve done in the past,” Ku says of her mythical, half human/half beasts. She adds that the creatures aren’t based on a specific person, but rather on an amalgamation of innate human values and ideas—an avatar of sorts. “Just like video game characters can portray different aspects of […]

Santa Fe New Mexican – Mnemonic Play: Fay Ku

Fay Ku’s exhibition Asa Nisa Masa, which opens at Eight Modern on Friday, May 31, takes its title from Fellini’s 8 ½. In the film, protagonist Guido Anselmi, an Italian movie director, remembers magic words he learned as a child to make a painting come alive at midnight —asa nisi masa. In the course of […]

THE Magazine – Fay Ku: Asa Nisa Masa

Art Slant – After Dark

Asa nisa masa, a phrase from Fellini’s 8½, is an incantation recalled from the childhood of the film’s protagonist, Guido. In the film we see a young Guido utter the phrase repeatedly while wildly jumping and flapping his arms in the hopes of summoning a painting on his bedroom wall to come to life. The […]

New American Paintings – Fay Ku: Asa Nisa Masa

Fay Ku’s solo exhibition Asa Nisa Masa at Eight Modern in Santa Fe features delicately executed graphite, ink and watercolor works inspired by her memories, experiences and relationships as a result of her upbringing in white suburbia as the child of Chinese immigrants. Through her use of subtly articulated line and negative space, Ku references […]