Yenting Ryo De Smidt
Born in Taiwan, currently living in California
Artist Statement
Restrictions in my life are my inspiration. I was born and raised in Taiwan, and as a result of my upbringing, I learned to accept the restrictions that my culture and family placed upon me. My immersion in art practice might seem rebellion to my family, but for me it’s a way to examine my life and how I perceive the world. Art facilitates a self-awareness and makes me conscious of the ways that I surrendered to cultural norms.
In my work, I like to challenge my viewers assumption about the world through creating an atmosphere that puts them ill at ease. Revealing moments of tension, I recreate such experience such as locking oneself in the bathroom, or encountering the fact that ones holy book is full of edits by humans.
I am not interested in changing people’s opinion, but I want to create a space where people pause and think. I believe that there is no right or wrong, but only different ways of looking at things. This is the spirit I want to capture through create space that expose the dynamics of alienation and the complexity and duality of daily life by having viewers question their perceptions of what society has trained them to accept.
I re-appropriate familiar materials such as bibles, toilets,plastic toy soldiers. I choose my medium instinctually on well on being mindful of the best way of communicate my ideals.Whether I choose drawing, painting, sculpture, or any other technique for a certain piece is based only on my instinct about the best way to explore concepts of personal privacy and to create an atmosphere of awkwardness and tension from being exposed to dynamics of alienation and duality that are present in daily life. My goal is to have the viewers question their perception of what society has trained them to accept.
In my work, I like to challenge my viewers assumption about the world through creating an atmosphere that puts them ill at ease. Revealing moments of tension, I recreate such experience such as locking oneself in the bathroom, or encountering the fact that ones holy book is full of edits by humans.
I am not interested in changing people’s opinion, but I want to create a space where people pause and think. I believe that there is no right or wrong, but only different ways of looking at things. This is the spirit I want to capture through create space that expose the dynamics of alienation and the complexity and duality of daily life by having viewers question their perceptions of what society has trained them to accept.
I re-appropriate familiar materials such as bibles, toilets,plastic toy soldiers. I choose my medium instinctually on well on being mindful of the best way of communicate my ideals.Whether I choose drawing, painting, sculpture, or any other technique for a certain piece is based only on my instinct about the best way to explore concepts of personal privacy and to create an atmosphere of awkwardness and tension from being exposed to dynamics of alienation and duality that are present in daily life. My goal is to have the viewers question their perception of what society has trained them to accept.
CV
Education
2011-2013 BFA, Bachelor of Fine Arts, UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA
2013 Certificate of Excellence in New Genres, UC Berkeley, CA
2009-2011 Santa Barbara City College, Art Department, CA
Artist Residencies
2014 Carnegie Art Museum, Oxnard, CA, USA
Exhibitions
2014 Hanging by the Thread, CAM Studio Gallery, Oxnard, CA, USA
2013 AfterCal: artparty, Fine Art Gallery, Berkeley, CA, USA
2013 Senior Show, Worth Ryder Gallery, UC Berkeley,Berkeley, CA, USA
2013 Ultraverse, Worth Ryder Gallery, UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA
2013 FIAT LUNCH, Worth Ryder Gallery, UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA
2012 Decoy and Hybrid, Worth Ryder Gallery, UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA
Work Experience
2014 - Current Visual Image Developer, JH Biotech, Ventura, CA, USA
2014 Catalog Design, Carnegie Art Museum, Oxnard, CA, USA
2014 Intern, Santa Barbara Art Museum, Santa Barbara, CA, USA
2013 Catalog Intern, Art Department, UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA
2013 Open Critique DeCal* Class Facilitator, UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA
2013 Gallery Intern, Art Department, UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA
2012 Artist/Intern, OPENrestaurant in Fittja, Botkyrka Konsthall Gallery, Stockholm, Sweden
Publications
Premnath, Sreshta. "Learning by Doing, Performing, Exchanging, Communicating". Shifter. May 2013 (Volume 20). Page 8-12.
(note: interview name as Ryo Yonami)
Eicher, Amanda, Conrad, Sean, Yenting, Wang. CookBook for the Future. University of California at Berkeley: 2013.
Technical Skills
Photoshop CS5 and CS6,
Illustrator CS6,
InDesign CS6,
Free hand drawing
Oil Painting, Acrylic Painting, Watercolor (self taught)
iMovie,
Final Cut Pro
Languages
Mandarin (ILR* Level 5), Taiwanese (ILR Level 4), English (ILR Level 3), Japanese (ILR Lever 2)
* DeCal : http://www.decal.org
* ILR: Interagency Language Roundtable scale