(public) intimacy: Helice Wen

Spoke Art is pleased to present (public) intimacy , a solo exhibition of new paintings and illustrations by San Francisco based artist Helice Wen. Poignant and emotive, (public) intimacy highlights the vulnerability within ourselves and the duality between the visible and invisible states of emotion we all face. Exhibiting clear personal agency, Helice’s figures show real complexity in their expressiveness. Confined by their physicality, her subjects evoke powerful feelings of self- understanding while portrayed in fragile states. Tethered to their physical trappings, albeit waves of color or bountiful imagery of nature, Helice’s portraits suspend in tranquility. Utilizing a muted color palette of pastels, tans and deep blacks, (public) intimacy sets a placid tone which lends itself nicely to the private nature of each portrait. Helice’s figures posture themselves in moments of fragility and intimacy, rarely seen.

As the artist states: “When I start creating the body of work around “intimacy”, I didn’t only mean sexual intimacy, (I meant) also other emotion(s) that a person would not easily display or share with another (person). Feeling(s) of sexuality and intimacy are what people feel strongly by nature, but it’s also something they want to hide. How any individual feels about sex and intimacy shouldn't be based on what media portrays and social standard. It's what in your mind.”