Orange Li, who grew up in Taipei and now lives in the United States, is currently creating in her studio at the MANA Contemporary in Jersey City. Her childhood was not always particularly smooth and happy. The memories of her childhood influenced her desire to seek self-identity in society as she grew up. At the age of 27, she decided to leave Taiwan and live in the United States to start a journey to find her most genuine self. Being in a different country, she felt a strong sense of isolation and loneliness, and the hardship of having to struggle in life. Even so, she accepts all the difficulties gladly.
These mixed and intense emotions led Orange Li to look directly at the duality of life, including the Yin and Yang, good and evil, life and death, dreams and reality. These have become the themes that continue to emerge in her creations. On the other hand, she has also experienced a huge culture shock, which became an opportunity to expand her visual vocabulary by absorbing different cultures. Her works not only integrate Chinese and Western elements, but also interweave the philosophy, psychology and mythology of the East and the West.
Orange’s artwork is a hybrid of culture, a fusion of spirit and science, thus bringing the diversity of life in to create the most avant-garde visual and sensory impact, while trying to eliminate the boundaries between them and move towards Oneness.
As a child, Johnnie Grinder had ventured through the giant labyrinth of tunnels that lay out underneath his city of San Diego; he explored them endlessly and discovered that many of the city’s neighborhoods were connected by side tunnels, which could be accessed through the manhole covers. Later, Grinder headed to U.C. Berkeley to study English literature and anthropology while continuing to fill his sketchbooks and journals. He pursued his MFA in the prestigious animation workshop at UCLA.
After spending nearly every waking moment working on his dream worlds, the artist eventually stepped back and began applying his artwork to the canvas and to murals. He painted murals in Prague, Czech Republic, Taipei, Taiwan, and Siem Reap, Cambodia. This led to the completion of Grinder’s first book, The Tunnels of the Mind, and opened him up to the international art scene where he has been commissioned by collectors throughout Asia, Europe, and the U.S.
#黎橘 #orangeli #johnniegrinder
Host & Cover Art: Cydney Williams @cydneywilliamsstudio
Music: Ian Eckstein @ian_eckstein
Producer: Kara Yennaco @karayennaco
Producer: Sommer Rusinski @thesomsom
Sound Editor: Abigail DeCarlo @abigaildecarlo
Social Media: Russell Mcquaid @shook.it.up
Closed Captioning: Orange Li
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Recorded in New Jersey on August 13, 2020
Cydney Williams Studio LLC