Originally from Hawaii, Charles Yuen moved to New York City in 1981 after receiving a BFA (University of Hawaii) and a MFA (Rutgers University). He has had solo exhibitions at Studio10, Brooklyn, NY, Valentine Gallery, Queens, NY, Elizabeth Harris Gallery (twice), New York, NY; Art in General, New York, NY; Asian American Arts Center, New York, NY; LeoTony Gallery, New York, NY; Metaphor Contemporary Art, Brooklyn, NY; RH Fine Art, Brooklyn, NY; ADA Gallery, Richmond VA; and the Downtown Gallery, Honolulu, HI. His work has also been included in exhibitions at the Brooklyn Museum of Art, Newark Museum, The Contemporary Museum, Artist Space, Exit Art, Hallwalls, Franklin Furnace, and several commercial galleries. Grants awarded include the Adolf and Esther Gottlieb Foundation (2011), Joan Mitchell Foundation (2006), and Artist in Residence (1983-4, Asian Arts Institute and New York State Council on the Arts).
Viewing art as a project connected to a social and civic vision, Yuen has also participated community based activities including being a founding member of Godzilla, an Asian American arts organization; contributions in support of various not for profit locally based organizations; and broader political and cultural advocacy exhibitions. Inherently iconoclastic, his art champions personal, human-centric values as rationality and poetics coexist.
Reviews of Yuen’s art have appeared in numerous publications including ArtCritical, Hyperallergic, Arte Fuse, Art in America, the New York Times, Time Out, Brooklyn Rail, Cover, Art Papers, House and Garden, as well as many community papers and culturally oriented blogs. He is represented primarily in private collections, with The Contemporary Museum (Hawaii) being a public one.
Charles Yuen lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.
CV
EDUCATION:
1981 M. F. A. Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ
1975 B. F. A. University of Hawaii, Honolulu, HI
SOLO SHOWS:
2020
Pamela Salisbury Gallery, “Itinerant Visualist,” Hudson, NY
2016
Studio10, “Crypto-somatic Incantation,” Brooklyn, NY
2012
Valentine Gallery, “You Are the Center of the Universe,” Ridgewood, NY
2010
Robert Henry Fine Art, Brooklyn, NY
2007
ADA Gallery, Richmond, VA
2004
Metaphor Contemporary Art, “Psychographic,” Brooklyn, NY
2001
Asian American Art Centre, “Point Arabesque,” New York, NY
2000
Elizabeth Harris Gallery, New York, NY
1997
Elizabeth Harris Gallery, New York, NY
1994
Leo.Tony Gallery, “Recent Paintings,” New York, NY
1993
Art in General, “Casbah Paintings,” New York, NY
1978
The Downtown Gallery, “Recent Paintings,” Honolulu, Hi
SELECTED GRANTS AND AWARDS:
2018
John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellow
Tao Hua Tan Art Residency, Anhui, China
2016
University of VIrginia, visiting artist
2011
Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Foundation
2009
University of Hawaii, visiting artist
2006
Joan Mitchell Foundation, Painters & Sculptors Grant Award
1993
Artists’ Projects: New York State Regional Initiative, jointly supported by the Rockefeller Foundation, Andy Warhol Fund, N. E. A., and, the Jerome Foundation
1983
Artist in Residence, Asian Arts Institute and New York State Council for the Arts
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS:
2021
Pierogi, Pulp, Brooklyn, NY
Pierogi, Naked in Brooklyn, Brooklyn, NY
LaiSun Keane Gallery, Home Cooking, Boston, MA, curator: John Yau
2020
September Gallery, A Show of Hands, Hudson, NY
Pierogi Gallery, First, Second, and Third Person at Pierogi, New York, NY
Museum of Contemporary Art Long Island, Consummate Plush, Patchogue, NY, curator: Janet Goleas
2019
The Mueller Gallery at Caldwell University, The Thought of the Heart and the Soul of the World, Caldwell, NJ.
2018
Anhui Modern Art Museum, Tao Hua Tan, Hefei China.
The Charles B. Wang Center, Stony Brook University, Potasia: Potatoism in the East, NY
2016
David Schweitzer Contemporary, Making the Future, Brooklyn, NY
2015
Westbeth Gallery, The Human Condition, New York, NY
490 Atlantic, Three Rooms, Brooklyn, NY
2014
Stephen Romano Gallery, Mysterium Cosmographicum, Brooklyn, NY
Pierogi Gallery, Pierogi XX, Twentieth Anniversary Exhibition, Brooklyn, NY
2013
Kathryn Markel Fine Arts, “Little Languages, Coded Pictures,” New York, NY
2012
Kathryn Markel Fine Arts, Little Languages, Coded Pictures, New York, NY
2011
Luise Ross Gallery, Size Matters, New York, NY
Mulherin + Pollard, Mundus Incognita, New York, NY
2010
Leslie Heller Gallery, Cognitive Unconscious, New York, NY
2009
The Contemporary Museum, 20 Going on 21, Honolulu, HI
A-Locatie, Kuf-Mold, Rotterdam, Netherlands
2008
Metaphor Contemporary Art, Social Studies, 2 person show, Brooklyn, NY
Jan Colle Gallery, “Kuf-Mold,” Ghent, Belgium
2007
Barbara Gillman Gallery, Head to Head, Miami, FL
ADA Gallery, 3 person show, Richmond, VA
The Grand Bazaar, “Kuf-Mold,” Istanbul, Turkey
2006
Scope London, ADA Gallery, London, UK
2005
The Contemporary Museum (downtown), HNL to NY, Honolulu, HI
2004
Brooklyn Museum of Art, Open House: Working in Brooklyn, Brooklyn, NY
2003
Metaphor Contemporary Art, Paper 2003, Brooklyn, NY
2002
Elizabeth Harris Gallery, Curious Terrain, New York, NY
2001
Hunterdon Museum of Art, Degrees of Figuration, Clinton, NJ
Elizabeth Harris Gallery, “Hidden Identity,” New York, NY
Deutsche Bank Lobby Gallery, Expanding Tradition, Contemporary Works Influenced by Indian Miniatures, curator: Susan Leopold, New York, NY
Art in General and Godzilla, “Why Asia,” silk-screened banners on Canal Street, New York, NY
2000
Mathew Marks Gallery, City Arts Benefit, New York, NY
Pierogi 2000, Super Duper New York, Brooklyn, NY
Museum of Modern Art, Coat Room, Checked (guerilla action), New York, NY
1999
Elizabeth Harris Gallery, Summer Show, New York, NY
Saks Fifth Avenue, Freudian Slips, New York, NY
1998
New York State Museum, The 1998 New York State Biennial, Albany, NY
New Museum (Godzilla), Urban Encounters, New York, NY
1997
Brooklyn Museum of Art, Current Undercurrent: Working in Brooklyn, Brooklyn, NY
Elizabeth Harris Gallery, Alive & Well, New York, NY
Robert Steele Gallery, Intimate Universe [Revisited], New York, NY, curator: Michael Walls
1996
Elizabeth Harris Gallery, Dreams and Dislocations, New York, NY (three person show)
Franklin Furnace, Voyeur’s Delight, New York, NY, curated by Barbara Rusin and Grace Roselli
Livestock Gallery, Round Up, New York, NY
1995
Tweed Gallery, From the Dragon’s Cloud, the Art Commission of New York, New York, NY, curator: Dik Liu
1994
Bixler Gallery, To Enchant (Blue), New York, NY curator: Michael Walls
Columbia University and Asian American Arts Centre, Betrayal/Empowerment, New York, NY
Tweed Gallery, Celebration of Asian American Month, the Art Commission of New York, New York, NY, curator: Robert Lee
1993
Artists Space, Artists Select, Part I, New York, NY
Artists Space, The New World Order III, The Curio Shop, New York, NY organized by Godzilla
1992
Guadalupe Cultural Center, (en)Gendered Visions: Race, Gender and Sexuality in Asian American Art, Guadalupe, TX
1989
Blum Helman Warehouse, Tiananmen Square Show, New York, NY
City Gallery, Uptown Downtown, New York Department of Cultural Affairs and Asian Arts Institute, New York, NY
1988
Hallwalls, Double Vision, Buffalo, NY, and Bronx Council on the Arts, Bronx, NY
1987
Asian Arts Institute, Yesterdays, New York, NY
1986
Exit Art, Transculture/Transmedia, New York, NY
The New Museum, Mass, New York, NY organized by Group Material
Asian Arts Institute, Orientalism, two person show, New York, NY
Catherine Gallery at Basement Workshop, Two person show, New York, NY
1985
Exit Art, Surplus, Today’s Art in an Overpopulated City, New York, NY
Bronx River Gallery, Another World, Bronx, NY curator: Fred Wilson
1984
Artists Space, Selections from the Artists File, New York, NY curator: Valerie Smith
Judson Memorial Church, Art Against Intervention in Central America, New York, NY
1983
Kenkeleba Gallery, Hong Kong-Tokyo-New York, New York, NY curator: John Woo
1982
Kenkeleba Gallery, Ritual and Rhythm: Visual Forces for Survival, New York, NY curator: Juan Sanchez
1981
Newark Museum, New Jersey Artists, Third Biennial Exhibition, Newark, NJ, curators: Linda Shearer and Paterson Sims
SELECTED PRESS:
2021
Pierogi 2000, Viewing Room, Home Studio Charles Yuen, October 31
2020
Hyperallergic, John Yau, Charles Yuen’s Time is Now, August 8
2016
Hyperallergic, Jennifer Samet, Beer with a Painter: Charles Yuen, July 23
Arte Fuse, Robert C. Morgan, Crypto-Somatic Incantation: New Paintings by Charles Yuen at Studio 10, July 27
ArtCritical, Drew Lowenstein The Somnambulist: Charles Yuen’s Painterly Waking Dreams, February 27
2014
Romanov’s Grave, Studio Visits: Charles Yuen, Lawrence Haggerty and Jennie Nichols
2011
The Brooklyn Rail, Kalm, James, Brooklyn in the Extreme, February 2011
2005
Mutant Eggplant, Vitro Nasu: Charles Yuen – Honolulu to New York, September 1
2004
OffOffOff.com, Rachel Youens, Surreal Stories, illus.
Time Out New York, Reviews, Linda Yablonski
2001
New York Times, William Zimmer, The Human Figure as Myth, December 23, illus.
Up & Coming, an Inside Guide to the Emerging Art Scene in New York, Micheal Steinberg, pg. 62, 135, illus.
Art Papers, Timothy Liu, September/October, illus.
New York Times, Art in Review, Holland Carter, Expanding Tradition, May 4
1998
Art in America, Gerrit Henry, Reviews, April, illus.
House Beautiful, Small Spaces, Hearst Books, pg. 131, illus.
1997
Cover, Rachel Youens, Charles Yuen’s Introspective Infinities, Romance of the Trance, vol. 12, #1, illus.
Review, Robert M. Murdock, Alive & Well at Elizabeth Harris, October 1
1996
Review, J. Bowyer Bell, Dreams and Dislocations, September 15
1995
Art in America, Janet Koplos, Reviews, April, illus.
1994
New York Times, Roberta Smith, Art in Review, January 7