Zoé Blue M

Zoé Blue M. (b. 1994, Los Angeles, CA) received a BFA from Rhode Island School of Design and has attended residencies at Vermont Studio Center and Anderson Ranch, Texas. Her work has been exhibited in solo exhibitions at Anat Ebgi, Los Angeles, CA; Page NYC, New York; The Gallery @ El Centro; In Lieu, Los Angeles (2019).

December 9, 2021

Tell us about your practice.

I’m interested in exploring familial and psychological narratives through a multitude of visual histories. Most often I focus on Eastern and Western painting techniques and styles, as well as pop culture, cartooning and textiles.

Can you tell us about the source materials and inspiration for the works in your upcoming exhibition “Sea Swallow” at Anat Ebgi?

For Sea Swallow I was interested in the story of Jorōgumo, a spider yokai that can shapeshift into a beautiful woman to trick and feed on men. But I was more interested in expanding the story of her life, expelling her from the constraints of an evil folkloric character. The body of work threads in and out of the altered story to cast a larger picture of a Japanese-American girl reckoning with a multicultural family, mental illness and womanhood.

There is a wide range of emotions and psychological elements in this body of work. Why is this motif so important to you?

To me, the exploration of emotions and psychological elements isn’t so much a motif but rather contributes to creating a tonal variation within the different aspects of my visual lexicon.

What’s next for you?

What’s next is always more paintings, but in terms of seeing them: keep an eye out for New York in the spring!

Zoé Blue M

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