Leah (Yi) Huang (b. 1992. Wuhan, China) is a self taught artist who lives and works in Brooklyn, NY

Huang has been deeply drawn to the history of emblems. Growing up, she was deeply immersed in learning classical calligraphy and the ancient “soft sciences” from her grandfather. Coming to America at the age of eleven, she found herself oscillating between assimilation toward Western thought and nostalgia of her Eastern upbringing. Huang’s affinity with working on paper subconsciously reflects this sentiment of duality. 

She work intuitively without using sketches or drafts, as a conscious effort to not close herself off to surprises that deepen her relationship with the materials and process.

Huang’s work teeters between the perspective of a participant and an observer. She works to explore the emotional spaces between fear and desire - a process that is both a meditation, excavation, and palimpsest. This often takes on the point of view of exploratory eyes that traverse through strange landscapes, both physical and psychological. The irreversible nature of working on paper is a point of restraint, but also provides comfort as it imitates our very human experience with space and time. With watercolor, ink, and soft pastels, the process of overlaying shapes and colors reveals itself as a symbolic alchemy of both Huang’s personal past and present. 

Photo by Suliya Gisele