Lawrence T. Yun: Engineered Botanicals

Palos Verdes Art Center is pleased to present Lawrence T. Yun: Engineered Botanicals, on view from December 1, 2023 through January 6, 2024. The exhibition surveys the artist’s extensive catalog of watercolor paintings from 1999- 2019—featuring 51 botanical depictions and explorations ranging from observational to imaginary compositions.

Lawrence T. Yun’s take on the botanical watercolor genre delivers a fresh perspective with modernized associations and energized interpretations. The exhibition features the artist’s many thematic directives from several series, including ManipuNature, Hybrid Romance, and Greenhouse Laboratory.

Originally from Taiwan, Yun’s artistic background and educational training in both Eastern and Western cultures have enabled him to fuse both cultural aesthetics, adopting certain artistic elements and sensitivities from each tradition with the incorporation of man-made artifacts that, when combined, generate new visual dynamics. These botanical inspired paintings are meant to be aesthetically pleasing, yet the deliberate awkwardness of the structured subject matter has been manipulated within the composition to convey subtle messages that prompts the audience to question the imagery.

Symbolic references are strategically and metaphorically implemented in the paintings to provide more than one interpretation for the narratives. In particular, the red cords from the art of traditional Chinese knotting are used to represent both an ancestral connection and an apparatus of constraint. These images often reveal the intriguing and contradictory relationship between culture and nature—man-made creation versus natural phenomena. The visual twist also hints the significance of evolutionary progression by genetically modified and biologically enhanced experiments throughout all aspects of life.

Yun is a Los Angeles artist and a Professor of Art at CSUF. He has exhibited in galleries and museums throughout California, including Santa Monica Bergamot Station’s Schomburg Gallery, Patricia Correia Gallery, and Sarah Lee Art Works/Projects as well as Torrance Art Museum, Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, and Los Angeles International Airport. Yun’s works are represented in various private and public permanent collections, including Sony Pictures, The Franklin Mint, and Terranea Resort. Additionally, his work can also be seen in television programs, including Luck (HBO), The Guardian (CBS), and Knight Rider 2008 (NBC); and movies, including Meet the Fockers (Universal Pictures), Daddy Day Care (Columbia Pictures), and Transformers (DreamWorks).