Catalina Ouyang
Catalina Ouyang engages object-making, interdisciplinary environments, and time-based projects to indicate counter-narratives around representation and self-definition. Through expansion, fragmentation, and abstraction, Ouyang proposes the body as a politicized landscape subject to partition. Working gnostically with materials ranging from hand-carved wood and stone to appropriated literature and historic artifacts, Ouyang also attends to critical reimagining of historical formation wherein monstrosity, animality, and toxicity act as ciphers for the psycho-affective alienation of the minor subject.
CV | Press | Exhibitions
Catalina Ouyang, cargo, 2023, pine, plywood, papier-mâché, color pigment, gel medium, beeswax, artist's shoes, textile, sow bladder, found elements, 33 x 42 x 22 inches, 83.8 x 106.7 x 55.9 cm
Catalina Ouyang, debt, 2022, found schoolchair, carved maple, polyester fleece, LED lights, paper collage, discarded garment rack, textile, resin, thread, plaster, epoxy clay, color pigment, beeswax, masking tape, 37 x 60 x 38 inches, 94 x 152.4 x 96.5 cm
Catalina Ouyang, forgive everything, installation view, Night Gallery, 2022
Catalina Ouyang, Strange Attractor, Installation View at Art Basel, Switzerland, June 14 - 19, 2022
Catalina Ouyang, reliquary corpus (Thérèse sur une banquette, 1939), 2022, Pine, plaster, color pigment, shellac, wood stain, horse hair, shells, epoxy clay, beeswax, 38 x 38 x 18 inches, 96.5 x 96.5 x 45.7 cm
Catalina Ouyang, reliquary corpus (Thérèse, 1938), 2022, Pine, plaster, color pigment, shellac, wood stain, horse hair, shells, epoxy clay, beeswax, 26 x 30 x 24 inches, 66 x 76.2 x 61 cm
Catalina Ouyang, font X, 2022, Found marble font (18th century, French), horse sacrum, plaster, epoxy clay, beeswax, paper pulp, poplar, destroyed Cathay (Ezra Pound, centennial edition), 10 x 13 x 10 inches, 25.4 x 33 x 25.4 cm
Wonder Women, Installation view, Jeffrey Deitch Gallery, New York, NY, May 7 – June 25, 2022
Catalina Ouyang, risk assessment (fugue state / : h** volant touch.), 2020-21, School desk, iron drains, paper pulp, wood, turtle carapace, plaster, epoxy clay, acrylic paint, beeswax, horse hair, fabric, resin, gauze, carpet, light, graphite, digital print on paper, document sleeve
Catalina Ouyang, Recourse, 2021, fiberglass, steel, school bus emergency hatch, arrows, dimensions variable
Catalina Ouyang, pronoun of love (WHAT WILL I CARE FOR GODS OR DEVILS OR FOR FATE ITSELF.), 2021, Puppy skull, epoxy clay, polymer clay, paper pulp, shellac, pigment, beeswax, horse hair, copper, wooden mirror, engraved plastic, text from Wide Sargasso Sea (Jean Rhys, 1966), 18 x 6 x 9 1/2 inches, 45.7 x 15.2 x 24.1 cm
Catalina Ouyang, pronoun of love (I SAW THE HATE GO OUT OF HER EYES), 2021, Soapstone, paper pulp, copper, resin, engraved plastic, text from Wide Sargasso Sea (Jean Rhys, 1966), 18 x 6 1/2 x 10 inches, 45.7 x 16.5 x 25.4 cm
Catalina Ouyang, White Male Ally, Installation View at Lyles & King, New York, NY, September 1 - October 16, 2021
Catalina Ouyang, exorcism vessels (MY FIDELITY), 2021, Framed graphite drawing, steel, polymer clay, epoxy clay, masking tape, wood, copper, polymer clay, aluminum, powder pigment, beeswax, 27 x 31 x 15 1/2 inches, 68.6 x 78.7 x 39.4 cm
Catalina Ouyang, ego death, 2021 wood, ceramic tiles, dirt, video projector, text and footage from: Anne Carson, “The Truth About God”; Anne Dufourmantelle, In Praise of Risk; Lisa Robertson, Lisa Robertson’s Magenta Soul Whip; the artist’s chart reading with Anne C. Ortelee; Possession (Andrzej Zulawski, 1981); Women Without Men (Shirin Neshat, 2009); Stealing Beauty (Bernardo Bertolucci, 1996); Diabel (Andrzej Zulawksi, 1972); A Ma Soeur! (Catherine Breillat, 2001); Innocence (Lucile Hadžihalilović, 2004); Nymphomaniac (Lars von Trier, 2013)
Catalina Ouyang, force of will (dog self), 2021, Epoxy clay, wood, steel, paper pulp, beeswax, dog skull, horse hair, children’s fleece sweater, plaster, white ribbed tank top, stop loss trap, resin, dragonfruit husks, 79 x 6 1/4 x 35 inches, 200.7 x 15.7 x 88.9 cm
Catalina Ouyang, White Male Ally, Installation View at Lyles & King, New York, NY, September 1 - October 16, 2021
Catalina Ouyang, White Male Ally, Installation View at Lyles & King, New York, NY, September 1 - October 16, 2021
Catalina Ouyang, let my wail heal, 2021, Carved soapstone, thermal paper, notebook paper, ballpoint pen, Stone: 5 x 5 1/2 x 2 1/2 inches, 12 2/3 x 14 x 6 1/3 cm; paper: 10 x 3 inches, 25 1/2 x 7 2/3 cm
Catalina Ouyang, reliquary janus, 2021, Carved wood, gray wolf skull, plaster, horse hair, polymer clay, epoxy clay, acrylic, deconstructed stop loss trap, 36 x 12 x 6 inches, 91.4 x 30.5 x 15.2 cm, Photo: Kyle Knodell
Catalina Ouyang, reliquary janus, 2021 (detail)
Catalina Ouyang, “...that everything is a weapon, the objects themselves, and with them the fact of civilization, are annihilated: there is no wall, no window, no door, no bathtub, no refrigerator, no door, no chair, no bed.”*, 2019–21, Wood, polymer clay, graphite drawing of a Shang Dynasty bronze head, deconstructed maple frame with matte, red crayon, tiger balm, digital image of the artist’s grandfather (1929–May 2, 2020), dye-infused aluminum, thumbtacks, acrylic, Dimensions variable, Photo: Kyle Knodell
Catalina Ouyang, “...that everything is a weapon, the objects themselves, and with them the fact of civilization, are annihilated: there is no wall, no window, no door, no bathtub, no refrigerator, no door, no chair, no bed.”, 2019-2021 (detail)
Catalina Ouyang, In Practice: You may go, but this will bring you back, Installation view, SculptureCenter, New York, NY, March 25 – August 2, 2021, Photo: Kyle Knodell
Catalina Ouyang, THE SIREN, Installation View, Real Art Ways, Hartford, CT, January 31 - April 18, 2021
Catalina Ouyang, reliquary corpus, 2021, wood, soapstone, hair, gray wolf skull, plaster, paper pulp, epoxy clay, color pigment, resin, beeswax, chiffon, polymer clay, light, book, 93 1/4 x 12 1/2 x 8 inches, 236.9 x 31.8 x 20.3 cm
Catalina Ouyang, reliquary corpus, 2021 (detail)
Catalina Ouyang, Devotion, 2016-2021, school desk, various materials, deconstructed 风油精 box, graphite drawings on Bristol board (2016) of selfies the artist received from their ex-lover after being raped by him, maple frames, playing card, glassine, nylon net, dimensions variable; each frame 14 11/16 x 11 ⅝ inches, 37.3 x 27.9 cm, figure 41 ¼ x 31 ⅞ x 20 ¼ inches, 104.1 x 78.7 x 50.8 cm
Catalina Ouyang, Devotion, 2016-2021, school desk, various materials, deconstructed 风油精 box, graphite drawings on Bristol board (2016) of selfies the artist received from their ex-lover after being raped by him, maple frames, playing card, glassine, nylon net, dimensions variable; each frame 14 11/16 x 11 ⅝ inches, 37.3 x 27.9 cm, figure 41 ¼ x 31 ⅞ x 20 ¼ inches, 104.1 x 78.7 x 50.8 cm (detail)
Catalina Ouyang, Devotion, 2016-2021 (detail)
Catalina Ouyang, a descent (Otherwise abandon it. Turn its face into the mud.), 2020, lime plaster, steel, hand-carved wonderstone, peanuts, acrylic image transfers scanned and printed from The Descent of Alette (Alice Notley, 1996), thread, epoxy resin, stop loss trap, gypsum plaster, shellac, discarded steel furniture parts, drag net, dimensions variable, (detail)
Catalina Ouyang, cunt waifu, Installation View at Lyles & King, New York, NY, October 31 - December 6, 2020
Catalina Ouyang, otherwise, spite: 1. whores at the end of the world / 2. from every drop of his blood another demon arose (1829-1840), 2020, various materials, dimensions variable
Catalina Ouyang, otherwise, spite: 1. whores at the end of the world / 2. from every drop of his blood another demon arose (1829-1840, 2020 (detail)
Catalina Ouyang, otherwise, spite: 1. whores at the end of the world / 2. from every drop of his blood another demon arose (1829-1840, 2020 (detail)
Catalina Ouyang, otherwise, spite: 1. whores at the end of the world / 2. from every drop of his blood another demon arose (1829-1840, 2020 (detail)
Catalina Ouyang, doubt II (the thing itself and not the myth / what blood relation / turning horror into power / the sea that we carried for you / Do you not love us? ), 2020, hand-carved alabaster, M1905 bayonet, lime plaster, gypsum plaster, horse hair, faux fur, pigment, epoxy resin, beeswax, burned rug, gauze, sewing pins, rat bones, 25 x 11 x 14 1/2 inches, 63.5 x 27.9 x 36.8 cm
Catalina Ouyang, untitled partition, 2020, government-issue steel bunk bed (early 1980s), horse pelvis, paper pulp, gypsum plaster, pigment, epoxy resin, chiffon, extruded polystyrene, hydrocal, pigment, acrylic, cement, dimensions variable
Catalina Ouyang, untitled partition, 2020 (detail)