11 Chicago art gallery exhibitions to see in March

I have a new post on Time Out Chicago: 11 art shows to see this month. Happy March!

Street artist Solo RM surprised me with this drawing he made of me.

Other happy miscellany:

• Ancient China’s Terracotta Warriors arrive at the Field Museum tomorrow.

• Ava DuVernay favorited my tweet of my old sketch of Lupita Nyong’o.

• And, in case you missed it, the great news in the previous post.

Centennial

I’ve been selected as a First Prize Winner for the National Park Service and National Park Foundation’s Centennial Project! This means I get an annual pass to all U.S. national parks in 2016! And it’s all because you voted for a drawing I made when I was 15. Thank you! I love you!

Me basking in the morning sun and in The Marble Temple,
Bangkok, Thailand.

On the subject of travel, in case you missed the previous post, I’ve returned from a family trip to Hong Kong, Cambodia, and Thailand, and uploaded my photos pretty much all over the place. (And on the local level, here are my recommendations for Chicago art exhibitions to check out in February.)

And on the subject of personal artwork, I haven’t forgotten my Scribble Sunday series. For now, you can visit this Tumblr tag, this Pinterest board, and Instagram for past doodles and sketches of mine. (And! I’m continuing to accept drawing commissions.)

Happy Chinese New Year!

11 Chicago art gallery exhibitions to see in February

I’m back from my travels! (First thing my parents and I do upon returning from our trip to Southeast Asia? Go to our local Japanese joint where most of the waitstaff is Thai Chinese and bond with them over all the places we visited in Bangkok. That diaspora.) I have some photos up on Instagram, Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, and 500px and will [probably] add more.

On a canoe in a canal at Damnoen Saduak floating market, Thailand.

And I’ve somehow skipped (or soldiered through? stubbornly ignored?) the jetlag and compiled a list of local art shows for you to see this month, here on Time Out Chicago.

Temple Cities

Today I’m flying out to Hong Kong to celebrate my paternal grandma’s milestone birthday! (Here are some photos from past HK trips, and a bit of my grandma’s story is told in “Pearl” and “King of Kowloon,” which are always popular posts.) Then, for the first time, I’m visiting Siem Reap, Cambodia, and Bangkok, Thailand!

Me and a monk at Polin Monastery, Ngong Ping,
on Lantau Island, Hong Kong, December 1996.

See you in a couple weeks, Chicago. Until then, follow along on Instagram and Twitter for live updates and photos, and refer to the previous post for my top 10 January art shows.

10 Chicago art gallery exhibitions to check out in January

Happy New Year! Make a resolution to see more art; here’s my monthly highlight post on Time Out Chicago to help you kick start 2016.

Hope everyone had a happy holiday season! (This was my Christmas, and this was my New Year’s Eve. The geekery is strong with this one.) When I was little, I made “pet rocks.” (If I noticed a uniquely shaped rock, I’d clean it, then paint it into whatever animal it reminded me of.) I came to my parents’ house to see that they’d dug this guy out.

Every few months or so, I CAN DO THAT blows up (it probably gets shared somewhere). And it’s happening now. Love it! (Look forward to my next exhibition in June.)

And a PSA: Artists, beware of frauds / imposters / overall horrible people / etc. Thanks to June Keser for alerting me in this post’s comments to someone who went by “Hop Coplin” on Facebook stealing this doodle of mine and claiming it as her own, even changing my signature to hers. The charlatan deleted her post after I told her off, and it now seems like her entire account has been deleted. Success.

To art thieves out there: We artists don’t know who you are. We don’t know what you want. If you are looking for attention, we can tell you I don’t have an attention span. But what we do have is a very particular set of skills, skills we have acquired over very prolific careers. Skills that make us nightmares for people like you. If you give us credit for our art now, that’ll be the end of it. We will not look for you. We will not pursue you. But if you don’t, we will look for you, we will find you, and we will obliterate your web presence.

To everyone else: Cheers to a splendid year!

Merry Sithmas

Happy holidays, everyone!

IRL Disney princess Lupita Nyong'o, who plays Maz Kanata
in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which has consumed my life,
which I'm perfectly OK with.

So far, the drawing requests I’ve had the most fun fulfilling include cartoon versions of these sculptures interacting with one another and thinking up non-traditional superheroes for a baby room. Stay tuned for more scans and/or photos. For now, keep those commissions coming!

Also, I created a Wix site and Society6 and Redbubble shops. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ‘Tis the season.

Mood

Submitted two old doodles to Threadless: “Mood” and “Scruffy-Looking Nerf Herder.” I’d love it if you could give ‘em good scores and comments. Thank you!

"Those dresses, though."

And a reminder: I’ve started accepting drawing commissions!

(Update: I’ve submitted two more and they’ve been approved for rating and commenting as well: “Summertime Sadness” and “The Good Dog.” Thanks again!

Second update: Voting’s closed!)

Drawing Commissions for the Holidays

For the first time since I was 10 years old (yep), I’m accepting drawing commissions (yay)! Tell me your requests for black and white doodles.

Spot from The Good Dinosaur channeling Dug from Up.
Here's to the loyal dogs of Pixar.

My rates, using the same advanced art terminology I used in my prime:

Cartoon: $10

Combination cartoon & realistic: $30

Realistic: $50

(So you can get an idea of what in the world I’m talking about, some examples of my personal doodles and sketches can be found at artistsonthelam.tumblr.com/tagged/scribble-sunday and instagram.com/artistsonthelam.)

How this works:

• You pick the style and make a request (e.g., “a cartoon version of me and Santa riding a herd of jellyfish through outer space”) via social media (comment on this Facebook post or reply to this tweet) or email. If your idea involves a real person, like you or a friend, include a few photos for reference.
• I [hopefully] approve your request, and you pay via PayPal.
• I create the drawing and mail it to you.

Happy holidays! (During which there will be plenty of art events to attend; see the previous post for my picks.)

11 Chicago art gallery exhibitions to check out in December

Happy December! Here’s my Time Out Chicago list of art shows to see this month.

Last week I performed at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, and it was great fun. The MCA blog has collected a roundup of highlights (thanks for including my tweet as one of them!) here.

And for those who celebrated, hope your Thanksgiving weekend gave you much to be thankful for! Mine consisted of affairs like my 10-year high school reunion, The Good Dinosaur (this is a PSA for everyone to go see the film, which is helmed by Pixar’s first Asian American director), and said director liking my tweets. Clearly, life’s simple joys.

“I don’t understand why people are frightened of new ideas / I’m frightened of the old ones”

I’m performing at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago on Sunday! I’ve been invited to participate in Cage Unrequited, a 25-hour marathon reading of experimental composer John Cage’s influential book Silence: Lectures and Writings, organized by visual artist Pope.L, in association with the exhibition The Freedom Principle: Experiments in Art and Music 1965 to Now. (Thanks, Tempestt Hazel!) My group’s time slot is November 22, 9:54-10am.

Get out and relish the remaining weeks of autumn.

Also, congrats to my cousin Philip Ng on being cast as Bruce Lee in an upcoming film! (The link’s a throwback to summer 2013 when he took me to the infamously seedy Chungking Mansions to have, in his words, the best curry in Hong Kong.)

9 Chicago art gallery exhibitions to check out in November

I have a new post on Time Out Chicago today: 9 art shows to see next month.

Fall in [love with] Chicago.

As suggested in an earlier post, another autumn event you can continue to attend is the inaugural Chicago Architecture Biennial. My photos from the festivities so far can be viewed on—deep breath—Instagram, Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, 500px, and Pinterest (and, uh, spoilers at a few of those for the latest episode of The Walking Dead). Besides solarise, which I still can’t stop talking about, I’d recommend starting with the exhibitions throughout the Chicago Cultural Center.

Happy Halloweekend!

The mountains are calling and I must [know childhood icon Bill Nye acknowledges my existence]

I’ve been selected as a Finalist for the National Park Service’s “Find Your Park: The Centennial Project” contest! Now, I need you to vote for my entry! Fill out the ballot here. (Winners get to attend the NPS’ 100^th birthday celebration, have people like Bill Nye the Science Guy—whose theme song was my ringtone for 5 years until I got a smartphone—turn their stories into a project, and more.)

(What I’d submitted: Inspired by my trip to Denali National Park in 2002, I drew the above when I was 15. Titled Land of the Midnight Sun, it was my first attempt at using oil pastels. My high school eventually purchased the drawing from me, and it’s still a part of their permanent art collection. Not bad for a piece in a new medium.)

Voting ends October 16 at 5pm CST. [Update: It’s been extended to Oct. 19, same time.] The limit is “1 vote per person, per email address, per day.” So vote everyday with all your addresses for the next couple weeks!

Spread the word. Thank you!

[Update 2: So, uh, I won.]

10 Chicago art gallery exhibitions to check out in October

Happy October! The Chicago Architecture Biennial launches on Saturday, the first Chicago Museum Week starts today, and it’s Chicago Artists Month. To help you sort through it all, I’ve highlighted 10 art gallery events on Time Out Chicago. (Included is Meet Your Maker, a networking event for which I’ve been invited to be on the leadership committee.)

Luftwerk, solarise: a sea of all colors.
Garfield Park Conservatory.

As a follow-up to the previous post: The autumnal equinox opening of Luftwerk’s solarise at the Garfield Park Conservatory (pictured above) was one of my picks for last month, but—fortunately—the show runs through January 3, concurrent with the Biennial. See it!

Lastly: I made a rule for myself that I wouldn’t show the hundreds upon hundreds of postcards I’ve been getting over the years for Dreams of a City until I felt like I was completely finished with the project, but this one, which I retrieved from my P.O. box a couple days ago, was so stirring that I had to share.

During which I wore a Darkwing Duck shirt

Spencer Finch, Sunset. Expo Chicago 2015.

Follow-up to the previous post: Thanks to Expo Chicago, my last weekend of summer was filled with wonderful people, art, and food. You can view my photos from the experience—including the VIP Preview of the fair, a private collection tour, and more—on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.

(Pictured above: Art you can eat! From a solar-powered ice cream truck offering soft serve in the colors of the sunset. Ah, me and ice cream. Truly the epic love story of our time.)

And today, celebrate the first day of fall by attending the opening of Luftwerk’s solarise (one of my September art picks) at the Garfield Park Conservatory and/or witnessing Chicagohenge. Enjoy the autumnal equinox!

Grammar

I’ve been invited to be a featured Instagram photographer at Expo Chicago. Thank you, Expo Chicago and Carol Fox & Associates! Happy Labor Day weekend, everyone! (And my IG for anyone who’d like to follow me there as well.)

12 Chicago art gallery exhibitions to check out in September

This has nothing to do with the rest of the post, to be honest.

My Time Out Chicago September art pick post is live: 12 shows to see next month. (Not including Expo Chicago, which I’ll be previewing.)

Because of a comment I left on a video that popped up on my Facebook feed, I CAN DO THAT—along with the photo album of its opening—is getting a spike in traffic. (What I can’t do? Believe that crazy beautiful show was 3 years ago. Oh yeah and whistle.) As announced in the previous post, you can look forward to my next big independent curatorial project in June.

And I’ll leave you with this statement.

Age of Leo

6th birthday. (Also what I look like with short
hair and a tan. Mind-blowing, I know.)

I’ve been invited to curate an exhibition at the Zhou B Art Center. Save the date! The opening reception will be June 17, 2016. Thanks, Sergio Gomez!

Also, I noticed that I have over 1000 followers on Instagram now, and I’ve been on IG for little more than a year. Thank you, everyone!

And: Today’s my birthday!