This article is part of our Fine Arts & Exhibits special section on how museums, galleries and auction houses are embracing new artists, new concepts and new traditions.
When a prolific artist has only turned 24, it’s probably safe to say that his pieces can be considered “early work.”
Despite his youth, the New York–based British artist Oscar yi Hou has a recently opened exhibition of 11 paintings at the Brooklyn Museum, making him one of the youngest artists to have a solo show at a major New York museum. “Oscar yi Hou: East of sun, west of moon” will be on view through Sept. 17, 2023.
A self-described “internet kid,” Mr. yi Hou has painted dense compositions, with images and symbols tightly packed in a way that reflect the torrent of information he grew up processing intuitively.
Although most of them qualify as portraits, a familiar genre to viewers, his paintings cannot be easily read, and they are not meant to be.
“I think by creating symbolic densities, you’re able to invite the viewer to pay more attention to the works,” said Mr. yi Hou, who lives in Brooklyn’s Prospect Lefferts Gardens neighborhood. “I try to honor the opacity of the subject.”
But his identity as a queer painter of Chinese descent comes through clearly: Asian faces (sometimes his own, or those of his friends) mix with cowboy iconography, leather fetish gear, Buddhist beads and Chinese calligraphy.
Mr. yi Hou said that some of his biggest influences were two New York painters of note: the illustrious Alice Neel (1900-1984), the subject of a large exhibition last year at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Martin Wong (1946-1999), the Chinese American painter who was a key figure of the downtown art scene in the 1980s.
Adding another layer to Mr. yi Hou’s exhibition is an excavation of the Brooklyn Museum’s own Asian collections, with depictions of those works woven into the compositions. “Sayonara, Suzie Wongs, aka: Out the Opium Den” (2022) shows two modern figures as well as Chinese gilt-bronze plaques made more than 1,000 years ago.
A blending of the ancient and contemporary wears well on Mr. yi Hou, who expresses generationally familiar behavior — posting a shirtless picture on Instagram, say — and also works in what is perhaps the most traditional artistic medium.
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“I’m not really incorporating new technology or anything like that,” Mr. yi Hou said, noting that painting can be seen as “old fashioned.” At the same time, he added, “My practice is heavily influenced by tech and the internet.” Sometimes he incorporates images from Pinterest, for example.
Eugenie Tsai, the Brooklyn Museum senior curator of contemporary art who organized the show with her colleague Indira A. Abiskaroon, discovered Mr. yi Hou’s work in a show at the James Fuentes gallery in 2021 (among his other precocious achievements is having gallery representation very early in his career).
“His work is bold, vibrant and complicated,” Ms. Tsai said. “It’s a very self-possessed debut.”
In particular, she said, “One of the things I appreciate in Oscar’s work is the way he evokes the whole presence of Asians back to the 19th century in American history.” Some of his titles incorporate the slur “coolie,” referring to low-wage Asian workers who were exploited in the American West.
“He raises thorny topics about racism against Asians,” Ms. Tsai added, but he does so in paintings “couched in visual splendor.”
In “birds of a feather flock together, aka: A New Family Portrait” (2020), Mr. yi Hou depicts himself and two friends, “queer women protecting me,” he said. They are surrounded by animals (some of which represent the sitters), stars (stand-ins for the symbols on national flags as well as sheriff’s badges) and the text from a poem he wrote.
The exhibition is part of the Uovo Prize for Brooklyn artists, sponsored by the art storage company Uovo, won by Mr. yi Hou this year. The Brooklyn Museum selects the winner and, in addition to a show there, the winner also receives a $25,000 cash grant and space for a large mural outside Uovo’s Brooklyn facility, where Mr. yi Hou’s 50-foot-tall work “Flock together, aka: a mural family portrait” (2022) is now on display.
The collector Ed Tang said that he discovered Mr. yi Hou’s work online, appropriately enough, and then bought two of the works.
“What stands out for me is his confidence,” Mr. Tang said. “He has star power.”
Mr. Tang, who is originally from Hong Kong, also has a personal connection to the work. “I see some of my own story in him, I suppose,” he said.
The New-York Historical Society recently acquired one of Mr. yi Hou’s works, “Far Eastsiders, aka: Cowgirl Mama A.B & Son Wukong” (2021), and it is currently on view. In an email, Wendy Nalani E. Ikemoto, the Society’s senior curator of American Art, said that the work “claims space for Asian immigrants in New York City, for Chinese people in the mythology of the American West, and for queer relationships — and it does so unapologetically.”
Mr. yi Hou grew up in Liverpool, England, and his parents, who moved there from China in the early ’90s, ran a Cantonese restaurant, which he called a “classic immigrant hustle.” A ceramic horse statue in their home — “the kind that is in every Chinese household,” he said — as well as seasonal Chinese New Year décor in the restaurant have been turning over in his mind since childhood.
“It’s an ambivalent relationship with East Asian visual culture,” Mr. yi Hou said. “I think a lot of people from the Asian diaspora have this sense that these objects, these signs, are familiar, but at the same time alien.”
Starting with Pokémon fan art, Mr. yi Hou drew constantly as a child. After taking art classes in high school, he attended college in the United States, going to Columbia University and getting his bachelor’s degree, with around a quarter of his classes specializing in studio art.
“It was always a pipe dream to be an artist — a successful artist — but I knew I wouldn’t be satisfied if I ended up doing something else,” he said.
Success came more quickly than he had imagined. An associate of the New York dealer James Fuentes sent Mr. Fuentes an image of Mr. yi Hou’s work.
“It really stopped me in my tracks,” Mr. Fuentes said. “Then I realized he was a junior in college. That blew my mind.”
It did not stop the dealer from giving Mr. yi Hou a show. “He’s an anomaly in many ways,” Mr. Fuentes said. “I felt it wasn’t premature to show him. I approached him as a peer.”
As it happens, Mr. yi Hou’s chosen style — painterly figuration — has been a dominant strain in the art world for several years.
“I was always making this kind of work, but I feel fortunate to start my career in a market that likes it,” he said.
As for his youth, Mr. yi Hou had a thoughtful take on the matter: “I’ve always had a lot to say, and I guess I always will. I think we need not discount the voices and ideas of people my age. I just hope viewers have good faith in me.”
