Felicia Chiao - Homebody

When you’re a homebody, the entire world can exist and be accessed from inside. Artist Felicia Chiao treasures time spent in her San Francisco apartment and her new solo exhibition Homebody at Harman Projects NYC reveals the introspective and imagined world of her dwellings. Depicting our tumultuous, typically private inner lives through relatable characters, Chiao’s new series of paintings and drawings share narratives of grief, solitude, and solace from inside a single apartment complex.

The creatures in Homebody find themselves in familiar situations: staring at the ceiling from a messy bed, gazing out the window with a hot drink, overanalyzing their complexion while sitting on the bathroom floor.  “Recently,” the artist writes, “I've been lucky enough to spend most of my time at home, and the pieces in this show reflect the benefits and difficulties of living a rather solitary life.” Rendered in Copic marker, color pencils, and watercolor paints on brown-toned paper, these creatures are round, soft, and prone to big feelings. They find themselves paralyzed on the couch by guilt or panicking to leave a party early, complicating the cozy warmth evoked by the artwork’s hues and style.

Chiao expands her world beyond the home, incorporating several drawings that emphasize the exhibition’s emotional and stylistic complexity. In Circle Vase, Chiao uses a fine pen to draw swirling bubbles, clouds, and Koi fish on a blue and white china vase. The vase holds a bouquet of smiling daisies with lush golden petals, save for a few unhappy flowers with upturned grins. On sunset red paper, Chiao draws The Gatekeeper, a multi-faced being with a round black body and two long, tentacular arms. While several faces appear confused and indifferent, those on the top emote clear joy, discomfort, or sadness. “I was feeling a lot of irritation with unrelated things,” writes the artist on this piece, “and wanted to test out my new color pencil set at the same time.” Bearing the spectrum of human emotion, Chiao’s inviting artworks offer moments of recognition to the viewer—a promise that those who like to be inside can still be held and recognized by others.