Lumin Wakoa 'In Time'

About

She begins by observing the natural world and then brings the work back into the studio and continues to paint from memory and feeling. Sometimes this process of outside/inside is repeated several times for a single painting. By looking at the world and looking away, Wakoa’s paintings do not precede the subject, they are a response to it. Each reply is particular, and this call and response between the visible world and the interior remembrance of it form a dialogue that exists within the finished paintings. 

During the long months when everything in New York City came to a halt due to Covid, she and her family were quarantined together in a very small living space. Schools and playgrounds were closed and she took her daughters on long daily walks to escape the monotony of the home. They often went through the cemeteries in the area, and in the slow repetitive pace of walking and lingering without anything to do, she observed stillness and small changes in the landscape and weather. In the absence of the chatter and noise of the city, she began noticing the rhythm of the natural world as it ceaselessly changed; the first blooms or spring, explosive color arising out of a still frozen ground, shifting sunlight, and the subtly vibrating movement of leaves. 

It was hard to replicate all of this in the studio so she began to paint outside in the cemetery or her front garden. The paintings explore subtle color shifts, rhythmic outward movement, and can feel like they are pressing forward into the canvas. The skeletons are also painted from life and in their fleshless absurdity, they offer a counterpart to the other paintings. They dance, gaze and recline, seemingly unaware that they have long since departed.

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Lumin Wakoa lives and works in New York. She received her MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design.  Wakoa was a recipient of the Dedalus Foundation MFA Grant in 2010 and a Fountainhead Fellow at Virginia Commonwealth University, 2010/11. In 2013 she was the recipient of a CUNY Adjunct Professional Development Grant. In 2018 she was a recipient of the Sharpe Walentas Foundation year-long Studio Program Fellowship. She recently has had solo and two person exhibitions at George Gallery, Present Company, and Providence College. Her work has been included in group exhibitions at Hesse Flatow, Harpers Gallery, James Fuentes, Spring break Art Fair, Taymour Grahne Gallery, and Untitled Art Fair, among other venues.