Sandra Low

Artist’s Statement

I once brought dried pork floss and rice for my school lunch, and a chorus of “Eww! Gross!” rained over me. I demanded to my mom: “I need sandwiches!”

I know you know this story: minority kid grows up in America; dissonance ensues. You eat dried pork floss and mayo sandwiches and you pretend to know who Jesus is; it’s an Everywoman story.

I have wrestled with cultural fusion-confusion throughout my entire artistic career, collaging and warping images together in satirical ways. The American immigrant experience is a constant navigation between shrink-wrapped ideals and one’s own messier journey.

I suspect my use of humor and my affinity for surrealism is a result of being caught between, and feeling disconnected from, my Chinese and American backgrounds. Filtered through an off-kilter, slightly untethered worldview, my drawings and paintings playfully skewer the world around me and my own life. Sweeping, romantic postcard landscapes turn into cheese-filled tsunamis. My relationship with my mother becomes a deranged cataloging of love and resentment.

I create forked-tongued allegories that are funny and melancholic, sly and sentimental. The candied, goofball visuals are not just a veneer, but it is part of a conscious strategy to engage the viewer through an accessible visual vocabulary. It is also part of an artistic positioning in the belief that the absurd is merely the skid mark of human pathos, and out of the collision between irreverent narrative and social commentary, my art burps out a few collective truths.

Website: www.sandralow.com

EDUCATION
2000 University of Southern California, MFA: Art
1997 University of California, Berkeley, BA double major: Studio Art and Sociology

SOLO & TWO-PERSON EXHIBITIONS
2018 Sandra Low, Art Salon Chinatown at Realm, Los Angeles, CA
2015 Butter and Bone, McNish Gallery, Oxnard College, Oxnard, CA
GALA Exhibits, pop-up public art project curated by John David O’Brien, Glendale, CA
2014 Cultural Gumbo, Rio Hondo College Art Gallery, Whittier, CA
2006 Box Full of Happy, Carnegie Art Museum, Oxnard, CA
Troubled Times in Snooky City, Gallery 478, San Pedro, CA
2003 Team Spirit, Overtones, Los Angeles, CA
2001 Latebreaking, Highways Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
2000 It’s In the Pudding, Helen Lindhurst Fine Arts Gallery, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA

GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2022 Off-Kilter: Power and Pathos, USC Pacific Asia Museum, Pasadena, CA
Let Me Talk, Brand Library and Art Center, Glendale, CA
2021 Everything Connected: Land, Body, Cosmos, Self Help Graphics and Art, Los Angeles, CA
Open Spaces, Rio Hondo College Art Gallery, Whittier, CA
2020 Scream, Long Beach City College, Long Beach, CA (virtual)
2020 Faculty Art Exhibition, Long Beach City College, Long Beach, CA (virtual)
LOADED, Art Salon Chinatown at Realm, Los Angeles, CA
2019 Layered Lenses, GP3, Irvine, CA
Made in Asian America, Art Salon Chinatown at Realm, Los Angeles, CA
Utopia/Dystopia, Self Help Graphics and Art, Los Angeles, CA
Year of the Boar, Art Salon Chinatown at Realm, Los Angeles, CA
Faculty Art Show, Rio Hondo College Art Gallery, Whittier, CA
2018 Art & Activism: Drawing the Line, Children’s Museum of Art, New York, NY
Complements, Long Beach City College, Long Beach, CA
2017 Endings & Beginnings, Avenue 50 Studio, Los Angeles, CA
Mother and Child, El Camino College Art Gallery, Torrance, CA
Reconstructions, Surrogate Projects, Charles White Gallery, Eliot Arts Magnet School, Altadena, CA
60 Americans 2, Platform Art Fair, Brooklyn, NY
With Liberty and Justice for Some, San Francisco Arts Commission, San Francisco, CA
Faculty Art Show, Rio Hondo College Art Gallery, Whittier, CA
Personal Matters, El Camino College Art Gallery, Torrance, CA
With Liberty and Justice for Some, Walter Maciel Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2016 We Are Los Angeles, Grand Park, Los Angeles, CA
60 Americans, Makeshift Museum, Los Angeles, CA
Studio Art Faculty Exhibition, 2016, Long Beach City College, Long Beach, CA
Apple Sauce, Boone Art Gallery, Pasadena City College, Pasadena, CA
2015 Divergence: Faculty Biennial, Rio Hondo College Art Gallery, Whittier, CA
Setting Forth, Boone Art Gallery, Pasadena City College, Pasadena, CA
Mooncakes, Churros, and Cherry Pie, Euphrat Museum of Art, De Anza College, Cupertino, CA
2014 Poor/Fancy, Part-Time Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Facts and Figures, Long Beach City College, Long Beach, CA
Conference Center, Pasadena City College Art Gallery, Pasadena, CA
L.A. Heat: Taste Changing Condiments, Chinese American Museum, Los Angeles, CA
Architecture Digested, El Camino College Art Gallery, Torrance, CA
2013 2013 LBCC Faculty Exhibit, Long Beach City College Art Gallery, Long Beach, CA
In Two Places At Once, Pasadena City College Art Gallery, Pasadena, CA
Langeweile, SNP Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Artists’ Books and Cookies, Ooga Booga, Los Angeles, CA
Bite Me, McGroarty Arts Center, Tujunga, CA
Women’s Day Festival, Museum of Latin American Art, Long Beach, CA (digital display)
2012 Arguments For and Against, Pasadena City College Art Gallery, Pasadena, CA
All In for the 99%, curated by New Image Art, Ace Museum, Los Angeles, CA
¡Vivan Las Mujeres! Women’s Day Festival, Museum of Latin American Art, Long Beach, CA (digital display)
LBCC Art Faculty Show, Long Beach City College Art Gallery, Long Beach, CA
Faculty Art Exhibition, Rio Hondo College Art Gallery, Whittier, CA
2011 Size Matters, Walter Maciel Gallery, Los Angeles, CAChain Letter, Shoshana Wayne Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
Picasso’s Dilemma, Armory Center for the Arts, Pasadena, CAA
Dynamic Approach, Galerie Rheeway, Los Angeles, CA
2010 Multiple Universes: Artists on the Faculty at PCC, Pasadena City College Art Gallery, Pasadena, CA
Rio Hondo College Faculty Art Exhibition, Rio Hondo College Art Gallery, Whittier, CA
2009 Pandemic Show, Overtones, Los Angeles, CA
Rio Hondo College Faculty Art Exhibition, Rio Hondo College Art Gallery, Whittier, CA
Here and Now: ARTRA Curatorial at T-Lofts, Los Angeles, CA
News of the World, Pasadena City College Art Gallery, Pasadena, CA
You Are Here: Art by and about Los Angeles, Los Angeles International Airport, Tom Bradley International Terminal, CA
2008 Reality Check, Overtones, Los Angeles, CA
We’re all in this together, McNish Art Gallery, Oxnard College, Oxnard, CA
2007 humor us, Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Nice Work If You Can Get It, Rio Hondo College Art Gallery, Whittier, CA
Art Faculty Art, Long Beach City College Art Gallery, Long Beach, CA
2006 Blips, Drips and Strips, Upfront Gallery, Ventura, CA
L.A. 225, Pico House Gallery, El Pueblo Historical Monument, Los Angeles, CA
2005 Art Faculty Art, Long Beach City College Art Gallery, Long Beach, CA
Next Door, 18^th Street Arts Complex, Santa Monica, CA
Artifacts of Activism: Images of Peace, A Shenere Velt Gallery at the Workmen’s Circle, Los Angeles, CA
We Put Our Love Where We Have Put Our Labor, Pasadena City College Art Gallery, Pasadena, CA
Enter/Exit, Bamboo Lane/Revisited, Los Angeles, CA
Adventures In Illegal Art, Henry Fonda Theatre, Los Angeles, CA
White Box Network Faculty Exhibition, Pasadena City College Art Gallery, Pasadena, CA
2004 Freedom of Expression, CA Lawyers for the Arts 30^th Anniversary Celebration
(projected exhibition), San Francisco, CA
From Scratch, Crazy Space, Santa Monica, CA
Art & Democracy, Angels Gate Cultural Center, San Pedro, CA
Murmuration of Starlings, Overtones, Los Angeles, CA
Art Faculty Art, Long Beach City College Art Gallery, Long Beach, CA
2003 Throwing in the Kitchen Sink, Overtones, Los Angeles, CA
Rtea-Facts for Kids, Don O’Melveny Gallery, West Hollywood, CA
Breaking News, stART at Judson Memorial Church, New York, NY
Open Haus, Haus, Pasadena, CA
2002 Ladyfest Los Angeles, Spring Street Bank Tower, Los Angeles, CA
Art Faculty Art, Long Beach City College Art Gallery, Long Beach, CA
2001 Wet Dreams, 18^th Street Arts Complex, Santa Monica, CA
Mouse: An American Icon, The Alternative Museum, (virtual exhibition)
A Fresh Pot of Gumbo, Gumbo Garden, Los Angeles, CA
2000 Spit & Polish, Artplace, Los Angeles, CA
Before & After Projections: intermission images IX, Side Street Projects, Los Angeles, CABig Bang, Shoshana Wayne Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
Another Round, at the Brewery Project, Los Angeles, CA
An Art Show with Too Many New Parts to List, Gumbo Garden, Hollywood, CA
1999 Naturalize, Helen Lindhurst Fine Arts Gallery, University of Southern California
1998 No More Scapegoats! Nourse Auditorium, San Francisco, CA
Godzilla West Presents, Community Arts Gallery, Chinese Cultural Center, San Francisco, CA
Annual Members Exhibition, Berkeley Art Center, Berkeley, CA
1997 13th Annual National Juried Exhibition: Works on Paper, Juror: Gary Garrels, Berkeley Art Center, Berkeley, CA
(the art show) *We love the university, the university is our friend. Worth Ryder Gallery, UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA
Tilt, The White Room, UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA

PUBLIC ART
2020 Through the Eyes of Artists Neighborhood Poster, San Gabriel. Los Angeles Count
Metropolitan Transportation Authority, Metro buses and trains, CA
2016 Connect Dream Los Angeles, Little Tokyo Service Center, Los Angeles, CA
We Are Los Angeles, temporary installation, Grand Park, Los Angeles, CA
2015 GALA Exhibits, pop-up public art project curated by John David O’Brien, Glendale, CA
2011 Picasso’s Dilemma, temporary projected installation, Pasadena, CA
2000 Force None of Your Reflections, Watt Hall, School of Fine Arts, University of Southern California

COLLECTIONS
Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro)
UBU Fine Arts, Malibu, CA
California Community Foundation, Los Angeles, CA
Sandra Tsing Loh, Van Nuys, CA

AWARDS AND HONORS
2022 California Community Foundation Fellowship for Visual Artists
2006 California Community Foundation Annual Report Cover Art Award

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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Kistinger, Tina. “USC Pacific Asia Museum: Women of Color Shaping Social Change in ‘Off-Kilter: Power and Pathos’.” southpasadenan.com. South Pasadenan, 26 July 2022. Web.
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Hall, Steven. “Exhibit Opens at Euphrat: Celebrates Diversity Represented in Food.” La Voz 9 Feb. 2015.
Nys Dambrot, Shana. “Jaime Scholnick and Sandra Low: Of Cheese-Wiz and Polystyrene.” Huffingtonpost.com. The Huffington Post, 25 Sept. 2014. Web. 26 Sept. 2014.
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Cuevas, Steven. “’L.A. Heat’ Art Exhibit, Sriracha and Tapatio Form Holy Union of Hot Sauce.” californiareport.org. KQED The California Report, 21-23 March 2014. Web. 21 March 2014.
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Frank, Priscilla. “An Art Show Dedicated Entirely To Hot Sauce Is Making Our Spicy Dreams Come True.” Huffingtonpost.com. The Huffington Post, 16 March 2014. Web. 17 March 2014.
Cabral, Javier. “’L.A. Heat’: Finally, an Art Exhibit Devoted to Sriracha and Tapatio Sauces.” latimes.com. Los Angeles Times, 14 March 2014. Web. 16 March 2014.
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Low, Sandra. Me! And Normal Me. Charleston: Bitter Melon Studios, 2011.
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On the Row. Exhibition catalog, Overtones Gallery, 2008.
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