For inquiries and collaborations, please shoot an email to contact[at]brubeyhu.com.
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Bio
Brubey (Wanzhi) Hu (b. 1994) is a Chinese artist, graphic designer, and educator. Her work is a mediation on memory, migration and familial ties as shaped through a transcultural feminist lens. Bridging her interests in linguistics, poetry and architectural drawing, her practice seeks to delineate how cultural and personal identities are shaped. The artist holds an MFA from the University of Waterloo and a BFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art. Brubey’s work has been exhibited at Art Mur in Montreal; Winchester Galleries in Victoria; Zalucky Contemporary, Art Museum at University of Toronto, Cambridge Galleries, University of Waterloo Art Gallery, and Art Gallery of Mississauga all in Ontario. She has participated in numerous artist residencies, including the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity in Canada, the School of Visual Arts in New York, USA, and Tao Hua Tan International Artist Residency in Anhui, China. In 2019, Brubey was awarded Social Science and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) graduate scholarship and Shantz International Research Scholarship.
Originally born in Xiamen, China, Brubey moved to Vancouver, Canada for high school, and then to the United States for undergrad. Currently based in Tkaranto/Toronto, ON, she has worked as a sessional lecturer at the University of Toronto Scarborough and the University of Waterloo. Besides teaching, Brubey works as a freelance graphic designer for clients including artist Hazel Meyer; 44 Gaukel, Kitchener; and Fine Arts Department at the University of Waterloo.
She is the co-director at Tangent Collective.
Brubey’s practice is generously supported by the following arts councils:
胡琬芝，1994年出生于福建厦门，是一名生活在加拿大多伦多的艺术家、平面设计师、教育者。她的作品通过跨文化女性主义视角对记忆、迁徙和家庭关系进行调解。将语言学、诗歌和建筑绘画的兴趣融为一体，她试图阐述文化和个人身份是如何形成的。胡琬芝本科毕业于美国马里兰艺术学院，硕士毕业于加拿大滑铁卢大学。她的作品曾展出于蒙特利尔Art Mur，维多利亚Winchester Galleries；安大略省的Art Museum U of T, Red Head Gallery, University of Waterloo Art Gallery, Cambridge Galleries, Art Gallery of Mississauga。她曾参与多个艺术家驻地，包括加拿大班芙艺术中心，纽约视觉艺术学校，以及中国安徽桃花潭。她荣获了SSHRC研究生奖学金以及Shantz国际研究奖学金。她的艺术实践得到加拿大国家艺术基金会和安大略艺术基金会的支持。除了艺术创作，她也作为讲师任教于滑铁卢大学和多伦多大学。
Artist Statement
My practice is an entangled embodiment of the mundane, architectural space, memory, and translation through a transcultural feminist perspective. With subtraction, the works are transcribed responses to my surroundings, metaphors of consensus and social subjugation, and they examine the unspeakable poetics and emotions evoked in the process of painting.
My works often reflect the aphasic state that transnational immigrants endure while being accustomed to an unfamiliar cultural landscape. The state of aphasia does not only engender the frustration of illegibility, but also prompts extensive sensibility of one’s material and spiritual surroundings. The paintings distill physical sites and objects into the two-dimensional plane while embedding memory and familial kinship into abstract visual compositions that resonate distinctively with each viewer based on their experience.
Furthermore, I investigate the convoluted relationship between transcultural womanhood and domestic space. Domestic space, usually defined as home, is supposed to be a realm where one can access leisure and solitude. I focus on domestic space as a feminine arena (as opposed to patriarchal configurations), a place of care, inner contemplation, and personal (be)longings. Oscillating between premeditation and improvisation, I compose and deconstruct the space and objects around me, to depict the nuanced visual poetics from the residues of the everyday.
The interpretations come after the visuals.
The titling of the works becomes a window of opportunity for the viewers to speculate the narratives of the work and to insert their realities and imaginations. The freedom to establish mutual consensus exemplifies and promotes the reciprocity of multicultural encounters.
我的实践是以跨文化女性主义视角观察日常、建筑空间、记忆、翻译的交织体现。以减法对周围环境进行转录式回应，我的作品旨在隐喻共识和社会压制，并探讨在绘画过程中无法言说的诗意和情感。
我的创作探讨跨国移民在适应新文化语境时所经历的失语状态。这种状态不仅产生了不可译的沮丧感，还促使了对自身物质和精神现实的感性观察。我的绘画将周遭场所和物体提炼至二维平面，同时将记忆和亲缘关系结合至抽象的视觉构图中，尝试通过观众的个体经历产生共鸣。
另外，我意在研究跨文化女性和家庭空间之间错综复杂的关系。家庭空间通常被定义为家，应该是个可以休闲和独处的领域。我重点讨论常被认定为女性领域（在父权制有限的观念中）的家庭空间如何成为关怀、内心沉思和个人归属的场域。在预谋和即兴之间摇摆不定中，我尝试解构和重构身边的空间和物体，描绘出日常生活遗留下的诗意和细腻。
解读是在视觉之后发生的。
作品的标题是观众推测叙事的窗口，将自己的现实和想象力嵌入到作品中。此为确立相互共识提供了空间，以及多元文化交流的可能性和互惠性。
MFA Thesis: I Have No Home But Me*
*“I have no home but me” is a line borrowed from Anne Truitt’s Daybook.
