About

Ethan Chan works in sculpture, performance and installation. “Examining my love for kitsch, cookie-cutter aesthetic, and plastic objects, I aim to place my work at the intersection between globalism and Americana,” says Chan. “Growing up traveling back and forth between the Midwest and different parts of East Asia, the work references my identity as an Asian American mutt and my relationship to objects of Americana, highlighting how our culture as Americans affect and reflect on people who don’t necessarily fit the conventional American stereotype.” Chan’s work highlights the isolation and segregation often experienced by people of color in the United States—an American experience made even more apparent during the pandemic. Chan states that his “goal is for the body of work to conceptually highlight American loneliness and to better understand the kind of social responsibility that all artist’s carry.”

This two-person exhibition features the work of ICA San Diego’s 2024 artists in residence, Ethan Chan and David Peña. Over the course of the past year, Chan and Peña each produced a body of work in response to healing; in the case of Chan, healing from the loneliness and isolation intensified by the pandemic, and for Peña, healing from grief after the loss of his grandfather.

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ICA San Diego Exhibition Support Provided by the Linda Brandes Foundation, City of San Diego, The Prebys Foundation, and The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.