Realist painter Lenore Chinn’s bold and distinctive works command attention. We’ve found ourselves captivated for lengthy periods, absorbing every emotion, brushstroke and minute detail. As great fans of her paintings, we were happily surprised to learn that she’s been following the San Francisco Bay Times for quite a while, and recalls being included in the paper for various reasons since the 1980s, usually due to her participation in charitable or activist events.
This prolific artist and poet grew up in San Francisco’s Richmond District. She is included in both the exquisite and highly recommended “Lesbian Art in America: A Contemporary History” (Rizzoli, 2000) and the “Encyclopedia of Asian American Artists” (Greenwood Press, 2007). She is also the subject of the book “Cultural Confluences: The Art of Lenore Chinn” (Asian Pacific Islander Cultural Center, 2011).
Chinn doesn’t shy away from exploring a wide spectrum of people of color, lesbians and other LGBT couples in her projects. Her portraits document the historical evolution of San Francisco’s queer community, and challenge the social conventions that currently constitute what she refers to as “the racialized order of things.” Chinn shared that she employs “a coded iconography rooted in a lesbian/gay cultural perspective” to “fuse an Asian aesthetic of sparseness and clarity with visual narratives that counteract the ‘magic-truth rituals’ of racial and gender construction.”
We are honored to present four of Chinn’s signature pieces, described for us in her own words:
“Bok Kai Temple shows the interior of the Bok Kai Temple located in Marysville, California, where an annual festival draws thousands into the area around the time of the lunar new year.” For more information about this event, please visit http://bokkaiparade.com
“Bing features the late Abstract Expressionist painter and local Beat artist Bernice Bing, who is the subject of a film by Madeleine Lim that is co-produced by Asian American Women Artists Association and Queer Women of Color Media Arts Project. You can learn more about her history at https://www.facebook.com/BerniceBingFilm”
“Before the Wedding is a portrait of Oakland-based artist and California College of the Arts professor Kim Anno and her partner Ellen Meyers. They were getting ready to go to a wedding and later, they were among the few couples who initially married when the opportunity presented itself. So far, Prop 8 proponents have not been successful in nullifying their union.”
“Veuxdo in the Fillmore shows two women, friends, who are part of an online magazine called Veuxdo. I met Chelsea Mone’t and Bootsy Akbar (aka Lala Openi) on my way to a group show I was in across the street at a pop-up gallery called Gallery 1307. Like the bookstore these two artists were selling their shirts in front of, it no longer exists.”
For more information about Chinn and her work, please go to: www.lenorechinn.com
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