Family Meal with Gu Gong
Matthew Yu | Homing
Matthew Yu is a Taiwanese-American creative born and raised in Texas, currently at Stanford University. He creates to document how the world looks through his filter of consciousness, and through his art, he has reached 40 million+ views and an online community of 50k+ followers on Instagram. Yu is a 2024 National Youngarts Winner with Distinction in visual arts and a Presidential Scholar in the Arts. You can usually find Matthew plein air sketching or tuning fountain pen nibs.
Tell me about the process behind this piece. Did it come naturally?
“Family Meal with Gu Gong” was created using gouache and ink. Thick layers of warm-colored paint are applied to the background to create a sense of illumination. The subjects in the foreground are lined with black ink and white ink, utilized throughout to draw the viewer’s eyes from the focal point of the old man Gu Gong’s face down to the food on the table. It came from a photograph I took while in Taiwan.
Why does this piece mean ‘homing’ to you? How does it resemble your relationship to place?
The visual style of my art is heavily influenced by urban sketching, a practice where artists rapidly sketch scenes of everyday life in outdoor settings. My pieces aim to capture a freeze frame of Taiwan in its current state, as that is where my parents are from. In particular, "Family Meal with Gu Gong" represents the specific instances of togetherness of my extended family in Taiwan through food.
Family Meal with Gu Gong
Matthew Yu | Homing
Matthew Yu is a Taiwanese-American creative born and raised in Texas, currently at Stanford University. He creates to document how the world looks through his filter of consciousness, and through his art, he has reached 40 million+ views and an online community of 50k+ followers on Instagram. Yu is a 2024 National Youngarts Winner with Distinction in visual arts and a Presidential Scholar in the Arts. You can usually find Matthew plein air sketching or tuning fountain pen nibs.
Tell me about the process behind this piece. Did it come naturally?
“Family Meal with Gu Gong” was created using gouache and ink. Thick layers of warm-colored paint are applied to the background to create a sense of illumination. The subjects in the foreground are lined with black ink and white ink, utilized throughout to draw the viewer’s eyes from the focal point of the old man Gu Gong’s face down to the food on the table. It came from a photograph I took while in Taiwan.
Why does this piece mean ‘homing’ to you? How does it resemble your relationship to place?
The visual style of my art is heavily influenced by urban sketching, a practice where artists rapidly sketch scenes of everyday life in outdoor settings. My pieces aim to capture a freeze frame of Taiwan in its current state, as that is where my parents are from. In particular, "Family Meal with Gu Gong" represents the specific instances of togetherness of my extended family in Taiwan through food.
