Ajna Joy Ch'iu Lichau (American, b. 1975, Volcano, Hawai'i)
After a several years with my hands in the soil actively cultivating and taking care of a small and young native forest of ‘Ōhia Lehua and Koa on the Big Island, my appreciation for each plants’ details and shapes in their leaves and flowers inspired me to want to translate a moment of their essence to paper. I wanted to create images using simple materials that didn’t need the harsh chemicals of photography. Through my experimentation and process, I came to these current art works on paper: Flora prints/Hawaiian native & canoe plants and Dew Prints/Imagined Landscapes.
Unlike monotypes or monoprints, no plates or images on a smooth non-absorbent surface is used in my process of making these very spontaneous pieces on paper; however, I do use tools such as plant materials (i.e. leaves, flowers, fibers, pollen), paper, water/dew, dust and fabric to remove sumi ink from the paper while simultaneously leaving an imprint. With my Flora prints, it’s a slow overnight process that I cannot see or predict knowingly. It takes over 24hrs from making the piece to being completely dry for me to see what has become of it. Not all pieces make it to my table where I add the concluding layers of gold leaf. Initially I was attracted to adding gold leaf to these pieces to add light and a resemblance of water. These physical properties of gold touch on the long and deep history of economic value, cultural significance throughout the world and the biological theory that humans are drawn to shiny objects because of our ancestral need to find water. The origins of sumi ink go back over 2,000 years beginning in China. My ancestral connection to China is very obscure and has mostly been lost though my families disconnection through our history and each other. From my experimental use of these historical, simple and refined materials, I hope to offer a fresh perspective from my process of making these pieces that offer a visceral experience while being grounded with details of familiarity from plants of this beautiful ʻāina.
Bio
Ajna currently lives and works in Hawai'i and practices mainly in the forms of works on paper, photography and installation. She is from a family of artists whose life began in Volcano, Hawaiʻi, 1975 and from the age of five was raised in New Mexico and then from fourteen in Oregon. She holds an MFA from San Francisco Art Institute and a BFA from Parsons School of Design, New York. Her projects and collaborations have been shown nationally and internationally for example: SOMArts, WorkSound, Mark Wolfe Contemporary Art, Spur Projects, San Jose Museum of Art, and 9th Havana Biennial.
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2015
Pure Surface, Valentines, movement -Dawn Stoppiello, text- Endi Bogue Hartigan, film- Ajna Lichau, Portland Oregon.
White Noise 2.0, Worksound International/Natural History, Portland Oregon.
2014
Whats Funny?, Procvetaj Festival, Paviljon Cvijeta Zuzonic, Belgrade, Serbia
2012
XXX, MDW Fair, Chicago, Illinois.
EFF Portland, GalleryHOMELAND, Portland, Oregon.
2011
Third Strike: 100 Performances for the Hole, SOMarts, San Francisco, California.
2010
Night Light: Multimedia Garden Party, SOMarts, San Francisco, California.
Dominion, Tribute Gallery, Portland Oregon.
East West Project, Espace 72, Dison/Verviers, Belgium.
2009
Girls on film, Espace apART - Free art-base - F518, Guangzhou, China.
East West Project, Espace 72, Dison/Verviers, Belgium.
It’s the way that you move, Million Fishes Gallery, SF California.
2008
East West Project, Espace 72, Dison/Verviers, Belgium.
Water, The Garage, San Francisco.
Accoutre, Worksound, Portland Oregon.
2007
Collectif 2007, Espace 72, Dison/Verviers, Belgium.
Ajna Lichau & Jessica Pezalla, Mark Wolfe Contemporary, SF California.
East West Project, Espace 72, Dison/Verviers, Belgium.
Onde, Les Contemporains, Bruxelles, Belgium.
2006
Ajna Lichau, Spur Projects, Portola Valley, California
Master of Fine Arts Graduate Exhibition, SFAI, Herbst Pavilion, Fort Mason, SF California.
Body functions, screening at the 9th Havana Biennial, Cuba.
Heavenly Bodies, San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, California.
2005
Emerge, GenArt; The Warfield building, San Francisco, California.
Participate, MonkeyFresh Studios, San Francisco, California.
2004
The Chicken Show, Crucible Steel Gallery, San Francisco, California.
Nurturing the New 2004, NurtureArt Gallery, Brooklyn, New York.
Figurative Photographs, Walter Wickiser Gallery, New York.
2002
Moments of Clarity: A midsummer night interlude, Sotheby’s, New York.
Donnata Estetica, Art Point Black, Florence, Italy.
2001
New Work, Ajna and El Nino, Apogee Gallery; Stevenson Fine Art, New York.
2000
Parsons Senior Exhibition, The Gallery on 13th Street, New York.
Parsons Benefit Auction, Arnold and Sheila Aronson Galleries, New York.
1999
New Visions, MaxMara Boutique, New York.
Parsons Benefit Auction, Arnold and Sheila Aronson Galleries, New York.
1997
Hermony, Catch 22 Gallery, New York.
EDUCATION
2006
MFA, New Genres, San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, California.
2000
BFA, Photography, (awarded honors), Parsons School of Design, New York.
CONTINUED EDUCATION
2019
Fresco Techniques course (40 hrs), Accademia del Giglio, Florence, Italy.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
2010
Michelle Weidman, “Review: Dominion.” Ultrapdx, August
2007
Koppman, Debra, “Ajna Lichau and Jessica Pezalla,” Artweek, March.
2006
Morris, Barbara. “Ajna Lichau at Spur Projects,” Artweek, December.
Fischer, Jack. “Technology & Identity, S. J. exhibition explores how the digitallandscape is shaping perceptions of the human mind,” Mercury News, March 19.