MadeIn Gallery is pleased to announce that our artist Su Yu-xin (b.1991, Hualien, Taiwan) is going to have her solo exhibition “Searching the Sky for Gold” at the Orange County Museum of Art (OCMA). It is Su’s first solo museum exhibition outside Asia. Presenting a new body of work created specifically for the exhibition, the Los Angeles-based artist explores various atmospheric and geological phenomena in her paintings, delving into the materiality of color. Transforming natural and synthetic materials into pigments, Su uses these colored substances as both the medium for paintings and the focus of her research. The exhibition will be on view from January 31–May 25, 2025.

“Su Yu-Xin’s captivating process—collecting natural materials from Malibu to the coasts of Taiwan and crafting her own pigments to create fluid contemporary landscapes—is both innovative and inspiring,” said Heidi Zuckerman, CEO and Director. “Her work offers a sensory exploration of landscape as an interconnected ecosystem, revealing the vibrant and volatile forces shaping our world. We are honored to present her US solo museum debut.“

Driven by a profound interest in the materiality of color, Su examines how pigments are extracted from the Earth’s crust through processes like mining, grinding, and refining, and how color is attributed as a property based on the physical sources from which it derives. She challenges modern color systems by investigating aspects they often overlook—the origins, functions, migrations, and potential futures of color.

Searching the Sky for Gold, explores amorphous and seemingly invisible substances that have colored, tangible foundations: salt air along the California coastline, hot springs in Japanese onsen, underground mine fires in Utah, smog in Chinese mountains, volcanic dust over the Pacific Ocean, and nuclear gases in New Mexico. The atmosphere in Su’s work is not a void but a gaseous mixture of smoke, sulfides, volatiles, and flammable substances, evoking both wonder and risk.

The exhibition is organized and curated by Ziying Duan, OCMA’s Assistant Curator. Supporting sponsorship of Su Yu-Xin: Searching the Sky for Gold is provided by the Taiwan Academy of Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Los Angeles and the Ministry of Culture of Taiwan.