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Artist Presentation: Andria Lo and Valerie Luu of Chinatown PrettyPost an Event »
Andria Lo, The One, 2014, C-print, 30 x 45 inches
Join us for our upcoming artist presentation on Friday, May 12, 2017 from 3-5pm Photographer Andria Lo and writer Valerie Luu will be discussing their project Chinatown Pretty. The gallery will feature three works on view by Andria Lo and Valerie Luu through June 24, 2017. Informal question and answer session to follow the presentation. Chinatown Pretty captures the unique street-styles of Chinese seniors living (and grocery shopping) in San Francisco’s Chinatown. The project is a collaboration between photographer Andria Lo and writer Valerie Luu --the photos and stories aim to celebrate the ingenuity, flair, and beauty of Chinatown and its longtime residents. You can find Andria and Valerie scouting the hills of SF Chinatown, stopping and chatting with seniors as they went about their daily routines. Clothes can tell a story -- and in the case of Chinatown, it’s a story about a generation of men and women who immigrated from China to Chinatown, and their fashion philosophy (staying warm) and economic ideals (making their own clothes or preserving the ones they already have). Interviews, conducted with the help of Cantonese-speaking translators, are displayed next to photos. Many of the looks combine urban utilitarianism with unexpected sartorial choices: customizing pants with interior hand-stitched pockets to hide grocery money or layering eight different shirts and sweaters to stay warm - each layer with its own fabric and color. Floral is also a common motif -- it is found on canes, baseball caps, patterned outdoor pajama sets and embroidered on Mandarin collars. Regardless of why they dress the way they do, the outcome is undeniable: the seniors' fashion sense is unexpected, economical, functional and not just pretty, but Chinatown Pretty. Chinatown pretty can be found online at: chinatownpretty.com Instagram: @chinatownpretty And on Facebook: facebook.com/chinatownpretty Andria Lo is a freelance documentary and editorial photographer whose work can be found in Lucky Peach, SF Chronicle and San Francisco Magazine. She is the former photo director of Hyphen Magazine, the Asian American arts and culture publication. She received a public art grant to feature her collaboration with the San Francisco Botanical Garden on Muni buses. Valerie Luu writes about San Francisco. Past projects include Sublet SF, where she subletted in eight neighborhoods in two years (including a six-month stint in Chinatown.) She’s currently working on Social Studies, a civic group, and #100drinksdivis, a series of Instagram portraits where she has a drink with 100 different neighbors around Divisadero. She is also 1/2 of Rice Paper Scissors, a Vietnamese pop-up restaurant, which is opening their first restaurant in the Mission in 2018.