YV ART MUSEUM

David has been sculpting for over 20 years. His work has been displayed in numerous shows, and his sculptures can be found in public spaces throughout New England as well as in private collections. David’s artistic education has been shaped by attending various workshops and symposia across the country. He is a member of the New England Sculpture Association.

Together, these inscriptions form a contemporary codex that parallels ancient systems of recording knowledge with the algorithmic logic of machine intelligence.
The installation draws on the Egyptian belief that the heart, preserved after death, bore the record of a person’s deeds and was weighed against a feather in the judgment of the afterlife. The title, Feather, refers to this ritual act of moral calibration—a test of balance between truth and impurity. If the heart proved heavier than the feather, it was devoured by Ammit, the crocodile deity, and the soul was condemned to darkness.
Through this lens, FEATHER meditates on the convergence of ancient metaphysics and digital rationality. The precision of the weighing ritual mirrors the logic of code—each a system that seeks to render judgment through data, syntax, and rule. Yet the work also gestures toward what escapes such systems: the unquantifiable, the emotive, the disobedient pulse that resists measurement.
A dual-screen projection animates this dialogue, juxtaposing images of the constructed mummy with sequences of computer code and AI chatbot interactions. The resulting interplay between body and algorithm invites viewers to consider whether, across time and technology, there remains a shared mystery at the core of being—something that refuses to be computed.

On July 27, 2024, Elisa enacted a ritual of cremation for the Mummy—a performative gesture marking a transformation from destruction to peace. Carrying the figure from the gallery to the CAI Beach, she placed it at the center of a linen cloth laid in a circular form upon the sand. The fire was lit from within the Mummy, its inner circuitry becoming the first to ignite. As the flames rose, Elisa recited Spell 81A: “For Being Transformed into a Lotus” from the Egyptian Book of the Dead, an incantation believed to guide the soul’s metamorphosis into a lotus flower. Moving in slow procession around the burning figure, she carried a jar of incense, allowing the smoke to mingle with the air on the water. When the fire subsided, Elisa gathered the ashes and fragments of charred material, returning them to the Mummy’s original resting place within the gallery—completing the cycle of offering, destruction, and rebirth.

The multimedia projections featured in the installation are realized in collaboration with CAI artist-in-residence filmmaker Bohan Chen.

deeply from the ancient Mesopotamian and Assyrian heritage that shaped him. His sculptures honor historical memories—heroes, invaders, and the struggles of his people—yet he focuses on anticipation rather than violence. A raised hand holding a dagger, for example, matters more to him than the act itself; the power lies in what is about to happen.

A lifelong art teacher in Syria, Dankha works across sculpture, painting, and mixed media. “Artists have no boundaries,” he says. “Syria is forever my home. Even when I reference history, I’m not copying—I’m searching for the Assyrian spirit, always seeking peace.”

Dankha arrived in the U.S. in 2009, but war in Syria broke out caused him unable to return to his studio in Syria. For a sculptor of large metal and stone works, this loss was profound, yet he continues to rebuild with resilience.

Dankha holds a Fine Arts degree from the University of Damascus. He has presented 22 solo exhibitions in Syria and abroad—including Canada, the U.S., Bulgaria, Sweden, Iran, and Lebanon—and has participated in numerous international sculpture symposiums. His works are held by the National Museum of Damascus, the Syrian Department of Culture, and collections worldwide.

Ted Castro was born in New York City. He began art in high school. Ted attended Pratt Institute and graduated with honors. He apprenticed and made stained glass windows with Martino Studios in Framingham Massachusetts. Later, he taught stained glass at the Worcester Center for Crafts where he attended classes for furniture refinishing woodworking. Ted has been carving for more than 2 decades and is passionately creating pieces that capture the humanitarian tangles we are all in. The hard work and time dedicated to creating sculpture is transformative providing an openness to add honesty and clarity to the work.

Lin began as a portrait painter but grew frustrated that viewers focused only on who was depicted rather than the artwork’s conceptual meaning. To shift attention away from identity, he removed individuality entirely, turning toward stylized figures shaped by his training in manga. His wide-eyed female characters—with their small noses, dainty mouths, and pop-bright expressions—reflect both Japanese manga influence and broader East Asian ideals of beauty.

Manga, widely regarded as Japan’s most influential form of social commentary, reaches audiences across age and class. In a society structured by strict rules, manga serves as a playful outlet—humorous, subversive, and permitted to break norms. Taiwan, shaped by 50 years of Japanese occupation, absorbed much of this visual culture, while also maintaining its own long tradition of “manhua,” a comic-based artform dating back centuries. Lin’s paintings merge these influences, offering gentle yet pointed commentary on schooling, marriage, gender roles, and rebellion behind a mask of innocence.

As an experienced animation editor, Lin infuses his otherwise still subjects with a sense of imminent movement—eyes about to blink, expressions on the verge of shifting. In this way, he “animates” his paintings through subtle suggestion rather than digital tools, capturing a human energy that neither photography nor computer animation can replicate.

Western art often values portraits that reveal individuality and emotional depth. Lin questions this expectation: if East Asian physical features are more homogeneous, can stylization be a more accurate expression of cultural reality? His figures echo women commonly seen in Asian public spaces—department stores, restaurants, service positions—where beauty is defined by refinement, politeness, and exaggerated femininity. Although “too cute” by Western standards, these figures reflect an authentic social type familiar to anyone who has spent time in the region.

From the standpoint of traditional Far Eastern aesthetics, Lin’s portrait style is also culturally grounded. Historically, East Asian artists avoided strong shadows or dramatic lighting, favoring clarity, flatness, and subtle expression. Instead of capturing mood through chiaroscuro, Lin uses minimal highlights and clean lines to create a universal, emotionally restrained figure—what some Western viewers interpret as humility, quietness, or even guardedness.

In person, Lin mirrors the gentleness of his painted characters. His soft-spoken manner leaves room for viewers to project their own interpretations—a strategy that art critic Yi Mei Guo compares to Yoshitomo Nara, noting that Lin’s cartoon-like figures balance youthful humor with deeper emotional undercurrents.

Within global art history, Lin’s work can be seen as part of the broader Pop Art continuum. While American Pop Art grew out of commercial culture and late Modernism, Japanese and Taiwanese Pop Art integrates centuries of decorative traditions, craft, and manga iconography. Lin extends this lineage, bringing Pop Art sensibilities into a Far Eastern context shaped by both restraint and liberation.

Pop Art remains one of the most widely understood visual languages in the West, just as manga dominates cultural life in Japan. Lin’s paintings sit at the intersection of these two powerful forms, blending painterly tradition with a digital-age aesthetic that defines 21st-century East Asia—a world that many Western viewers are only beginning to explore.

Lin Chia-Hung’s manga-inspired paintings have earned numerous international awards and are held in the collection of the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts. (article by Yin Peet, 2019)