Huang Hai-Hsin’s paintings reference and at times appropriate the generic media events and surplus information characteristic of globalization, giving them a universal style through doing so. Her quick sketches of the “official” media don’t make specific criticisms but nevertheless reflect an attitude common to the younger generation of artists, especially those born in the late 1980s, mocking real world issues in a tone that is both helpless and frivolous. Growing up in the post-spectacle information society, young artists betray a strong sense of resignation and helplessness toward social injustice and indifference towards stock imagery and repetitive information reported day after day. At the same time, they remain information junkies. This conflict is revealed in the flatness and simplistic brushstrokes of Huang’s sarcastically “bad painting” style. Huang has said: “I believe it’s very important to make people smile wryly. It also reflects a sort of helplessness and resignation to the current situation.” To keep up with the high-tech times, much of Huang’s work is painted in series and at a small scale to produce a modern visual style allowing viewers to relate the paintings to desktop icons and smart phone applications.

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