Nothing Ever Matches with Anything by Brook Kao
Brooke Kao Solo Exhibition
Date: Wed, June 11th 2008 - Sun, July 6th 2008Additional Time Info: M-F 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Event Tags: Art Shows
Location: Morris & Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation Art Center
Brooke Kao is the recipient of the eleventh annual Ida F. Haimovicz Visual Arts Award for a Montgomery County High School Student
Reception: Saturday June 12, 6:30 - 7:30 p.m.
The Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County (AHCMC) announces that BROOKE KAO, a senior at
Richard Montgomery High School, is the 2008 recipient of the Ida F. Haimovicz Visual Arts Award. Ms. Kao will receive a $3,000 cash award on Thursday, June 12 at 6:30PM at the reception for her solo exhibition at the Morris and
2 Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation Arts Center, Montgomery College Takoma Park- Silver Spring Campus.
Brooke Kao has been making art since she could hold a pencil. “Scrap paper, driveways, walls—any and every surface was subject to my doodling wrath,” Ms. Kao admits. Through her paintings, Ms. Kao hopes to narrate the stories of American-born Chinese including the pressures of fitting into an extroverted Western society while still conforming to traditional Chinese ideals of introversion and purity. Her painting “I Don’t Know Which Language is Better to Use” elegantly expresses this dilemma as she incorporates elements from both Eastern and Western art traditions. Combining painterly and graphic design techniques, this vibrant painting depicts a young woman caught between two worlds. Centered in the painting, the young woman looks left, contemplating a verdant and mysterious landscape reminiscent of Japanese and Chinese art. But behind her looms a very different environment, a geometriciized city-scape in primary colors that captures the enthusiasm and energy of contemporary Western culture.
With her strong background in graphic design and web design, it is surprising to learn that this young artist only recently began painting. Urged by Mrs. Ruth Fishman, her IB art teacher at Richard Montgomery High School, Ms. Kao put brush to canvas for the first time two years ago. According to Ms. Kao’s father, Mrs. Fishman inspired his daughter to pursue a visual arts path resulting in winning not only the Haimovicz Award but also the 26th Annual Congressional
Art Competition for the Eighth Congressional District of Maryland in May 2007. The Haimovicz award “is really Mrs. Fishman’s award as well as Brooke's,” says Mr. Kao.
Ms. Kao’s extra-curricular activities during high school include two years as the Graphics Editor and a staff writer for The Tide, Richard Montgomery’s award winning student newspaper, as well as a cover designer and writer for the 3
Gaithersburg Chinese School Magazine. She is also a Montgomery County Public School Web Design Intern, designing website layouts for elementary, middle and high schools.
The Ida F. Haimovicz Visual Arts Award, now in its eleventh year, was established by the family of the late Ida F. Haimovicz to support a Montgomery County high school senior intent on pursuing a visual arts career. The Haimovicz award, a cash award of $3,000, is administered by the Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County. At age 64, Mrs. Haimovicz, a resident of North Bethesda, attended a sculpture class at the Corcoran Gallery of Art. This class started Mrs. Haimovicz on a much-loved hobby, says her son Joseph Hamer. “She began sculpting at home, but the clay became heavier and heavier as she grew older. She realized that she should have started much earlier in life.” Mrs. Haimovicz wanted to provide financial aid to deserving high school students to enjoy their creativity while still young.