Debra Yepa-Pappan

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Debra Yepa-Pappan is an artist in digital multimedia, focusing heavily on photography and digital collaging. Most influenced by her multicultural upbringing, with a South Korean mother and a Native American father, [1] her work reflects the struggle of identity, modernity, and stereotypes revolving around Native American culture. [2]

Contents

Life

Yepa-Pappan was born in South Korea while her father was stationed in the country with the U.S. Army. She grew up in Chicago where her family immigrated when she was very young. She attended the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe with a degree in 2- and 3-dimensional art in 1992, [3] before she proceeded to Columbia College Chicago. [4] She met her husband, Chris Pappan, while attending IAIA. As of 2017, they live in Chicago with their daughter. [4]

Artistry

Drawing from traditional Jemez Pueblo and Korean imagery, Chicago's modern urbanism and science fiction, most of Yepa-Pappan's work aims to challenge the viewer with their concept of reality. She attempts to confront stereotypes and involves the coming generations to be culturally engaged. [5] She takes photographs and digital images and layers and distorts them to create complex images to make bold statements. [6] Yepa-Pappan uses the contrasts of her differing cultural lives to talk about living between two worlds and tends to pose questions to the viewer versus answering them. [3]

Major works

References

  1. Chang, Sharon H. (December 11, 2015). Raising Mixed Race: Multiracial Asian Children in a Post-Racial World. Routledge. pp. 5–. ISBN   978-1-317-33050-9.
  2. Red Ink. American Indian Graduate Center. 2002.
  3. 1 2 3 "6 Urban Natives in the Arts". Native Peoples. July–August 2014. Archived from the original on September 5, 2024. Retrieved March 27, 2017.
  4. 1 2 Newman Fricke, Suzanne (2016). "The Force Will Be With You... Always: Science Fiction Imagery in Native American Art". First American Art Magazine. Vol. 12. pp. 35–36.
  5. 1 2 "Native American Indian Arts specialists Rainmaker open their next exhibition: First People, Second City". The Wild Times. Archived from the original on March 28, 2017. Retrieved March 27, 2017.
  6. "Mixing Racial Messages". Hyperallergic. October 30, 2013. Archived from the original on March 28, 2017. Retrieved March 27, 2017.
  7. "Museum of Contemporary Native Arts". Venues. ArtSlant. Archived from the original on March 28, 2017. Retrieved March 27, 2017.