Art News & Features

Catch An Ego At Gems

Vee Hua 華婷婷1 min readFebruary 5, 2009Add comment

I’ve had my eyes on Ego for a while, because he is, quite simply, one of the most talented street artists in the Seattle art scene.

Images of skulls have certainly made a resurgence in the past couple years, but they are generally rendered for juveniles, mallrats, and those who find it hard to believe that punk is dead. Ego, who doubles as a tattoo artist at Emerald City Tattoo, has the ability to take dark elements, like skulls, and transform them into a hybrid between the juvenile and the hyperreal. And although his works are largely black and white, he has the remarkable ability of upping the quality of any collaboration he works on, earning not only the respect of passerbyers, but of his fellow artists in the Seattle scene as well.

Catch his solo show on First Thursday, February 5th, at Gems (615 Western Ave., Seattle).

www.myspace.com/emeraldcitytattoo
www.gemssneakershop.com

Tagged asdark ego gems sneaker shop seattle artists street art

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Vee Hua 華婷婷

Vee Hua 華婷婷 (they/them) is a writer, filmmaker, and artist who splits their time between Oaxaca, Mexico, and Seattle, Washington. Much of their work unifies their metaphysical interests with their belief that art can positively transform the self and society. They are the Editor-in-Chief of REDEFINE, Interim Editor-in-Chief of International Examiner, and an Environmental Justice reporter at South Seattle Emerald. They also previously served as the Executive Director of the interdisciplinary community hub, Northwest Film Forum, where they played a key role in making the space more welcoming and accessible for diverse audiences.

Their latest short film, Reckless Spirits (2022), is a metaphysical, multi-lingual POC buddy comedy; the feature film version is slated for production in 2026. In 2025, they premiere their documentary short film, Hunt's Trading Post, set just outside of the Navajo and Ute Nations.

In 2017, Vee released the narrative short film, Searching Skies — which touches on Syrian refugee resettlement in the United States — and co-organized The Seventh Art Stand, a national film and civil rights discussion series against Islamophobia.

Vee has two narrative short films. Searching Skies (2017) touches on Syrian refugee resettlement in the United States; with it, they helped co-organize The Seventh Art Stand, a national film and civil rights discussion series against Islamophobia. Reckless Spirits (2022) is a metaphysical, multi-lingual POC buddy comedy for a bleak new era, in anticipation of a feature-length project.

Vee is passionate about cultural space, the environment, and finding ways to covertly and overtly disrupt oppressive structures. They also regularly share observational human stories through their storytelling newsletter, RAMBLIN’ WITH VEE!. They have a Master’s in Tribal Resource and Environmental Stewardship under the Native American Studies Department at the University of Minnesota and are pursuing a certificate in Incidencias en Problemas Socioambientales at the Universidad del Medio Ambiente in Mexico.

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