Conversations with Bryanna Phimphachanh

Today we’d like to introduce you to Bryanna Phimphachanh.

Hi Bryanna, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I’ve always been painting. I was born and raised in Los Angeles, CA. I grew up with art. I think when I was younger, it was an emotional release for me, or even a means of communication and expression. During my times of hardship in my youth, art was the stability and safety in my life.

When it came time for undergrad, it really wasn’t a question about what I wanted to study, so I found myself at ArtCenter College of Design, where I graduated in 2024 with a BFA in Fine Arts Painting. During my undergrad studies, I focused my senior thesis on introspective painting, an act of using painting to process and understand my own experiences. I found that I was still using painting in the same way I did when I was a young girl.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
While I do believe that my usage of painting has helped me in many ways, I’ve experienced periods where I equated my painting with my worth. I suppose that’s the hard part about identity being so wrapped up in an art form. At other times, during my own hard periods of my life, I found myself overwhelmed by all that was happening around me, almost frozen and unable to paint, which left me feeling so lost. But I feel like with time, I’m getting better with that balance of the scales.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I’m an oil painter. I find I don’t really stray from that. When I paint with oils, I thin them down with mixtures of gamsol and galkyd, creating an almost watercolor consistency to them. I use soak staining methods, and I love when the paint begins to look bruised and mottled as each layer builds on top of another. I investigate the self, family, and lately I’ve been using birds as metaphors or placeholders for people in my paintings. The idea of longing, using the paintings as communication and speaking in small codes to individuals lost, has been a gentle thread through my work for the past year. Topics of memory, bodily sensations, and the experiences of loss are also seen within my work.

Something I see across my work is how tired the body looks, whether it’s the skin of the subject, the metal of a gun, or the body of a bird. The works also feel very quiet to me, as if they were small passing moments rather than a climax of a scene. I think that lies a lot in how the works refer to memory, what happened directly, or what it felt like.

If you had to, what characteristic of yours would you give the most credit to?
I think consistency in painting as much as I can, or at least doing anything related to painting each day. Research is also key, going to shows and reading/looking at images of other paintings. So I suppose, painting and learning from it constantly. I also feel like being involved in the art community around me has helped a lot. Group shows and studio visits have been really great post-grad.

Pricing:

• For pricing inquiries, my email is [email protected]

Contact Info:

• Website: https://bryannaalysa.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bryannaalysa/?hl=en