HOME NEW WORLD: The Hotdog Thinker
ANDREW LIANG
Runs / March 1 – March 30, 2025
Reception / Friday, March 7, 6-9 PM
Hours: Sat-Sun from 2-6 PM
Grizzly Grizzly is pleased to present a solo exhibition by Baltimore-based artist Andrew Liang, titled Home New World: The Hotdog Thinker. This immersive installation explores personal memory through the jocular lens of Liang’s relationship with the customs and culture of the United States. Liang combines illustrative sculptures and ambient sound to revisit his journey of assimilation into US society.
The centerpiece of the exhibition is a larger-than-life hotdog, dramatically rising from its buns. The hotdog, an iconic food of the United States, becomes the artist’s self-portrait, a metaphor for adaptation, and a commentary on the sometimes absurd nature of cultural symbols.
“Food played a major role in my assimilation into American culture…Hotdogs, a processed food staple, are ever-present—from street vendors and baseball games to grocery store aisles and cookouts, all year round. To me, hotdogs symbolize America—an adaptation of the German sausage, mass-produced for the public and commodified by the meat packing industry. I am intrigued by the word wiener, a slang term for male genitalia, which humorously connects language with the food’s visual form.”
Surrounding the hotdog and suspended from kinetic mobiles are objects quintessential to mid-90s Plano, Texas, where Liang immigrated as a young teenager. These small sculptures, casting overlapping shadows as they move, represent the fluid and fractured nature of memory, always influenced by time, perspective, and context. Liang’s use of movement emphasizes the constant motion of recollection and implies a recalibration of identity. The subtle soundscape offers a glimpse into Liang’s formative years—engulfed in a hum of suburban life, intermittently punctuated by snippets of foreign voices that eased the alienation.
The title of the show is a subversive play on Rodin’s icon. Originally conceived as part of The Gates of Hell—a visual interpretation of The Divine Comedy–The Thinker depicts a figure lost in contemplation, embodying the weight of existential thought. By adopting this classic pose, Liang’s hotdog holds the gravitas of philosophical inquiry in the shape of a wiener. The wordplay allows one to engage on multiple levels—to witness the artist’s meditation on his own position in US society while enjoying the whimsical assemblage of reimagined Americana.
Artist Bio:
Te-En (Andrew) Liang immigrated to the United States from Taiwan with his family in 1993 at the age of 13. He is a multidisciplinary artist whose work explores diverse political, social identities, and cultural interpretations. In 2003, he co-founded Splotch, a web-based, artist-run collective that showcases and reviews global artworks. In 2009, Liang became a co-director of Current Space, an artist-run gallery in Baltimore City committed to showcasing interdisciplinary and experimental programming. There he led many collaborative projects including Human Foosball (2009), Mole Balls (2010), Human Pinball (2011), Cart (2011), and BINGO (2012). Liang’s work has been featured in numerous solo and group exhibitions, with notable shows at Varnish Fine Arts in San Francisco (2005), WPA/Corcoran in Washington D.C. (2006), Kunstraum Kreuzberg in Berlin (2008), Hudson Gallery in Frederick, Maryland (2011), Brooklyn Artist Alliance in New York (2012), Space 1026 in Philadelphia (2013), WTMD in Towson, Maryland (2015), Evening Hours in New York (2018), and The Cade Center for Fine Arts Gallery in Arnold, Maryland (2023). He earned his MFA from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (2024). Andrew lives in a row house in Baltimore City, Maryland, with his wife and son, where he also maintains his studio.