Whitehot Magazine

April 2025

"The Best Art In The World"

"The Best Art In The World"
April 2025

Make Up! - An Exhibition by Miiasoey at From Here to Sunday, Gowanus, Brooklyn

變身 Make Up! - An Exhibition by Miiasoey at From Here to Sunday, Gowanus, Brooklyn

By LIAM OTERO March 25, 2025

From Here to Sunday, an AAPI-owned gift shop & art gallery located in Brooklyn’s Gowanus neighborhood, is currently showcasing new and recent artworks by Helen So (better known by her mononym, Miiasoey). Miiasoey is a Hong Kong-born artist of Cantonese ancestry who has been based in New York and Jersey City since 2021. As a rising figure in the Cantonese-American art community in the New York Metropolitan area, Miiasoey is best known for her whimsical style and fantastical subjects that explore interrelated themes of identity, youthfulness, and imagination.

Installation view of 變身 Make Up! - An Exhibition by Miiasoey

Installation view of the shelf of 變身 Make Up! - An Exhibition by Miiasoey

Upon entering the cheerful atmosphere of From Here to Sunday, one will immediately be greeted by the vibrant display of the exhibition 變身 Make Up!, which is cozily nestled in the back corner of the store. Transformation is the overarching theme behind this exhibition as Miiasoey was directly inspired by the protagonist, Usagi Tsukino, from the popular 1990s Japanese manga & anime series, Sailor Moon. According to the series lore, Usagi was a typical Japanese adolescent who lived an ordinary high school life until receiving a magical brooch that transformed her into the titular superheroine, Sailor Moon, who is tasked with saving the world. This coming-of-age narrative became the basis for Miiasoey’s solo show. Much like Sailor Moon, Helen So “transformed” into her creative alter ego, Miiasoey, whose art evokes a childlike sense of wonder and reverie that celebrates the nostalgia of youth.

Helen So (Miiasoey), Miracle - Fire Lily, 8” x 10”, digital drawing

Miiasoey’s art considers the importance of holding on to one’s childhood dreams and fantasies rather than letting them slip by and disappear into the fathomless abyss of adulthood. 變身 Make Up! embraces youthful nostalgia as a way for one to “to reconnect with [their] inner child” that continues to thrive even after reaching adulthood.

(left) Helen So (Miiasoey), All At Once, 24” x 24”, ink drawing on paper; (right) Hand-painted Wormie Frame

A prodigious creative and maximalist at heart, Miiasoey’s art is festooned across the three-walled gallery, which includes ink on paper drawings, printed digital artworks, stickers, flipbooks, ink and watercolor pieces, air-dry clay magnets, and miniature sculptures. Though many of these artworks are endowed with autobiographical underpinnings, Miiasoey imbues her work with a greater universality. In the circular ink drawing, All At Once, the characters from the Oscar-winning film Everything Everywhere All At Once (2022) join hands around a rotating eye containing a smiley faced cookie. Inspirational quotes on family, friendship, and connection are interspersed around the cavorting characters along with iconography associated with Chinese culture such as traditional lanterns and noodles held by chopsticks. Reading each blurb of text will leave one with a renewed appreciation for the simpler things in life: kindness, creativity, and interpersonal relationships.

Helen So (Miiasoey), Everything Sucks is Fine, 16” x 20”, digital drawing

The original Lofi Girl (2017)

Meanwhile, Everything Sucks is Fine, is the artist’s “dumpster fire” reinterpretation of the Lofi Girl (2017), a French animation of a young girl calmly working at a desk in a tidy room while a cat rests closeby that is typically played over 24/7 YouTube livestream videos of lo-fi, ambient, and electronic music. Instead of the usual orderliness found in these videos, Miiasoey’s digital drawing is a playfully frenetic scene of a young woman at work, possibly seen mid-daydream, whilst surrounded by strewn comics, art supplies, electronic devices (including a Tamagotchi toy), and an array of other trinkets. The compositional pandemonium continues elsewhere as a fire burns in a nearby wastebasket and an even bigger conflagration can be seen past the window where it simmers beneath a rainbow. One could easily read this scene in a comically hellish vein, perhaps along the lines of an artist attempting to get work done before a fast-approaching deadline among a perpetual pile-on of new projects. However, I cannot help but read this image in a more creatively inspiring vein by seeing the passionate drive of an artist whose mind abounds with a lush imagination fueled by an infinite supply of creative embers. Doesn’t the subject sound familiar?