Wordplay
February 7–27, 2025
Liggett Studio, Tulsa OK

Wordplay is a series of colorful, abstract relief paintings created with laser-cut wood and acrylic. These works are a playful exploration of abstraction through words and letterforms, transforming language into visual compositions that mirror the subtleties of communication.

Words carry power, but their meanings can be slippery—objective in form yet subjective in interpretation. Are we speaking the same language? Are we having the same conversation? By reshaping letters and words into new forms and meanings, Wordplay invites viewers to reflect on the complexities and ambiguities of language.

This project was supported by the Artists Creative Fund.

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The kinetic force in each relief painting is made more potent by its containment in tight, box-like frames. You can feel the frustration as well as the pleasurable effort in this communication, the wriggle towards freedom inside the constraint. As she brings these word-shapes into embodied, abstracted form and builds with them, Yang told me, they become what she wants to say far more than any individual word ever could.  

- Alicia Chesser, for thepickup.com, “May Yang is Speaking”