Living Here

Daieny Chin
Coyote Ugly, 2023
Acrylic on canvas
Courtesy of the artist and Half Gallery

This work is on loan for the exhibition, Living Here, at the Marjorie Barrick Museum of Art, June 20 - December 20, 2025

“I grew up in Los Angeles where most people view coyotes as a nuisance, or a pest. But I've always seen similar traits such as resilience, strength, and perseverance my grandmother shared with coyotes, and her experience moving to the States as an immigrant.“ In Coyote Ugly, Daieny Chin imagines their maternal grandmother’s younger self coming into contact with a coyote–a physical manifestation of indigenous America. The young woman has lowered her body so that she and the animal are meeting at a roughly equal height. Her hand offers a cluster of medicinal yarrow flowers, an expression of healing, to affirm the encounter. “I think about the perils of my grandmother to coyotes and how Asian people were seen and sometimes still are seen as nuisances and invasive,” Chin told Filo Sofi Arts in 2024. “My grandmother still adapted to the city and really really thrived here.”