AMPHI Gallery is pleased to present When The Music's Over - the debut solo exhibition of new works by Catherine Wang. The Los Angeles-based artist’s expressive paintings create threads of tension between nature and built space, moments of joy and danger, melancholy and exuberance. Wang’s still lives and landscapes are imbued with the exhilaration and foreboding of young adulthood. A recent MFA graduate from the California Institute of the Arts, Wang’s work beautifully balances emotive, painterly gestures and grounded tightly rendered moments to give the viewer a glimpse of a story.  Scenes of suburban Los Angeles engulfed in overgrown, abstracted vegetation echo the painterly marks of embers and flame. Intimate still lives depict bedrooms and living spaces displaying vibrant, multi-faceted portraits of their inhabitants just out of frame. Thrumming with energy from the discomfort of change, Wang’s visual world offers a sharp wit and sensitivity. Like a snippet of an overheard conversation in passing, each of the paintings provide a piece of a narrative or a fleeting feeling made physical within Wang’s compositions. Largely devoid of human figures, their work often feels like the viewer has just arrived in the instant everyone has left - cigarette butts or a lingering trail of smoke trailing behind. Remnants of small rebellions, a scrawled bit of graffiti or litter, lend the work a note of nostalgia and melancholy. Frenetic and chromatic Wang’s paintings capture movement within the suburban landscape, a piñata blurs precariously against an eerily lit tree or embers fluttering in the Santa Ana winds. A deep sense of impending change and growth is present in the works included in the exhibition. Within those heavy moments is also a large dose of levity and humor. The artist states, "Many of my paintings are about situations that I can’t control, whether that’s personal or environmental. If you’re coming up against things that are so overwhelming and devastating, what else can you do but crack a joke? And it seems insignificant but humor can stave off so much fear and pain.”  Encapsulating the swirling beauty, chaos and difficulty of the present moment, Wang’s paintings are a celebration in the apocalypse, a joyful dance as the last notes of the music end.  About the Artist Catherine Wang (b.1998 Lakewood, CA) is a painter based in Los Angeles. They earned their Bachelor of Arts and Science degree in Computer Science and Art Practice from Stanford University in 2022 and their MFA from the Art Program at California Institute of the Arts in 2025. Join us for the opening reception on Saturday, August 23, from 5 to 8 p.m. The artist will be in attendance, with a DJ set by Cross. The exhibition will be on view from August 23 to October 4. For additional press inquiries or materials please contact Lu Chen at luchen@amphigallery.com. Image: Trying Not to Scratch, 2024. Oil on canvas, 60 × 96 in. (detail) Courtesy of the artist and AMPHI Gallery.