Ebony Soy is an illustrative storyteller based in Van Nuys. She has created art for Kwento Comics and is the author of the graphic novel series \u201cMaloles.\u201d Previously having her work only presented in multiple collaborative exhibitions, she now has a solo art exhibition.<\/p>\n
In collaboration with the Downtown Fullerton Art Walk, Comic Book Hideout is presenting Soy\u2019s first solo exhibition until Jan. 30 entitled \u201cSpirits Beside Us.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cSpirits Beside Us\u201d introduces audiences to 12 horror stories \u2014 eight of which depict women who stand in alignment with their connecting spirits. This alignment is shown through the form of the spirit and the color of the artwork. The remaining four pieces introduce viewers to the Shrimp Paste Gals \u2014 undead figures that are driven by hunger, chaos and reclamation.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cOn a personal level, this exhibition is deeply intimate,\u201d Soy wrote in a message to the Daily Titan. \u201cIt reflects how I see ancestry, memory, and consequence as things we carry with us every day, shaping how we think and who we become.\u201d<\/p>\n
Being influenced by Filipino culture and precolonial belief systems, the works are rooted in Soy\u2019s stories. Using color to tell each pieces\u2019 story helped her to define what they represent.<\/p>\n
The color red is meant to represent the underworld, which ties four of the pieces to ancestry, vengeance and transformation. Green is the color of the middleworld \u2014 the realm of humans and nature. These four help to represent fertility and balance while also warning the viewer about how the harmony of nature can be broken.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The pieces using the color yellow represent the Shrimp Paste Gals. Soy explains that while yellow usually is tied to joy and happiness, the color in the works depicts rot disguised as the hue\u2019s normal meaning.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAs aswangs, they reclaim power by consuming corrupted spiritual masters, turning stolen knowledge into fuel for justice,\u201d Soy wrote.<\/p>\n
Soy was first introduced to Comic Book Hideout in March 2025 through a group art exhibit titled \u201cViva la Femme.\u201d Later the same year, she debuted her first illustrative book at the store. During the event, she started conversations with the store about the possibility of a solo exhibition. \u00a0<\/p>\n
Mark \u201cFunky\u201d Garcia is the manager of Comic Book Hideout and the curator for the Fullerton Art Walk. He tries to rotate exhibitions every month to give new artists a platform to share their creations. What drew him into working with Soy was the amount of detail she puts into each piece.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI find her work really, really in-depth, especially when you take the moment to read the passages that go with the artwork,\u201d Garcia said. \u201cThe mythology book she did came out\u2026 she had that complete that October. That kind of showed me a lot of what this exhibit was going to look like.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Soy wants viewers to approach the pieces in the exhibition with an open mind toward the deeper meaning of the pieces and the idea explaining the world is more layered than what is presented on the surface.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201c\u2018Spirits Beside Us\u2019 asks people to consider how memory, consequence, and belief move alongside us, even when we choose not to acknowledge them,\u201d Soy wrote. \u201cWhether interpreted spiritually, culturally, or metaphorically, the work invites viewers to reflect on what shapes their actions and values. Nothing stands beside us without reason.\u201d<\/p>\n
With the success of \u201cSpirits Beside Us,\u201d Soy is hoping to do more solo exhibitions in the future, striving to create immersive, narrative-driven installations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ebony Soy is an illustrative storyteller based in Van Nuys. She has created art for Kwento Comics and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":150710,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,165,164,2308,4437,3799,2628,45210],"class_list":["post-150709","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news","tag-art","tag-exhibit","tag-filipino","tag-fullerton","tag-horror"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150709","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=150709"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150709\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/150710"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=150709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=150709"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=150709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}