108121876

I was born and raised in the historic district of the city of Hong Kong, a city which earned international fame as one of the world’s leading financial capitals. It is also a place frequently described as a place where East meets West; reflecting the cultural mix of the territory's Chinese roots with the culture brought to it during its time as a British colony. I used to think that I would spend the rest of my life there, but a society of such material plenitude would eventually foster spiritual longings that could not be appeased by the mere accumulation of goods. In 2005, I decided to pursue my dreams and study fine arts in New York.Gestural, bravura oil painting has been considered to make manifest some inner expression. Drawing upon my Chinese cultural roots and past experience I seek to express myself and become the main essence of my work. All these give me new meanings and tools to arrive at an authentic expression. I would like to convey not just an external narrative, but also present internal meaning based on individual and personal life experience. There is not only painting, but also history, old memories and personal feelings.My recent work is an intuitive response to the commercial and material world, which was a reflection of my early office life in Hong Kong, a time when I was surrounded by all the emblems of money and felt compelled to respond to them. Ten years of mechanical, tiresome office duties and the culture of materialism made me tired of this lifestyle and its values and standards. Also, I deeply questioned the manner in which working women conform to social demands and styles, but hid their true selves. I feel this is very revealing of their insecurity. My work also examines women's reliance on material products to gain acceptance and success. From my work, I not only experience the art making process, but also contemporary contexts. I explore issues of modern day femininity and identity by enlarging their scale, and examining them as metaphors.The cartoon figure paintings evoke old memories of childhood. The difficult decade during which my parents were struggling for a living, and could not satisfy every desire of their child. My work combines the images of innocent characters with bold colors and moody feelings to contrast what I had never had, but wished to own. As time passed by, all these became memorable, and I began to collect cartoon products and images over several years, in order to fulfill my childhood fantasy, but after I actually had the money to buy these things, the pleasure and emotions previously associated with the idea of owning them evaporated.In my work, I'm constantly searching for the interior in the exterior, or the inner side in terms of outside, and to earn a better understanding from observation, like the conception of the infinity of space, which is forever endless.