artist bio
Fiona Tang is a Vancouver-based artist who completed her BFA at Emily Carr University in May 2014 with a Drawing Major. She currently has a working studio in New Westminster at 100 Braid St Art Studios and Gallery. Tang often works with charcoal, chalk pastel and acrylic in the style of trompe l’oeil. She frequently uses animals as her subjects and creates big expressive and energetic drawings. Her animal drawings are typically life-size or larger to emphasize the interaction of viewers to her art. Tang has had group shows at the Concourse Gallery, Ayden Gallery, Richmond Art Gallery, The Fall, Anvil Centre, Wood Innovation and Design Centre, Vancouver Lipont Art Centre, dual shows at Queen Elizabeth Theatre, Gryphon Musée, and Deer Lake Gallery, and solo shows at Queen's Park Gallery and City Centre Community Centre. She was also featured in a public art project called “No. 3 Road Art Columns” in Richmond, BC and “Utility Box Art Wrap” in Vancouver, BC.
artist statement
Through my large scale drawings, my hope is to minimize the distance between humans and animals. I want the viewers to engage with my work emotionally and physically and to be overwhelmed with a sense of vulnerability and wonder by the sheer size. Through interacting with these animals, the audience is made aware of their existence and I hope to reverse the passive relationship between the viewer and artwork. The subjects are chosen with a strong urge to translate them onto paper and usually reflect what I am experiencing in my personal life at the time of execution. The animals help to represent abstracted forms of battles, struggles, or successes in my life. I retain the raw beauty in their forms, the energy, and the story behind the animal to my fullest capability through research. My subject and I truly become one through the act of drawing and my feelings are translated through the intense gestural mark makings and the use of trompe l'oeil.
