Portal To The Pond
16.75” x 22.5”
gouache on linen with steel frame
2020
same problem my father had and what he dreamed
52” x 44”
mixed media on canvas
2020
Yan Wen Chang (b. 1993) spent her life between Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and Singapore before moving to Toronto, Canada, alone, at the age of 17.
In 2014, Chang was Governor General’s Award-winning Artist and Writer Robert Fones’ studio assistant for his solo show at Olga Korper Gallery, Toronto. She continued to assist him for his Retrospective Show at Museum London in 2017, and returned to assist him for his 2019 solo show Notes / Sutterlin Works / Contes en Trompe-l'oeil at Olga Korper Gallery. Chang has been tremendously influenced by Fones' painting practice.
Chang has been residing in Toronto's Parkdale neighbourhood for ten years. The neighbourhood is home to many individuals who live in precarity, who struggle with mental health and addiction issues. The texts that appear in Chang’s paintings are extracted from signage of the Parkdale community meeting spots, tattoos on the bodies of her peers, letters that she finds on the street, and slogans on AA posters.
Chang was recently the recipient of the Emerging Artist Visual Art grant from the Toronto Arts Council for her first solo show The Life of Vanda Miss Joaquim at Pushmi Pullyu, Toronto, Canada. Chang graduated with a BFA in Drawing and Painting at the Ontario College of Arts and Design University and currently an MFA candidate at the University of Guelph’s School of Fine Art and Music Studio Art program.