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John Chang
My cultural identity, which was shaped in part by the period of time when I lived with my family in China in the 1980s, includes a deep sense of change. The nature of change as a way of being and living is at the forefront of my work.
In an effort to explore this relationship further, I have sought to focus on one aspect of change, that which occurs between word and image. I am especially interested in the ways in which language and image may change meaning, particularly in this age of digital media.
The theme of my work, then, is the relationship between language and its environment, an investigation into the ways and strategies for making and unmaking meaning at the intersection of word and image, the boon and poison of time and technology as they enhance or interfere with communication.
My work expresses my cultural milieu in a context of hope: from the beauty of traditional painting techniques to the search for meaning in digital media. By blending cultures, aesthetics, and media that are common to East and West, I am discovering an imagery that is uniquely my own.
Some of my work incorporates photo based images, many of which are scanned elements from my own previous paintings, while others are digitally manipulated pictures that I have taken or selected – sometimes using material from commercial designs.
The stark, bold graphic elements are layered onto the photo based image to create contrast, depth and sense of space. The movement, fluidity and very form of these shapes speak to me like musical notes.
Perhaps they have no real meaning, neither in the text nor the imagery but, perhaps also, just shapes and colors should stimulate and affect us without hidden content.
While a work is in progress I am constantly looking at the aesthetics- the materials, the beauty of the colors and of the composition. These are the true expressions of any underlying artistic concept.
I am constantly amazed by what pleases me aesthetically and by what not. I like to probe and test my own sense of beauty and also the traditional attitudes regarding it. Ambiguity-sensory or intellectual- also piques our interest.
Like most artists I draw from my daily experiences in order to express myself on canvas. I look also to pop culture of which we are part whether we like it or not, and to mass media which bombard our lives daily with information. In the end, my purpose is to bring all these elements and influences together to be captured into the language through which I speak- that of my art.
Originally, my art was representational with variations on the human form.
In recent years, I've moved away from complex, structural detail toward
line and form, away from the concrete and toward the abstract. It is the decoding characters, ambiguously interweaving figures and field, which compels me.
Minimalist artists - such as Jackson Pollock, William De Kooning, Franz
Kline, Frank Stella and Rorbert Simthson - inspire me.
As I work, I blend and unify Eastern and Western influences and techniques.
Chinese ink painting and history are combined with Western abstraction and collage. My compositions use abstracted human forms that are Western in appearance, but created with the brushes, papers, textures, and brush strokes traditional to the Far East.
John Chang's work has been shown in numerous Group and Solo Shows throughout the country and have been acquired by private and commercial collectors
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* None of the artworks may be copied or reproduced without the written permission of the Artist