Victor Wang, emotional tension and psychological drama

The human figures in my paintings serve as vehicles to convey the human experience, representing the emotional tension and psychological drama of life’s turning points. The blend of luminous color and buttery texture evoke the enigmatic environment where these moments of meditation originate. I have interwoven the sunflower, a prominent symbol throughout my life embodying both sorrow and joy, into my paintings. Incorporating the collaged images from China’s Tang Dynasty simultaneously acts as background and creates the signature of my heritage.

I am influenced by the exaggerated way Auguste Rodin uses clay to modelfigures. Sculpture is different from painting, with the expression and body language in the muscles, the form, you can really associate how inner emotion relates to the surface. So I have tried to treat my colors as clay rather than paint. I build up and model the form on canvas. The thickness of the paint evokes a sculptural and multi-level quality of my works.
Victor Wang
Nov 16, 2010