The Spirited Paintings of Kristy Chan
Kristy Chan’s (b. 1997, HK) kaleidoscopic paintings are influenced by her experience of living between Hong Kong and London. Reconciling Eastern and Western cultures, Chan navigates narratives of migration and displacement on her transformative canvases. Using oil and oil-stick to build up densely layered, jewel-toned works, Chan expresses the dissonant and dynamic experiences of moving between differing cultural geographies. The visual and sensory abundance of her work is created by the artist’s gestural strokes and explosive use of colour. Synthesising emotions such as the nostalgia of homecoming, the exhilaration of ephemerality, and joie de vivre, Chan’s paintings transcend boundaries to strike the chord of universal relevance.
Chan received her BFA from Slade School of Fine Art in 2019 and her MA from Sotheby’s Institute of Art in 2020. Selected recent group exhibitions include Binge, The Artist Room and Simon Lee Gallery, London (2022); New Romantics, Lee Eugean Gallery, Seoul (2022); The Sky Above the Roof, Tabula Rasa, Beijing (2022); Femme-Ate, Soho Revue, London (2021); Space Shuffler, HART HAUS, Hong Kong (2021); Lichtspiele Des Westen, Leipzig (2020); Big Soft Illusion, Alte Handelsschule, Leipzig (2020); Cookhouse Gallery, Chelsea College of Arts, London (2019); and Haam4 Seoi2 Goeng1, Hong Kong Visual Art Centre, Hong Kong (2019). Recent residencies include PILOTENKUECHE, Leipzig (2020) and AiR Frosterus, Finland (2019). In 2022, Chan will receive residences at Del Arco Collection, Berlin and The Cabin, Los Angeles. Chan’s work resides in prominent institutional collections such as Yan Lan Art Foundation, Beijing; and X Museum, Beijing. Her work is currently on view at Kwai Fung Hin gallery, Hong Kong, as part of the exhibition Lightness of Being curated by Claudia Cheng.
Tell me about your background. What drove you to become an artist?
As a painter, I can’t quite imagine not painting once I was introduced to it.
I didn’t grow up around art but was fascinated by anything visually stimulating. My parents are in the events industry and they often took me to set-ups and let me play on the massive control boards for stage lighting. At around 8 or 9, I was introduced to floral arrangement and was a student of Masao Mizukami till I was 16.
I then went to a boarding school in the UK for A-Levels. I really disliked how the school operated and saw the art department as a sanctuary, somewhere to escape to, and I’d try to spend most of my waking hours there. I felt content and understood as long as I was there painting. That’s probably when I wanted to find a way to make painting a full-time gig.
Describe your work in three words.
Autobiographical, spontaneous and spirited.
Kristy Chan, What we do in the shadows, 2023. Oil and pigment on linen.
Where do you draw your inspiration from?
Everyday life, things I see, experience, hear, books I read, shows I binge watch, people I enjoy being around and things I do with them. It’s sort of a tribute to the wonders of being alive, ups and downs.
Can you describe your creative process?
I try to stay well fed and well rested, never rushing into painting, but also allowing space for spontaneous decisions with my practice.
I often start with a title. I have a list of titles on my phone that I add to while I’m outside doing things. They act as concept sketches. I’d draw lines with my fingers on random surfaces and it’d click in my head that it could be a pattern that relates to what the title means to me. I’d start with darks then build to the lights, often considering shadows and negative space, repeat that a few times. Sometimes it looks right, sometimes I get frustrated and bin it. It’s all about trial and error and spending time with the painting, figuring out the relationship between myself and each piece.
What is your approach to colour?
To be honest, I just pick whatever I have to hand. Whatever feels right. Sometimes I plan to make a painting with a specific colour in mind simply because I’ve been seeing it around me a lot. It’s how certain colours make me relate to specific emotions. A comparison I often use is a scene in Ratatouille, when Remy was at the bins with Emile, and different colours of fireworks were coming through as he pairs different foods together. The idea of synaesthesia fascinates me.
Kristy Chan, Where light goes to hide, 2023. Oil and pigment on linen.
I’m thrilled that you created the works ‘Where light goes to hide (飛的)’ and ‘What we do in the shadows (影子裏偷歡)’ for the show Lightness of Being I curated for Kwai Fung Hin. What do these paintings mean to you?
I made those paintings in Hong Kong while I was home for Chinese New Year. Being there got me thinking about people’s impressions of Hong Kong, a sea of city lights, a city that never sleeps, a concrete jungle. I’ve had my fair share of late nights in the city and thought of how those nights are often spent indoors and getting to places in red cabs flying through silent streets. Then I thought of the experience of waiting for a cab, a sea of headlights zooming past you, suggested by the Cantonese title of Where light goes to hide 飛的. It’s about the experience of traveling, and that everyone in motion were lights going into hiding, all on their journey to indulge in the shadow, hence, What we do in the shadows. What we do in the shadows is also a brilliant mockumentary comedy show about vampires.
How has growing up in Hong Kong and now living in London shaped you as an artist?
It’s about being able to merge the two cultures, as well as celebrating foreignness and working through that in daily living and in my own practice. It’s a reflection of globalisation and how I interact in different societies, and how I bring those nuances into painting.
Are there any artists who have especially inspired you?
Albert Oehlen, Charline von Heyl, Geng Xue, Elmgreen and Dragset, and my peers.
What are you working on next?
I’ve got a few things coming up in Europe and Asia but I’m most excited about a residency in Connecticut in late 2023 and a residency in Tokyo in 2024.