Rooted in my six-generation migrant ethnic minority legacy, my art practice captures moments that are deeply personal, yet based on universal transcendent concepts like destiny and existentialism. Notions of identity (cultural, social, personal), belonging and acceptance (or lack of it), social discrepancy and cultural detritus — are common threads trickling through my work. What defines us? Is it our race, genes, culture, social background, language we speak, status, education, is it people and relationships that shape us; And which are dominant factors? Under the lens of my painting practice, I actively explore these questions.
I portray spaces, figures and objects in a realist style and inject elements that are out-of-place — all to spotlight ideas of not belonging, internal conflict and oddity. This subtle obscurity of “in-between” is woven throughout and brought to life via polarizing bizarre objects that can be meticulously rendered or left unfinished, emphasized compositionally, via color and/or conceptually. My protagonist might be a figure, an object or environment that my subjects are set in, all revolving around the core theme of transient social identities and peripheral state of being. My emblematic narratives are often sad and whimsical, yet highlighted by saturated and contemporary hues.