Michelle Kuen Suet Fung
Vancouver 49° 15' 39.14" N, 123° 6' 50.23" W Arts Visual Arts Person
Michelle Kuen Suet FUNG 馮捲雪 sees herself belong to a generation of young Westernized Hong Kong artists who work in the Pop Surrealist genre. Fung draws on references from popular subcultures such as fairy tales, children’s picture books and the Otaku (a Japanese term that refers to socially awkward introverts obsessed with the fantasy world of Anime and Manga.) Like many Otakus, the artist has a deep bond with her childhood memories.
At the beginning of her life, the artist’s parents thought the little girl would grow up to be an actor. When the toddler began her mural projects in the living room, a suspicion began to bud—this little person may have a different calling. Indeed, Fung has never ceased to make art since then.
Currently, Fung continues to work on her well-loved Into the Woods ink and colour pencil drawings where the trees—roots and branches and all—float in a void space much like the way jellyfish drift in the ocean. This popular series has been made into T-shirts due to overwhelming requests after the artist’s studio grand opening in November 2011.
She has recently finished a body of 26 oil and ink paintings on wood I Don’t Know if You Know How Much I Love You where she flirts with the primal obsessions signified by the various animal motifs in the image (lizard in L for Loss, octopus in O for On My Own…) and the romantic sensitivity represented by the delicate-looking young girls in the context of an “English alphabet picture book” which may not be so suitable for children. The entire body of works is scheduled to be exhibited in Beijing in early 2012.
The artist’s upcoming exhibition includes Art Edition in Seoul, Korea and group Christmas exhibition at hi art store in Beijing, China, and recent exhibitions includes Asia Top Gallery Hotel Air Fair at Hyatt Hotel in Hong Kong, 2010 and By Land, Sea and Air at Compound Gallery in Portland, Oregon, USA, 2010. The artist’s practice has been featured in the media numerous times. Her works are in international private collections, and The Canada Council Art Bank.