March 4 to 15, 2015
Usual Suspects
An exhibition by Kim Chan
Exhibition runs from March 4 to 15, 2015
Opening reception on Sat, 7 March (3-6 pm), 2015
The Usual Suspects represents a body of work that I did on and off in the last five years. The portraits are snapshots of emotions. The images came from photos and movies and are often combinations of facial components from different people. My goal is to go beyond the photographic likeness of the faces, and explore the possibilities of different facial expressions. The subjects are isolated against plain backgrounds, with little information of particular locations, surrounding environments, precipitating events, or interactions with others. Each face the distillation of observations from looking closely the movement of each facial components. The angle of the head, the eyes, the lips are all clues to complex psychological narratives even when the faces are distorted by face painting or obscured from view. It's a recorded moment, a emotional state finding tangible representation in a painted canvas.
Kim Chan was born in Hong Kong, and has been living in Canada since 1975. She worked as a professional photographer for many years before turning her interest to painting. Her work has been shown in many galleries locally and internationally. She lives and works in Toronto.
