Dominique Fung at Nicodim Gallery

From Lindsay Preston Zappas, KCRW’s Art Insider:

“Dominique Fung’s exhibition at Nicodim was a particular joy after long weeks of viewing art digitally. Her paintings are an uncanny blend of figuration, abstraction, and surrealist objects that merge together in harmonious locomotion across the canvas.

Disembodied limbs — animal and human — merge with teapots that are decorated with traditional Chinese embellishments. Her dense compositions create scenes that feel dream-like in their storytelling. They are rooted in reality, but acted out in a subconscious hallucination.

Fung was raised in Ottawa, Canada, to first-generation parents from Shanghai and Hong Kong. Her childhood was a blend of cultural impressions, speaking Cantonese at home and English at school. The gallery’s press release describes that “her early artistic passions were informed by Vermeer, Manet, Rembrandt, and Goya, but her sense of Chinese heritage was largely informed by vessels and objects she saw at home and on display in the Asian art section during visits to the Met in New York.”

After viewing the Asian art section at the Met, Fung realized that her own understanding of Chinese heritage was built through a Western lens too.

Here Fung’s paintings delve deep into her psyche, unpacking her own understanding and associations with Chinese cultural artifacts. Earlier this year, Fung told “Juxtapoz” that the “artifacts, vessels and sculptures are animate protagonists in my paintings, whereas historically, these objects have been seen as cultural tropes.” “