Ketty Haolin Zhang is an emerging visual artist, working mostly in painting and mixed-media sculptures. Born and raised in a small city called Chaoyang in Northeast China, she is a 1.5-generation immigrant, having moved to Canada at age 14 with her parents. Informed by her diasporic experience, her art practice navigates her relationship with placelessness, liminality and (non)belonging in a hyper-globalized world. She is interested in creating works that embody both closeness and distance – the simultaneous desire to belong and to resist being defined. Her most recent works include a series of nightlife paintings, and experimentations with small resin sculptures made with found objects that are tied to immigrant identity, family history, spirituality, class and labour.
***
Which ’hood are you in?
My studio is in Vancouver’s Chinatown!
What do you do?
I’m an interdisciplinary artist and a cultural worker, doing communications and development work for local arts organizations.
What are you currently working on?
I’m spending as much time as I can in the studio right now, sharping my visual language as I continue to work on my current series of nightlife paintings. I’m trying to find the perfect balance between figurative and abstract, truth and imagination, one that makes me happy. Project wise, I’m working on an indoor mural commission in Chinatown that’s scheduled to be completed in the next couple of months.
Where can we find your work?
Instagram | Website | TAS Vancouver
