CONTEMPORARY ART IN CONTEXT HAZEL ANG CONTEMPORARY PAINTER AND ILLUSTRATOR Realism, Fantasy, and Narrative H azel Ang creates narrative paintings, drawings, and illustrations that combine elements of surrealism, photo-realism, fantasy, and portraiture inspired by her personal beliefs, experiences, and background. Her art explores, as she explains, the “surreal reflections rooted in the natural world with hopes of conveying the essence of our existence.” Her work is inspired by folklore—especially stories of archetypal strong women, personal stories, and the natural world, including flora and fauna. Ang attributes many of her inspirations to her “twelve-year-old alter ego who believes in magic, alchemy, and animism,” and who seeks to present positive images out of subjects considered sinister. She uses her lush surroundings in Munich as references for many of her depictions of flora. Nature Symbolized Ang’s work Lady M (see centerspread) was inspired by memories of her great-grandmother and grandmother: “ Lady M is how I remember one particular great-grandmother of mine. She had the most beautiful eyes with just a spark of mischief behind them. As a child, I was in awe of her because she always had an air of regality (even when she was alone). She wore the most beautiful qipao and had tiny lotus feet. As for the flowers and citrus fruit (kumquats) on her crown, these were her daughter’s (my ama) favorite fruit, so there was often a bowl of it in her home kitchen, and I used to eat more than my share. In the end, the piece turned out to be an homage to the both of them.” Ivan Tsarevich with Firebird (see centerspread) was inspired by an east Slavic folktale that had been adapted in Russia. Both works reflect the artist’s research into how nature is symbolized in different cultures. Art History: Surrealism and Photo-Realism In the early 1900s, Surrealist artists such as Salvador Dalí (1904–1989) and René Magritte (1898–1967) combined photo-realist imagery with extremely personal, magical, or mystical fantasy. Photo-realism emerged as a reaction to Abstract Expressionism and Minimalism in the 1960s. Personal reference or narrative in photo-realism can be traced to artists such as Audrey Flack (b. 1931), whose paintings are both personal and reflective of the Feminist Art Movement which ele-vated personal beliefs and experiences as fine art subject matter. Ang’s work reflects a similar aesthetic to Ellen Lanyon (1926–2013), who was among the earliest to use photo-realistic imagery combined in a Sur-realistic manner. About the Artist A Canadian of Filipino and Chinese heritage, Ang studied art in Toronto, then worked as a graphic designer for a decade in Munich, Germany. From 2015 and 2017, she lived in Lowell, Massachusetts, before returning to Munich. Ang has received an honorable mention from the Circle Foundation Artist of the Year Competition in 2018, and the People’s Choice Award from the Art League of Lowell in 2017. She is a curator of the annual exhibition Arcana, which draws its inspiration from tarot cards. Top: Contemporary painter and illustrator Hazel Ang. Bottom: Hazel Ang, Northern Pike , 2020. Images courtesy of the artist. SCHOOLARTS.COM 25
School Arts Magazine Summer 2021: Page 25
