Lectures and Talks
Artist Talk: Janet Wang
Thu May 9, 2024 | 6 PM
Courtroom 302
Janet Wang, Courtesy of the Artist
Join us for an artist talk with Janet Wang, whose work is currently featured on the Hornby Street windows and doors as part of SPOTLIGHT: Janet Wang. She will discuss her studio practice and how it is shaped by the multiple identities that she occupies—including Chinese Canadian, artist parent and artist educator. Using visual storytelling and familiar frameworks drawn from art history, pop culture, gaming and interactive design, Wang’s current research focuses on the question, “What does it mean to be Chinese in Canada?”
This talk is free and open to the public. Registration is required.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Janet Wang is a visual artist and educator with a pluralistic practice encompassing traditional painting, installation work and digital media. A second-generation settler of Chinese heritage, she is based in Vancouver, BC, on the unceded territories of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of British Columbia and her Master of Arts in Studio Practice from the University of Leeds in England.
Her work explores the construction of identity through the appropriation and disruption of social patterns and familiar gestures. The artist pays homage to the canons and traditions of art history using the familiar as a meeting point with the viewer.
Wang’s installations have been exhibited with Truck Gallery (Calgary), Paved Arts, AKA Saskatoon and INC Hamilton, the City of Regina, and she has participated in residencies with ArtStarts, the Burnaby Art Council, Artists for Kids with the North Vancouver School District and Artscape Gibraltar Point. She has created public art projects for the City of Vancouver, Public Art Richmond, the City of New Westminster and CMHC Ottawa. Wang is represented by the Vancouver Art Gallery’s Art Rental & Sales Program.