My paintings are mentioned in a review of the group exhibition at the Surrey Art Gallery, Scenes of Selves, Occasions for Ruses. The review, by Robin Laurence, is in the September 27, 2012 edition of The Georgia Straight.
Laurence writes, “Hung uses both personal snapshots and art-historical portraiture as source material for small, highly realistic oil paintings of herself, which she renders with exquisite facility. Some of these portraits, such as She wanted to do more than just pass…, are allegorical and clearly modelled on art-historical precedents (in this case, Raphael’s Portrait of a Young Woman With Unicorn). Others, such as Self-Portrait (The Past Five Years), explore the ways that contemporary lives are densely documented by incidental photographs.
Part of what’s interesting in Hung’s imagery is the tension between the incidental and the labour-intensive, the ephemeral and the lasting. In fact, that existential tension occurs in most of the self-portraits in Scenes of Selves. Eventually, death will take us all out—and time will pretty much obliterate whatever means we choose to represent ourselves.”
The review, in its entirety, can be read on The Georgia Straight’s website here. Or click the image below for a larger scan of the paper.
