Exhibition Closing
Warren Chang: In the Artist’s Studio
January 31-April 14, 2019
Warren Chang’s studio (detail), Courtesy of the artist
New Museum Los Gatos (NUMU) is pleased to feature artist Warren Chang in the In the Artist’s Studio exhibition series from January 31 through April 14, 2019 in the Mike and Alyce Parsons Reception Area. The exhibition presents an introduction to Chang’s work, and creative process. Visitors will see the Artist’s sketchbooks, art making tools, personal items, and photographs of his private studio space, which is rarely open to the public. Chang will also conduct an informal presentation and demonstration of his artmaking process at NUMU on Saturday, April 13, from 2-3pm.
Monterey Bay Area artist Warren Chang’s arresting narrative paintings of farmworkers are deeply rooted in ordinary life and in the specific observations of his surroundings. This approach may rest uneasily within contemporary art trends, yet it confirms Chang’s work as authentic to the scope of life in the Salinas Valley and on the Monterey Peninsula where he was born, works, and lives. Chang embraced the daily lives of farmworkers as his theme long before the current political environment generated a renewed awareness of such issues. In this, he is both a descendent and comrade of a line of nineteenth and early twentieth century artists who joined social concerns to their creative endeavors, and so doing, redirected the trajectory of Western art. The clear-eyed, unsentimental honesty and elemental regard Chang imparts to his subjects reflects this lineage, and is both rare and newly relevant. He draws attention to these all too often overlooked lives, and reveals their heroism and value with understanding and grace.
