Winfield Gallery, Carmel-by-the-Sea, CA October 20-November 20
There is something intrinsically beautiful and profound about the narratives that take shape in California artist Warren Chang’s compositions. The paintings depict contemporary views of Monterey area fieldworkers who play an important—yet often overlooked—role of the underpinnings of everyday life. Chang explains that the works are honest and unidealized interpretations that allow the viewer to see the farmers as they live their lives.
The artist, who has a background in illustration, says the ideas behind his art are influenced by two masters: French painter Jean-François Millet and author John Steinbeck. Millet’s paintings were rural scenes of everyday life in the mid-1800s, while Steinbeck captured the atmosphere of the Monterey region, where he lived and worked, in novels such as The Grapes of Wrath. How the two approached their art, as creatives of their times, is important to understanding Chang’s paintings.
“I consider myself a history painter,” Chang says, “but it’s a contemporary history and will become historical over time.” He adds, “I am painting real people who are in the West, but they happen to be farmworkers.”
Chang also has found inspiration in the techniques of the Old Masters. In particular, he developed his own limited palette that is similar to what artists like Rembrandt and Velazquez did for their paintings. “I used to live in New York City—I was there for 10 years—and when I moved back to California, I was bombarded by the color,” he explains. “I gravitated toward tonalism; it’s somber and very neutral in the grays and browns. It has become almost like a calling card that makes my work separate from that of other artists.”
Not wanting to be influenced by real-world colors, Chang works from black-and-white photographs to freely interpret the scene in his palette. To avoid the paintings looking like a photograph, he also takes liberties to change the composition or add other references. A person could vaguely appear in the background of one photo and become the star of another.
October 20 to November 20, Chang will exhibit more than a dozen large paintings and studies at Winfield Gallery for the show Warren Chang: Portraits of Humanity. One of the signature works is INVISIBLE PEOPLE, which takes its name from the book Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison. Chang had the idea for the composition for several years before it finally came to fruition. “I hired a family to pose for me to create the painting. Initially, I abandoned the whole thing because it wasn’t working,” recalls the artist. “Years later I revisited it and it worked better. I was able to realize the painting and it’s a key work to this show.”
Keeping with the portrait theme, Chang will have one of his lesser-seen sketches on view with WORKER IN PROFILE (HEAD STUDY) as well as several other oil studies that range in levels of completion.
contact information(831) 624-3369winfieldgallery.com
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