b. fuzhou, china 1995
based in cambridge, ma
jonfeng801[at]gmail[dot]com
statement:
I make paintings that explore class dynamics and personal experiences, treating my practice like a visual diary. As a self-taught artist, I move between styles and approaches based on what each subject demands, pushing paint around until I find marks that mimic real-life phenomena and carry deeper meanings.
My background as an immigrant and frontline museum worker shapes how I think about labor, class, and accessibility in my work. I use various materials - paint, modeling paste, and sometimes my own blood - to create surfaces that transform private struggles into formal discoveries. My titles often incorporate institutional language ironically, highlighting how language itself can reinforce class barriers.
Whether I'm making abstract pieces or representational paintings, I'm interested in making visible what often goes unseen. Through this process of recording and transforming personal observations, I aim to create work that provokes rather than just pleases. The resulting paintings maintain the tension between revelation and concealment, the mindful and the primal, and personal and universal.