Huan Chen Wins 2023 Akimbo “Let’s Talk About Me for a Minute!” Award

Huan Chen, 2023

This year’s winner of the Akimbo “Let’s Talk About Me for a Minute!” Award is Huan Chen, a Chinese-Canadian artist specializing in figural and landscape painting.

The annual Akimbo “Let’s Talk About Me for a Minute!” Award recognizes excellence in Studio Art for an artist graduating from Art and Art History @artandarthistory at Sheridan and the University of Toronto Mississauga.

Huan Chen is currently exploring two different, yet parallel, areas of interest with her paintings.

The first theme is the disappearance of cultural relics brought by ill-considered urban development. The Hutong series aims to tell stories of the traditional courtyards and alleyways in Beijing and to reflect on their fast disappearance through China’s economic growth in the past decades. This series stresses on the important historical, cultural and humanistic values of the hutongs, and criticizes the destructive, dehumanizing and degrading aspects of the so-called “progress.” Being born in Beijing and having growing up in a hutong, Chen sees these works as charting her personal growth. She says, “Using poetic metaphors such as willow tree leaves for parting and sprouts from dead tree trunks for rebirth, I wish to record my heritage, identity and emotions, and reflect on the psychological impact of the transformed cityscape.”

The second area of interest touches on the preservation of nature by combining figures and landscape. The portrayal of the two subjects together investigates the intimate communication between human bodies and our surroundings. The multifaceted relationship can be either harmonious, mysterious, dangerous, or confrontational, but always powerful and transitory.

Chen says in her artist statement, “It is my intention to engage the viewer to reflect on the complexity of nature as well as the consequences of our actions. Before my art career I was trained as a chemical engineer and conducted environmental research through which I came to understand the difficulty of mitigating the effects of climate change. With my portrayal of ordinary people in natural settings, I wish to help viewers to not only to feel the connections but also to reflect on the risks and dangers we could face if we do not act.”

“My production process involves both the planned and spontaneous. When I was young, I studied calligraphy and Chinese ink painting through which I developed an admiration for their bold abstraction and spontaneous energy. To incorporate these elements, I start by priming the surface with a pale warm color to imitate Chinese paper and then pour a large amount of thin water-soluble oil paints on a flat canvas. Like in a splashed ink painting the shapes of the blotches form part of my composition which I let my intuition and imagination lead the process most of the time. There is a great deal of dialogue between me and the canvas which involves thin and thick paints, variation of brushworks, smudging, scratching, and trial and error. This process adds energy, spontaneity, expressiveness, and a sense of adventure that are important in capturing the vulnerability, complexity, and the transitory aspect of my works.”

The award was presented to Huan Chen at the Art and Art History Program Awards Gala on Tuesday, November 7, 2023.

Art and Art History is a joint program between Sheridan College Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning, and the University of Toronto Mississauga. It combines the study of art history at UTM with studio art courses at Sheridan.