Artist-IN-RESIDENCE
May 1-21, 2027
Janet Wang
Janet Wang is a visual artist and educator working within a traditional painting and drawing practice, integrated with sculptural installation practices and digital media. A second-generation settler of Chinese heritage, she is based in Vancouver, Canada, the unceded territories of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations.
Her work has been supported by the British Columbia Arts Council, Canada Council for the Arts, and the artist was named the RBC Emerging Artist through the Vancouver Art Gallery in 2024. The artist received her Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of British Columbia and her Master of Arts in Studio Practice from the University of Leeds in England. She is an Associate Professor and Assistant Dean, Foundation, at Emily Carr University of Art and Design.
Artist Statement
As a second-generation Chinese-Canadian settler, examining diasporic cultural identity and place-making have been central tenets of my artistic research. My work explores themes around the social patterns of public spaces, both the physical and the experiential, that form and inform identity. I pay homage to familiar motifs found in art history and popular culture, juxtaposing these frameworks with local and site-specific elements to draw the viewer in and to explore ideas around social systems.
My proposed project for Good Hart is to delve further into speculative, visual fiction, imagining a bustling, paradisal garden-like space, overseen by Guan Yin, the goddess of Mercy. I will hybridize a traditional Chinese garden with a medieval walled garden. While in residence, I will create studies from the local flora surrounding Good Hart to incorporate into an animated new work.
This work will be created through a process of detailed drawings, colour work with foraged inks, egg tempera and gouache, and animated through stop motion and digital compositing. My aim at Good Hart is to focus on creating the storyboard and drawn components for this new work.
