For Zona Maco, The Artist Room presents five new paintings by London-based artist, Kristy M Chan.
Two of the works were produced on the Beecher Residency at the Stillman House in Connecticut (founded by collectors and patrons John Auerbach and Ed Tang) in November 2023, where Chan spent a solitary period in the iconic modernist house allowing her undisturbed time to focus on new paintings.
Dense snow fall, a flowing river and an abundance of books helped inform her process, with an emphasis on intuition in each physically intensive gesture. The stark weather conditions of winter in London and Connecticut informed her recent works, whose colours also reflect on the vibrancy of Mexico City. Chan’s latest works also allude to ongoing concerns surrounding migration and displacement which are key, formative investigations in her practice.
Utilising thick and thinned layers of oil paint and oil stick, chance, risk and erasure are essential in Chan’s careful process in resolving her painting’s final form. These layers are informed by natural inclinations dependent on her environment where an essence of ‘impurity’ within painting allows for a more free flowing hand: ‘Painting with intent’, she says, ‘without the intention of a goal.’
