Fiona (Fangzhong) Xu

Computer Science major, Art History minor

I am an oil painter that works from sensual experiences, from touch, sight, the crumbing of ancient walls, the dance of sun on a moving river. I am drawn to movement, tension and growth – to embodying aliveness in stillness and silence.

Painting is a counterweight against my studies and work in technology. I balance painting with my work in technology. My paintings seek to balance humanity in the age of artificiality, slowness in the era of optimization. I paint to convey what is real and to resist the increasingly

synthetic built environment that we live in. I use painting to communicate emotions and energies that go beyond spoken language by using color, rhythms, volumes and textures as language.

On my canvases, forces leave their signatures. The hand's pressure in a stroke, gravity in a drip, pigments moving into one another combining to form an orchestration of part intention, part surrender. What remains is a record of that conversation.

Flows

oil on canvas

Jewett Hallway Galleries

Collage Painting

oil on canvas

Jewett Sculpture Court

These paintings are about the process of transformation and connection. Lines, shapes, lights, shadows, dabs, drips, spreads of paint revealed or covered come together and converge into this landscape of movements. Flows is a part of a duo project with the first piece a same sized realistic painting of an enlarged 5.3cm * 8.4cm collage, the second piece responding to the first, flipping the composition vertically.

to see more work by Fiona: @fionaxu.artstuff

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