Kappi (Crab), 2017
Gouache on paper
29 x 23 inches
Courtesy the artist and Sarah Shepard Gallery
Kappi (Crab) is part of Charlene Tan’s Research and Remembering series, in which she deconstructs and reconstructs patterns from indigenous weaving traditions of the Philippines, inspired by the tribal weavings of her grandmother. “By learning a cultural language lost to me,” Tan explains, “I found this work to be about rediscovering and decolonizing my identity as a person of an immigrant diaspora.” Tan uses found images of patterns, alters their size and color, and uses a vast range of mediums to create her own compelling weavings and works on paper.
Exhibition History and Collections: Tan is represented by Sarah Shepard Gallery, Larkspur, CA. She has been selected for Bay Area Now 9, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts’s prestigious triennial, on view October 6, 2023 – May 5, 2024. In September 2023, Tan will be included in Season II: A Group Exhibition with Chopsticks Alley at the Triton Museum of Art, Santa Clara, CA. Tan’s work has also been included in solo and group exhibitions at the Asian Art Museum, San Francisco, CA; the San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art, San Jose, CA; The Museum of Craft & Design, San Francisco, CA; Marin Headlands Center for the Arts, Sausalito, CA; Fragmentin for the Binomial Project, Lausanne, Switzerland; Intersection for the Arts, San Francisco, CA; Ampersand International Arts, San Francisco, CA; and Blank Space Gallery, Oakland, CA. Her work is held in numerous private collections and museums internationally.
Credentials: Charlene received a BA from the San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA, and is currently a visiting artist at Minnesota Street Project studios, San Francisco, CA.
@char.art.tan
