Chang’s immigration to Toronto alone at the age of 17 influences the creation of her continuous and ever-changing self-portrait. This portrait is compelling and iconic, one made up of symbolism relating to the ‘American Dream’. Chang’s fascinations lie in the many dualities that make up her version of this dream; the hopefulness, the disillusionment, the pride, the desperation, the truths, and the fallacies. Her portraits rely on these contradictions, parsing the many factors that make up her experience of immigration within the complex matrix of North American culture.

With a minimal colour palette and a graphic intensity, the self speaks to you – the rear-view mirror with its piercing eyes, the pretty bows, the five-pointed star, the cash, the glory, the sinister – the self is both beautiful and gritty.

 

BFA, Ontario College of Art and Design, Toronto

MFA, University of Guelph, Guelph

 
Selected Solo Exhibitions

Nympho, A.D. NYC, New York

Odile’s Notorious Magnum Opus Of Thirty-Two Fouettés, Susan Hobbs Gallery, Toronto

   about the exhibition

same problem my father had and what he dreamed, Hamilton Artist's Inc., Hamilton

Four Hollywood Paintings, X in Residency, Toronto

A. Dream, General Hardware, Toronto

The Life of Vanda Miss Joaquim, Pushmi Pullyu, Toronto

Selected Group Exhibitions

what worked for me I never paid into, what I worked at never paid off, Hearth, Toronto

PEOPLE PERSON, Upstairs, Toronto

Auto Dealer Dream: Yan Wen Chang and Andrew Harding, Weatherproof, Chicago

1,300,000,000 - 4,000,000,000, Hawkins Headquarters, Atlanta

Unreliable Narrator, A.D. NYC, New York

Piers, UVic Legacy Gallery, Victoria

The size of a credit card, the plumb, Toronto

Temporary Collection 2022, Ed Video, Guelph

hollywood: Yan Wen Chang, Sam Cherof, Robbie McDonald, A.D. NYC, New York

The Bald Eagle’s Claw, Xpace Cultural Centre, Toronto

Come Up To My Room (CUTMR), in collaboration with Sister Co-Resister and Pamila Matharu, The Gladstone Hotel, Toronto

I was categorical, and so, defiant, AKA Artist Run Centre, Saskatoon            

No creature can learn that which his heart has no shape to hold, Wil Kucey Gallery, Toronto

What Would the Community Think?, Xpace Cultural Centre, Toronto

Fresh Paint/New Construction, Art Mûr, Montreal