Zang Zong-Son's Search for Light in the Mundane
Zang Zong-Son's (b. 1965, South Korea) works depict trivial moments of daily life through simple yet meticulous use of paint, color, and composition. Her painting process starts from direct observation in nature or in the still life that she sets up in her studio.
Zang’s creative process, in a way, is to search for light, in both a literal and metaphorical manner.
As a perceptual painter, Zang Zong-Son observes daily life scenes, objects, and people in her neighborhood to decipher and translate such symbols and motifs into an artistic language. She believes that ordinary yet beautiful life events, such as mundane objects or close friends, radiate a unique aura and luminescence that can be translated into paint. Thus, Zang's abstract landscape paintings and portrait works encapsulate the history of such landscapes and her emotional and physical responses to them.
To Zang, her abstract painting is a form of freedom, allowing her to deconstruct and reinterpret what and how she perceives. The way she improvizes during the painting process can be easily seen from the spontaneous exchanges between the subject, the work surface, and herself.
Zang's paintings are often inspired by ordinary places in Hong Kong, many during the pandemic times. The artist embarks on a visual journey to the hidden gems of Hong Kong that she has discovered, sharing beautiful moments of nature and life with the audience.
Artist Biography
Zang Zong-Son (b. 1965, South Korea) graduated from Yonsei University and lived in London, Singapore, and Seoul. Based in Hong Kong since 2004, Zang’s nomadic way of living ignited a yearning for a sense of belonging, which she found in the world of painting. In 2007, she started to explore the medium of painting through overseas painting workshops in Europe and the United States. As a perceptual painter, she observes daily life scenes and translates them into abstract still-life paintings.
