Julian Wong

STATEMENT

I create art that reflects and comments on the world around me. The immediacy of the mediums of watercolor and acrylic appeal to the gestural nature of my process and, in the tradition of Chinese calligraphy, I employ the elemental process of brush on paper or canvas, both small and large, for its rapid translation.

My subjects and inspirations are from my immediate surroundings. The simple process: I gather the medium and use it as visual references. These subjects are props for creating a harmonic score of a world of my own imagining, perhaps suggesting the abstract expressionist tradition.
Currently, I am working on a set of large abstract landscapes based on, for me, the newly discovered Detroit Riverfront. Integrating industrial structures—antique factory sites, obsolete machinery -- into the rapidly changing, watery atmosphere and topographic contours, allows for an exploration and new experience of color and gesture.