Oceana's Revenge

Born and raised in San Francisco, Kristen Liu-Wong attended Pratt Institute where she graduated with a BFA in Illustration. She has shown extensively in numerous galleries both domestically and abroad and in addition to her gallery practice, she has worked with an extensive range of clients on projects ranging from murals to editorial illustrations to clothing lines. Kristen now lives and works in Los Angeles.

Kristen’s work blends everyday occurrences from her life with abstracted nightmares and crude humor. Trained as an illustrator, she tries to tell a story with every piece she makes, developing a personal and slightly sinister narrative within each painting. Using vibrant colors, heavy patterning, and tight compositions, the work draws inspiration from a variety of sources including but not limited to American folk art, the cartoons she watched as a kid, Shunga, and her appreciation for architecture. She is always striving to make work that is highly personal but altered enough to allow individual interpretations to be applied to every story she paints.

Several issues are at play. The challenges confronting our oceans are intertwined and overlapping, which makes them even more difficult to address and places additional strain on marine species and habitats.