Sometimes I feel like a C# in a C major. Normal is a strange word, it is a cultural construct, loses its meaning when placed in a different environment. The norm moves geographically, gets twisted through coloured lenses. I am interested in the determinant factors of normal.
My paintings are autobiographical, they are reflections of my life. I normalize my act and thoughts by painting them, that’s why I make self-portraits. I can become anyone or anything in my own painting. The surface holds the belongingness for being the minority in most situations. The identity for minorities is often considered intimidating as words, as they are words stigmatized by culture and tradition, hidden and controlled. By painting myself, I am revealing my identity by unfamiliar imagery instead of language, normalizing the chaotic nature of conflicts, shifting the reality playing from C major to C#, where I am finally in tune.
Words cannot convey anything to the illiterate. A painting opens for the open-minded, awaiting anyone to receive as long as they still can see. It surpassed language, it is the physical form of an illusion while language is an illusion of illusions. Do we actually know what we know? Do we actually see what we see? I paint my answers.
Stanley Chen（b.1997, Sydney, Australia）
Moving between cities internationally, Chen’s experience triggers his concentration on the fluidity in identities. His body of work uses paintings and drawings to detach from the present, allowing the examination of himself and his surroundings with a stranger-like perspective.
Education
2025 Master of Contemporary Art, Victorian College of the Art, Melbourne, Australia (Current)
2020 Bachelor of Fine Arts, School of Visual Arts, New York, USA
Selected Group Exhibitions
2024 – Portfolio II, ARR Gallery, Hangzhou, China
2024 – Resonate With Fragmentation, Ginkgo Space, Shanghai/Shenzhen, China
2023 – The Feast, River Art, Taichung, Taiwan
2022 – Either is Good, Each Modern, Taipei, Taiwan
2022 – Conceive, Latitude Gallery, New York, USA
2021 – A Couple Of, Hive Art Center, Beijing, China
2020 – DailyART, Latitude Gallery, Shanghai, China
2019 – Cocoon, SVA BFA Open Studio, New York, USA
2019 – Tales and Whispers, SVA Flatiron Gallery, New York, USA
2019 – This is America, SVA BFA Open Studio, New York, USA
2016 – Art Express 2016, Art Gallery of NSW, Sydney, Australia
Selected Art Fair
2024 – Supper Club, Fringe Club with Mou Projects, Hong Kong
Email: schencjj@gmail.com
Instagram: @heattechfanstan