Zoong Nguyên
Zoong was trained as a Graphic Designer. After her move to Calgary in 2005, she traded the computer mouse and the computer screen for the paintbrush and canvases and never looked back. What attracts her to painting is all the colors that the human eye can absorb and enjoy. The switch from digital art to traditional painting is the tactile medium. It’s something about how the natural light lands on the subject and then it dances there till the sun goes down to rest. She is easily mesmerized with the every day world. No matter how mundane it may seem, she can make it sing on a flat surface with paint. The practical acrylic paints help record each emotion or a mix of emotions she feels at a moment in time and at a particular space. Its quick-drying property allows her to move and mix paints impatiently without a wait. Zoong paints many subjects: still life, animals, florals, landscapes and figures in mostly impressionist style. Beauty is everywhere. It’s appealingly calling her name to capture the image on canvas. In 2017, she was awarded a grant from the Calgary Arts Development to do a series of Curvy Figures, a political theme that is not often addressed. She wanted to be contrarian to the images of skinny models shown in magazines and to paint the images of real women: beautiful, curvy, loving and resilient. Zoong has exhibited in Calgary and Edmonton. In summer 2019, The City of Calgary awarded Zoong with her group of multicultural and multidisciplinary artists a public art project, a sculpture titled Dance. The statue of a jovial couple dancing represents the happy moments of the area’s multiethnic citizens living in harmony. Located in the heart of Forest Lawn on the International Avenue, the sculpture is the welcome symbol. Currently Zoong is working on a series about her beloved city of Calgary. She finds landmarks in and around the city to paint in large formats in addition to the beauty of our natural wonders of the Rocky Mountains. Zoong’s works are collected in US, Canada, Singapore and HongKong.