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Painter Ann Phong presents new work in a solo exhibition on display at Orange Coast College’s Frank M. Doyle Arts Pavilion from Jan. 30 until Mar. 23, 2023. The exhibition, titled “Ann Phong: Re-Evaluating Normal,”continues the artist’s exploration of global challenges that reshaped her as an individual,as well as society as a whole. Phong’s new body of work focuses on the crises amplified during the past two years of the pandemic.
Rendered in vibrant hues, intense impasto textures, and embedded found objects, Phong’s large-scale paintings ruminate on memories of migration; the ongoing Covid 19 pandemic; contemporary social, political, and racial tensions; and the negative impact of humans on the environment. Through expressive abstraction, Phong transforms her paintings into an invitation to pause, think, and recalibrate how we co-exist. Re-Evaluating Normalprompts us to re-imagine building a better normal.
Learn more about Ann Phong’s work by visiting the The Doye’s website and reading an extended essay by Quan T. Tran, Ph.D., Senior Lecturer and Senior Program Coordinator, Ethnic, Race, and Migration, Yale University, which will also be available in a free, printed brochure at the gallery.
Ann Phong has exhibited nationally and internationally at select venues such as Watts Towers Art Center (Los Angeles, California), Laguna Art Museum (Laguna Beach, California), Kitakyushu Municipal Museum of Art (Kitakyushu, Japan), Center Art Gallery (Vancouver, Canada), Gandong Art Center (Seoul, Korea), and Andaman Museum (Bangkok, Thailand). She served as Board President of the VAALA (Vietnamese American Arts and Letters Association) between 2009 and 2018. She is faculty in the Department of Art at Cal Poly Pomona, where she teaches Drawing and Painting.
Ann Phong: Re-Evaluating Normal was organized originally by Nicholas & Lee Begovich Gallery, California State University Fullerton, curated by Jennifer Frias, gallery director, and expanded by the Frank M. Doyle Arts Pavilion, Orange Coast College, curated by Tyler Stallings, gallery director. Support for the exhibition and the gallery at CSUF was made possible through the Art Alliance, Associated Students, Inc. Instructional Related Activities, the College of the Art, the Department of Visual Arts, and our community partners at the Vietnamese American Arts and Letters Association (VAALA). Support for the exhibition and the gallery at OCC was made possible by The Rallis Foundation, Yasuko & John Bush, Sylvia Impert, Orange Coast College Foundation, and Associated Students of Orange Coast College.
The exhibition will be on view during Women’s History Month in March, along with a concurrent exhibition at The Doyle: “Linida White: Four Decades of Painting from Geometry to Gesture,” open from Jan. 30 until Mar. 23.
Preview reception: Thursday, Feb. 2, 5–7 p.m.; Opening reception: Saturday, Feb. 4, 2–4 p.m. preceded by Artist-led exhibition tours, 2–3 p.m. Additional Artist-led tour by Ann Phong: Tuesday, Feb. 21, 12:15-1 p.m., and Linda White: Wednesday, Mar. 8, 12:15-1 p.m. Admission to all events is free. Please check the gallery website for any change in schedule due to evolving COVID-19 restrictions.
The Frank M. Doyle Arts Pavilion at Orange Coast College focuses on contemporary visual culture and creates dynamic programming that inspires interaction and dialogue between artists, students, scholars, and local and international communities.
Admission is free for all exhibitions. Gallery hours: Monday through Thursday, 11 a.m. until 5 p.m., and First Saturday, Mar. 4, 12-4 p.m. The gallery is closed on Fridays and school holidays. The Doyle is located next to OCC’s Parking Lot D, off Merrimac Way, building 180, between Starbucks and the Art Center classrooms. For additional information, call (714) 432-5738, or visit The Doyle website.
