Biography (Kathy Chang)
Born and raised in Hawaii, Kathy Chang is a painter who has a distinctive body of work featuring kids. They are often seen in everyday situations with everyday objects. But somehow, there is a peculiarity about the imagery. When she is drawn to paint certain images, she tries not to question why, but follows the nudge. It is an interesting part of the process when things start to unfold. For Kathy, there is a message that is revealed and she hopes that the viewer also takes away something that resonates with their own personal story.
Just as children, who live in a world of stories, symbols and metaphors before grasping literal language, Kathy uses this form of communication. She fills her paintings with this visual language.
IN 1995, Kathy received her B.F. A. In Graphic Design at the Academy of Art College in San Francisco. She worked at The Las Vegas Review-Journal, MGM Mirage, Golden Nugget and The Honolulu Advertiser. She currently lives in Honolulu.
Artist’s Statement
Kathy appreciates the world of a child because it is very big. Child’s imagination is free and open, which allows him/her to actually “see” things. So these visions aren’t always imagined. Life is full of magic and mystery.
Children tend to give things love and attention. It is then that they become loved and you can see the sacredness about them. It is then that you can see possibilities. You start to see things with different eyes. Food with red centers resemble mandalas. The Li Hing Mui seeds we ate throughout our childhood and spat everywhere, might start to grow plum trees. Jello looks like little shrines or relics of saints. And there is beauty that is frozen in time in the layers.
Another reason for making them the subject is that she believes they are a good reminder hat it is important to heal the inner child. Her children are often seen with food that is reminiscent of her childhood.She believes that food memories are a good trigger for revisiting that time of our lives.
Her kids often wear band aids. “These bandages are a sign of healing. Light enters through the cracks. And where there is light, there are rainbows.”
But Kathy doesn’t paint pictures through rose-colored eyes. “As an adult, you don’t see the rainbows until you’ve been dragged through the mud of life. It is only then that you can really notice and appreciate seeing the light that is present.”
For Kathy, the act of creating art is a ritual. She approaches each piece with a intension that involves, envisioning, resolving, transforming and healing/elevating. She starts off her paintings with a very free, abstract and expressive background, and on the foreground, kids(who she believes are her mantra), are more tightly painted. She enjoys contrasting the two styles because it creates a yin-yang balance.
Kathy has incorporated the kids with dealing with the pandemic. She also has work that deals with animal cruelty and brutality with her series called, “Healing Ancestral Karma”.
Biography (Anika Kuntze)
Anika Kuntze is a 47 year old Honolulu based artist. She immigrated here from Berlin Germany in 2017. Her art can best be described as surreal visionary art even though it is hard to find a label for her unique style.
It is influenced by the early surrealist movement and by cubism. She has also worked with traditional amazonian plant medicines in ceremonies, so the psychedelic organic visuals and teachings she recieves are woven throughout her body of work. She is very interested in finding pathways through the hidden and mystical layers of existence.
Her main focus is on discovering the rich and interesting worlds inside and outside of oneself. Growing up with a mother who always used to mix and experiment with different plants, herbs and fluids (old school pharmacist) and a father who’s true love has always been plants and birds, she now remembers her roots and follows the infinite variations of organic structures and the potent regenerative healing powers they hold.
She grew up by a lake in the middle of West-Germany still a very divided country back then, with relatives living in the east part. She moved to Berlin after the wall came down in the mid 90’s. And lived and worked as a Designer, Photographer and visual Artist in a rapidly transforming and uniting Berlin until moving to Honolulu in 2017.
Her work deals with the reassuring circles of regeneration and transformation. Inner and outer worlds are explored in this process. She uses various mediums to represent the elements and materials Mother Earth has to offer. Experimenting and playing is a crucial part in her creative process.
Her larger works are full of detail created in a meditative – and conscious flow state.
As the viewer moves closer he/she can get lost is a world of shapes and surreal forms, a world of shadow and light. When looked at from a distance the image we see can appear as something very different. It comes across as an optical play, zooming in and out is part of the desired process.
With sometimes contrasting tools and colors she creates „in between spaces“ and leaves emotional and associative responses fully up to the viewer. Leaving an open space with as little manipulation as possible. By focusing in and out on microstructures and the disorientation it leaves one with, not knowing what’s up and what’s down, she hopefully evokes the question:
„Where and essentially Who am I“
Work and Projects 2010-2019
Since 2020 some of Kathys and Anikas work is represented by Cedar Street Art Gallery in Honolulu.
Musicvideo production (filming and editing) with Toni Kater (lyrics and music)„Eigentum“ (personal property) and „Dieser Augenblick“ (this moment)
Videoinstallation for the Qualleninstitut (Jellyfish institute) in Duesseldorf (Germany) https://vimeo.com/130917482
Concept, Video projections and light works
2011 “Dimensionen”, Kunsthalle M3, Berlin
2014 “Homo Utopiens”, Kunsthalle M3, Berlin HomoUtopiens
Live painting performance and Photography
“Patti`s Zofen” (frei nach J. Genet)
“Alles in einer Nacht” (G. Richter) / Sound and Photography
“Schneewitte” (frei nach E. Jelinek) with the actor Julia Mahlke
Exhibitions from 2012 – 2018
Mixed Media Miniature
Koa Art Gallery Honolulu
Huki Pau Honolulu
Three small acrylic paintings
Soloexhibition „nothing personal“ of 100cm x 100cm Portraits (oil on canvas)
„Inbetween” im Hüttenpalast (photography)
„3 Images RED and skybody” at Showroom Rochow (acrylic on canvas)
After 2007 Anika worked mainly as a visual artist in different collaborations and formations, always combining various forms of media and ways to express and communicate.
Until 2007 she worked as artdirector in the media agency Candycode/Roughcode and also as a freelance communication designer.
Skills – Illustration, Photography, Conception und Logo development; Corporate Design, Graphik, Print & Webdesign
2005 University of Arts Berlin (UdK)
Communication and Art & Culture Studies