Duane Reed Gallery proudly welcomes the return of St. Louis-based painter Victor Wang in his latest body of work.

Continuing to integrate collage-like paper tableaus and thick clay-like texture in his compositions, Wang’s latest series features portraits with a focus on complex and conflicting expression.

My path through life has been adventurous, exciting, and dream-like. My experience of settling into America in search of better opportunities has been both challenging and inspiring. I use the human face as a vehicle to paint human experiences - worry and wonder, sadness and pleasure - which reflect the emotional stage directly tied to my immigration experiences.

My incorporation of collages of figures from China’s Tang Dynasty represents my Chinese heritage and is a constant reminder of where I came from. The texture and earthiness on the canvas’s surface are inspired by the texture of the soil on the farm where I worked in China.

(Victor Wang)

Victor Wang grew up in Northern China and graduated BFA from The Lu Xun Academy of Fine Arts, one of three top art institutes in China. After graduation he taught there for 4 and a half years and was sent to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign as a visiting scholar. He earned his MFA in Fontbonne University. He currently lives in St. Louis, where he teaches painting, drawing and graduate critique classes as a full professor at Fontbonne University. He has exhibited widely across the country and internationally and has won various awards for excellence, including awards for both painting and art instruction. His work has been shown nationally and internationally.