Mini Feature: Paul Chang
Readytex Art Gallery
From the 6th until the 24th of November the Readytex Art Gallery will aim her spotlights at the artwork from the internationally acclaimed artist Paul Chang. The gallery presents the public with a year round exhibition of fine art from a diverse group of talented and driven artists. Aside from this permanent mixed exhibition, it has become tradition at the gallery to give individual artists some well deserved personal attention during a three week “Mini Feature” During this period, part of the exhibition space at the gallery is dedicated solely to the work of the artist in question, this time being Paul Chang, an artist who does not physically live in Suriname anymore, but whose inspiration definitely stems from this, his home country.
Paul Chang has been active as an artist for well over 30 years and although art hasn’t always been a full time occupation, it did become one from the moment he moved to the USA with his family in 1986. With a personal love of art and a professional art education at the Academy for Visual Arts in Tilburg and later also at the Jan van Eyk Academy in Maastricht, a future without art would of course have been unthinkable.
After his art education in Holland, Paul Chang returned to Suriname in 1970. For one year he worked as an art teacher in school, but quickly found out that teaching was not his calling. Soon hereafter he accepted the offer to start work in a family business in Nickerie and the next eleven years of his life were spent as manager and part owner of this company. The work was very demanding and there was little or no time left over for art, which is not a situation the artist was very happy with.
After the unstable political situation in Suriname in the eighties, the family business was sold and in 1986 Paul decided to move to the USA with his family.
From this moment on, the artist directed all of his energy to the establishment of a professional art career, and with a lot of hard work and dedication, Paul Chang managed to conquer his own spot in the highly competitive art market of the US. Right now art by Paul Chang is represented by several art galleries in the USA, by his daughter in Holland, and in Suriname by the Readytex Art Gallery.
An important development in his career is his contract with a Publishing Company who makes high quality Giglee prints of his work. These superior prints on canvas or on paper, which come very close to the original artwork, are produced in limited editions, and then marketed in the rest of the world by this company. Because of this new development art by Paul Chang is now available to a much larger public, at an affordable price.
The artist has a very individual and unique style and his work is often recognizable because of the dreamy and peaceful atmosphere which he manages to create on canvas. The artist himself acknowledges that his work changes constantly but stresses that his inspiration still predominantly lies here in Suriname.
“Flora en Fauna, are what I always come back to in my art and they can be interpreted in so many different ways, which is why it never ends.”
With great skill and in harmonious color combinations, different aspects from nature such as trees, plants and flowers, water, the atmosphere and often horses, are playfully portrayed with preferably acrylic paint, on canvas. The artist never paints exactly true to nature nor in a realistic fashion; he rather prefers to fantasize, create and improvise, and this is what makes his work so fascinating. The elements are recognizable but the technique is unique and original, resulting in artwork which emanates an aura of peacefulness and has an enticing dreamy quality.
As an art market Suriname is equally important to Paul Chang as the USA and Holland which is why he chose the Readytex Art Gallery to market his art here in Suriname. He believes that art in Suriname is rapidly developing and that there is plenty of talent amongst artists in the country. It is very important to Paul to contribute to these positive developments here in Suriname, for this is where it all began for him and this is still where much of his inspiration originates.
As an artist it is his goal to use his skill and talent to portray his ideas on canvas, hereby sharing them with humanity.
“Nobody will survive time, but that which you leave behind shall remain for always.”
This Mini Feature on Paul Chang is open to the public during the normal opening hours of the gallery which are Monday thru Friday from 8:00 am until 16:30 pm and on Saturday’s from 8:30 am until 13:30 pm. The Readytex Art Gallery is located on the Maagden straat 44 upstairs, in the Readytex department store building.
Team Readytex Art Gallery