WINNIE TRUONG
Canadian artist Winnie Truong’s newest series of works, Down in the Weeds, continues her exploration of the female form within natural yet often surreal and imagined worlds. Using her own intricate pencil crayon drawings to create cut paper collages, Truong has pushed her process toward the third dimension with the inclusion of raised cut pieces and dioramas, the result are intense and beautiful created environments.
Within these environments her figures, which she refers to as “Wimmin Creatures”, defiantly look away, rejecting a gendered gaze through their own agency of concealment. Their bodies are imperfect and decidedly, unapologetic. Her title, Down in the Weeds, draws from the idea that weeds in a garden can be vibrant and full of life but can take over what is being cultivated if left unattended. Echoing the unease of today; is the need to keep at bay a looming and blooming threat of unwanted disease permeating daily life. In this context, her figures maneuver suspended moments of tension, hopefulness and the struggle to thrive in beautiful, uneasy and often pathological surroundings.
Winnie Truong graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Ontario College of Art and Design (2010) and has received numerous grants and awards including the W.O. Forsyth Award, the 401 Richmond Career Launcher Prize, and the BMO 1st! Art award. Her work has been the subject of solo exhibitions in Canada, the United States, and Europe, and is represented internationally in private and public collections including the Canada Council Art Bank, Ottawa, EQ Bank Toronto, the Doris McCarthy Gallery at the University of Toronto, The Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas, and the Bank of Denmark, Copenhagen among others.
