The imagined landscapes of Fran Chang (Poços de Caldas, Brazil, 1990) depict uninhabited places, abundant in water, mist, and vapor, with sparse celestial bodies scattered across the sky. The icy, rarefied atmosphere of her paintings mirrors inner territories shaped by introspection. One senses the stillness before the storm in scenes where life seems about to emerge—or to have already vanished. By evoking the mysteries and vastness of the cosmos, her small canvases invite contemplation: there is something in them that never fully reveals itself, demanding from the viewer a prolonged and silent gaze, like one probing an enigma. In these dreamlike scenarios of geographic formations and watery surfaces, the sublime and the melancholic are entangled, expressing a fleeting sense of belonging in a world that is slowly dissolving.
Silk is the surface on which the artist carefully applies layers of acrylic paint, always respecting the properties and limits of the material. This natural fiber, delicate yet resilient, is tied to the cultural traditions of the Asian continent and thus references the artist’s Taiwanese heritage—not only in historical and cultural terms, but also in emotional and affective ones. Silk further allows Chang to deepen her exploration of transparency and luminosity, reinforcing the sense of evanescence that permeates her work.
Fran Chang holds a degree in Visual Arts from Faculdade Belas Artes in São Paulo, with additional studies in Astrophysics and Astronautics at the Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina. Her work has been presented internationally in solo and group exhibitions and art fairs in Paris, Hong Kong, Chicago, Mexico City, and Lisbon, and is part of the collections of the Saint Louis Art Museum (USA) and the Museu de Arte do Rio (Brazil). In 2020, she was awarded the Arte como Respiro prize by Itaú Cultural.