Ian Tung
© Ian Tung

His Skin


2024

Oil Paint on Canvas

30" x 36"


In this painting, I put down my conflicting thoughts with my brush, and achieve a refined, albeit shaky acceptance of my reality. This was my own body laid out on canvas, achieving its colorful rebirth alongside the emerging insect. With uncertainty comes hope and wonder, as rejection and freedom intertwine.


Recursion

2025

Oil Paint and Foam on Canvas

24" x 60" each panel (60" x 144" overall)


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Emergency


2025

Oil Paint on Canvas

36” x 48”


This piece explores the human capacity for physical and metaphorical metamorphosis. Though the two bodies are joined and share a single “shell,” they are separate – exhibiting dissimilar sexual characteristics, color palettes, and seemingly occupying different planes of existence.

Sunlark

2023

Watercolor and Pastel Chalk on Paper

22" x 30"


Inspired by the Impressionist movement, this lakeside landscape study began by building layers of watercolor and then creating definition through a gradient of distinct chalk pastel texture and then blurring into the illusory distance. Overall, I aimed to express the feeling of a memory as a single, intense snapshot that lingers in one’s mind just as its periphery seems to dissipate. 


Fàng Tien Deng

("Placing Lanterns")


2024

Digital Painting


“Lanterns” is composed of two characters in Mandarin, roughly translating to “sky light.” After spending a Lunar New Year’s Eve with only my immediate relatives, far away from the rest of our family in Taiwan, I began thinking about those words more and more. I hadn’t been back to Taipei since the pandemic began and as a result, many traditions that came with the holidays were not able to be performed in full or together with my grandparents, various uncles and aunts, and their children overseas. I didn’t want the occasion to pass me by, so I began composing a lantern festival of my own, reconciling with my roots via my prayers being sent up to my ancestors and accompanied by cultural mythos. The misty mountains and swirling clouds are cool toned, imbuing a peaceful calm that harmonizes with the shining gold and red to usher in luck and prosperity.

Bloom

2023

Oil Paint on Canvas

24" x 30"


In creating this still life, I strengthened my understanding of composition, perspective, and lighting. The placement of every item, from the objects in the foreground to the position of each piece of drapery, was entirely my decision. I took great care in refining specific textures, detailing highlights, and saturating dynamic shadows where the viewer’s eye can rest. 


Contemplation


2023

Oil Paint on Canvas

24" x 30"


Contemplation is a study done in ultramarine blue, experimenting with how far I could push values to create contrast with a single color, while capturing the individual sensitivities of the moment. I aim to leave the viewer with the impression of a daydream or a lost memory.