Upcoming Exhibitions
I have lived in many different countries in my life from Asia to America. Each nation has given me unique memories of its culture and lifestyle.
I like to wander, to listen to the voices of people, blend into crowds and watch as people juggle their everyday lives. In each one of my art pieces, I let my feelings flow from my past to the present, seeking to record the most memorable scenes.
I have seen cities that embrace and protect nature others do not. It is painful to witness such destruction due to human greed. It seems the more convenient we make our lives, the more pollution we create and the more carelessly we deplete the earth’s resources.
In Art, there is a pause we take when looking for the meaning of an art piece, where we question what the artist meant and what it means to us. Its use isn’t what it can do for us but what it represents in our minds. In sharp contrast, garbage is useless. We don’t want it nor the thought of it to linger. The sooner it’s gone, the better.
I attempt to confront these notions through my art. By inviting the viewers to enjoy the painting’s surface quality, from the color to material to composition, I use these aspects to compel the audience to ask themselves questions: how do they feel about the state of the environment and what can they do about it?
Mother nature has given us a home. To live a peaceful life, one first needs to make peace with mother earth.
Ann Phong, a gifted painter with a penchant for subtle but nonetheless critical narrative. Phong Juxtaposes heavily impasto layers with finer, more transparent ones, as well as vaguely delineated images to convey the complexity of her feelings. (From writer Daniela Walsh. Visual Art Source).
Ann received her MFA at CSU Fullerton (’95). She has exhibited nationally and internationally, solo and group in more than 200 exhibitions at galleries and museums such as the Watts Towers Art Center (Los Angeles), the Laguna Art Museum (California), Palm Spring Art Museum, Kitakyushu Municipal Museum of Art (Japan), Center Art Gallery (Vancouver, Canada), Gandong Art Center (Seoul, Korea), Gangueung Museum (Korea) and Andaman Museum (Thailand).
Ann’s artworks have received many reviews, like in the LA Times (Zan Dubin, March 1995), OC Register (Jeannie Denholm, Dec 2019) and Voice of OC from Richard Chang (2018). She’s introduced in BBC International News, about how she as a Vietnamese American refugee and how she’s struggled to become an artist (April 2020).
Ann had taught Painting and Drawing at Cal Poly Pomona Art Department till she retired in 2025.
In 2024, Ann was selected by the Los Angeles Lakers’ In The Paint program to be one of the ten grant recipients. Lakers collaborates with The BAND OF VICES to organize an exhibition for the grantees in Los Angeles in 2025.
