Kappi, 2025

Gouache, gesso, wood

21 x 17 x 1.5 in.

A San Francisco-based multidisciplinary artist, Tan was born in Houston, Texas, but spent most of her childhood in the Philippines. She moved to San Francisco to attend the San Francisco Art Institute and stayed on to continue her practice. Working in a wide range of mediums - from sculpture to performance - Tan is especially interested in examining cultural subjects including assimilation, consumer culture, digital loss of imagery via facsimile, and post-colonial immigrant diaspora. In her current work, Tan draws inspiration from her grandmother, one in a long line of weavers. Tan discovered her grandmother - a tailor and embroiderer by trade - had produced traditional Filipino tribal weavings. Intrigued, Tan looked further. With her grandmother no longer alive, Tan turned to her computer, discovering a world of intricately patterned tribal weavings through a digital interface of pixelated images, each pattern reflecting a symbolic meaning. Tan's large works of immersive woven structures highlight the painstaking practice of both her grandmother's textile work and her own.

Courtesy of the Artist, special thanks to Spot Design for in kind framing