Comely Welcome Homely, pencil crayon on paper, 72 x 48 inches
Winnie Truong's larger-than-life portraits feature a drawn cast of characters displayed in all their hairy, heroic, glassy-eyed, gap-toothed glory. Executed with pencil crayon on paper, this work generates a dialogue on the beautiful and the beastly amidst contemporary concerns of the continued relevance of figurative art and portraiture, hyperrealist sculpture, and the impact of hair ornamentation.
The inspiration for the portraits is taken from magazine images. Reinventing the figure from a position of ambivalence and imagination, Truong adapts the sharp contrasts and vivid colouring of the printed source. By planting her characters onto the page stripped of their mise en scène details, exaggerated hair replaces the narrative authority of pose, dress and environment.  Ruff, pencil crayon on paper, 72 x 48 inches |
At once anthropomorphic, expressive, and self-ornamenting, hair becomes a significant extension of character. Manes are overgrown in unexpected places, causing its wiry, coarse unkemptness, to elicit a sense of the grotesque. On the other hand when the hair waves, curls and cascades, not unlike a powdered wig, it evokes expressions of elegance and majesty. Truong exploits the non-verbal communicative power of hair, socio-historically loaded as it is with notions of identity, gender and social status. Her monumental exaggeration of both the portrait and hair produces images that are mostly human while evoking animalistic associations. |
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Cleft Wing, pencil crayon on paper, 48 x 36 inches
This work has developed itself in stages, each new portrait informs its predecessor, contributing to the discourse of the whole. Whether contour or cross hatch, the incremental layering of line produces evidence of time and labour. The marks are visibly meticulous and repetitive gestures. In this sense, hair is not just an extension of the body within Truong's work; its physical relationship with drawing is also important. To depict hair in her drawings is to treat every strand as an act of insertion. The repetitions of lines define the dimensionality of the drawing.
Hung in conversation with another, Truong's monumental drawings are characterized by their imposing presence. Yet, however decorated their visage or nuanced in their expression, they are ambiguous characters. They act within a private round table discussion, a tête-à-tête-à-tête-à-tête of monumental heads in conversation with one another, collaborating on their own ideas of the beautiful and the beastly.
 A Vision of Clarity, pencil crayon on paper, 14 x 11 inches
Winnie Truong lives and works in Toronto, and is a recent graduate of the Ontario College of Art & Design's drawing and painting program. Producing large-scale, labour-intensive drawings and using only pencil crayon and chalk pastel on paper, her portraits exploit the drawn line to manipulate hair, flesh and blemish, exploring notions of beauty and discomfort. Winnie is the recipient of numerous awards, including this year's W.O. Forsythe award and the 401 Richmond Career Launcher prize.
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