Eric Chan

California Dreamin’, 2019
Oil painting on reclaimed wood
10 x 12 in (25.40 x 30.48 cm)
Eric Chan (b. 1988, Connecticut) is a self-taught visual artist specializing in ink line drawing and oil painting on wood panels. He currently resides in Seattle with his husband Dan and co-runs Haskett Works, a design studio and fabrication workshop. He previously worked in book publishing, and began painting portraits inspired by a cultural shift and industry rift in embracing queer diverse and inclusive characters and narratives in fantasy, historical, genre, and science fiction. His artwork embraces an unorthodox combination of traditional Asian, Classical Western, and contemporary American visual elements and styles - a reflection of his mixed Cantonese and Korean heritage juxtaposed with a queer, second-generation immigrant American disposition. Chan prefers exhibits and creative opportunities that are intentionally and actively structured towards recognizing, dismantling, and redefining oppressive and exclusive institutional systems and cultural norms. "California Dreaming" is based on Hong Kong director Wong Kar-Wai’s 1994 film Chungking Express / 重慶森林. Two unrelated narratives intersect when its leading ladies cross paths for a split-second - Brigitte Lin 林青霞 as Woman in Blonde Wig, a ruthless drug smuggler operating out of Chungking Mansions, and Faye Wong 王菲 as Faye, an ineffective, daydreaming snack bar employee at the Midnight Express. The song California Dreamin’ by The Mamas and The Papas features repeatedly in the film, as characters move through the hectic, crowded streets and cramped apartments of working-class urban life - longing for a change of pace and chance at something new."
California Dreamin’ by Eric Chan