Opening:
* Saturday, March 25, 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm

Exhibition Dates:
* March 25 - April 29

Sarah Shepard Gallery highlights the work of artist Charlene Tan in a series of works that explore the familial and cultural roots of her Filipina-American identity, specifically her family’s long tradition of weaving.

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.

Tan’s work has been shown at the Asia Society Texas; Fragment.in for the Binomial Project in Switzerland; Intersection for the Arts; Marin Headlands Center for the Arts; Ampersand International Arts; and Southern Exposure, among other venues. In April of 2023, Tan will be included in a new show at the Museum of Craft & Design in San Francisco, Fight and Flight: Crafting a Bay Area Life, focused on 23 local artists who have navigated the challenge of staying both creatively and economically afloat in the Bay Area. In September of 2023 Tan will be included in Season II: A Group Exhibition with Chopsticks Alley at the Triton Museum of Art in Santa Clara, CA.