Establishing New Connections Drawing

Biography: Born in Hong Kong in 1982, Leung was raised by her mother as an immigrant in Toronto. She grew up amongst a supportive diverse community in Richmond Hill, Ontario. She attended the University of Toronto and studied New Media and Visual Arts. She became a user experience designer for a decade before returning to art making. Combining abstraction and color; she probes the recurring themes of community, belonging, fear, love and grief. Overview of Artistic Practice: We need more ways to process and connect to our emotions. I’m motivated by the use of color to convey emotions through abstraction. I practice abstraction because it shows that there are infinite perspectives to see. I hope that the artwork I create reminds us that we can have different perspectives and still feel connected as one. That we can co-exist in this way. We are bound by our imperfections and vulnerabilities as human beings. As an immigrant, the arts were a way that allowed me to feel connected to myself and place. It taught me that we all feel the same emotions no matter where we’re from. It gave me a place where I can express myself and feel belonging. My practice is rooted in recreating emotions at that given moment. It is self-expressive and differs moment to moment. I use a base of watercolor, acrylics, soft pastels and sometimes overlay with mixed media including salt and glitter. My work is very physical, you will often see traces of my hands and fingers, to convey my emotions.