Icarus Painting

She watches quietly on the Shanghai metro, photographing with her irises the frenetic vibrance, joy, and disappointment of the 24 million commuters that cross her path daily. When she commits the images from mind to canvas, she paints with a furious, carefully-distorted urgency, at once melancholic yet edgy and powerful. And the business cards she plasters all over her urban portraits never let us forget the myriad names, places, occupations, struggles and dreams of those dwellers of The Chinese City. "[The] unpredictability of human nature is inspirational to me," says Carole. "There is also both a lightness and a darkness that I see, running through all of these facets of human nature. I feel that I can create a symbolic representation of this." She is Shanghai-based, New York artist CAROLE FAYE, and her urban portraits have captivated audiences all over the city. As she has developed her motifs and messages, so has her confidence and scale of ambition. Her canvases have grown ever larger, and she is now collaborating with other locally-based artists such as K-Real and photographer Eagle to diversify and expand her vision. Her latest works include pieces that have begun to incorporate themes inspired by Greek mythology, pieces meant to interact with her audience through direct viewer participation in the creation process. —EDDY CHIN