Light My Way Home – Home, Safety and Love in Paintings by Gigi Chen

Idyllic, neon-lit paintings by Gigi Chen often include interesting graffiti and glowing details, and signs almost like it’s trying to scratch the surface of the cyberpunk genre. Beautiful skies, birds, urban cities, and flora all mixed in together make a regular painting for Chen. Magnificent landscapes and surreal compositions, contrasting urban places originate from Chen’s early age. Born in China, Chen actually spent her entire childhood as a New Yorker, but the New Yorker that never traveled anywhere. Customed to city life, at the age of 18 she visited Vermont and was introduced to the raw power of nature. “I realized how small the Big City really is. I was terrified of the pitch blackness, the dense forest, and the dirt and the bugs. But I was totally in love and overwhelmed by how sublime and random nature is. The dichotomy of the neon onto natural subjects like leaves and birds and trees makes for beautiful metaphors about how people relate to the flora and fauna.”