Evelyn Tan

In a Los Angeles studio where graphite dust mingles with digital glow, Evelyn Tan crafts worlds where girlhood wonder dances with adult introspection. The Vancouver-born artist, whose debut solo show at Andand Gallery this spring drew critical acclaim, has emerged as a singular voice translating the alchemy of memory into visual poetry.

Rooted in a childhood steeped in aesthetic reverence – from Klimt reproductions in her family home to her engineer father’s deft Woody Woodpecker sketches – Tan’s practice embodies what she calls “amber preservation through mixed media.” A RISD-trained illustrator turned multidisciplinary storyteller, she bridges rubber-hose cartoon whimsy and mythic grandeur, her tools ranging from spattered ink to AI-assisted color decoding.

The Archaeology of Becoming. Tan’s work operates as tender time machines. Her signature dream diaries, rendered in ink that pools like liquid nostalgia, contrast with meticulously planned large-scale explorations of what she terms “sovereign body narratives.” Recent pieces see mythological archetypes collide with suburban Vancouver landscapes, their surfaces layered with sand and metallic leaf to mirror life’s sedimentary complexities.

“My characters aren’t resolving tensions – they’re mapping the fault lines between our younger and older selves,” explains the artist, currently experimenting with wearable art that literalizes her themes of psychic evolution. This fascination with liminal states manifests in works like her Silkworm Series, where cocoon imagery becomes metaphor for what she describes as “the sacred violence of self-reinvention.”

From Digital Playground to Textured Truth. While early experiments with League of Legends-inspired digital art established her chromatic brilliance, Tan’s recent shift toward tactile mediums reveals deeper compulsions. “The drag of bristles through gesso, the way metallic substrate fractures light – these become hieroglyphs of lived experience,” she notes. Her studio practice, structured through military-precision reminder app alerts yet nourished by Takashi Kokubo soundscapes, balances analytic rigor with organic discovery.

As her work gains international traction – recently showcased alongside established visionaries at LA’s La Beast Gallery – Tan remains committed to what she calls “autobiographical alchemy.” For emerging artists, her advice distills to radical authenticity: “Thumbnail incessantly, steal like a magpie, but let your symbols emerge from life’s residue. The blank page isn’t a void – it’s an echo chamber waiting for your particular frequency.”

With wearables projects shimmering on the horizon and Greek myth revisions percolating, Tan continues her excavation of what she terms “the archaeology of becoming” – proving that in the right hands, nostalgia isn’t retreat, but revolution.