Malu Tan Bio
MALU TAN
BIO
Malu Tan was born in Manila, Philippines. Following her father and grandfather, she studied business and pursued banking and industry. Throughout her life, she had always dabbled in the arts but never thought of it as a career. It was a move to London and education at The Art Academy that was the catalyst to pursue her childhood dream. Malu has shown at various museums and galleries, including Marin Museum, Katonah Museum, Ayala Museum, Monika Olko Gallery, Faber Birren, and The Philippine Consulate in New York. She is a recipient of the Artist Support Grant and the Creative Renewal Fellowship in North Carolina. Her work is part of the permanent collection of The Yale-New Haven Medical Center and Cartus Corporation.
As a full-time artist, Malu is known for her gestural, textured, and colorful abstract paintings that are abstract expressions of the environment.
ARTIST STATEMENT
Malu Tan’s Color Collages are acrylic paintings that represent the imaginary places she created and internalized after having difficulty moving away from her identified home. With feelings of desolation and dysphoria, the artist explored abstract spaces to find refuge, where reality is what she sees in her mind. In these ‘made-up’ sightings, she is able to move forward and discover moments of joy.
The works are not actual collages: the term ‘collage’ is a metaphor for her method of layering and patching of paint colors. The pieces are unplanned drawings and paintings where a graphite mark might lead to the next paint stroke. The modest scale of her paintings in the series makes them intimate and fresh, like impromptu visions caught in an inspired artist’s sketchbook. The impressions of air and light, as well as sky, water, and verdure, is a testimony to the artist’s deep identification with nature. To lose yourself in her work, the carefully orchestrated color blooms that seem to be anchored to scaffolds, with grids of thinned-paint runnels and areas of faux-antique craquelure (age cracking), is to gain a bit of respite and renewal.
EDUCATION
1985 BA, History, De La Salle University, Manila Philippines
BS, Business Management, De La Salle University, Manila Philippines 2012 Postgraduate Certificate in Painting, The Art Academy, London UK
ART RELATED STUDIES
The New York Studio School, New York, NY
Truro Center for the Arts at Castle Hill, Truro, MA
Hampstead School of Art, London, UK
Wilton Continuing Education, Wilton, CT
Greenwich Art Society, Greenwich, CT
The Arts Students League, New York, NY
University of the Philippines, School of Fine Arts, Quezon City, Philippines, Ayala Museum, Makati City, Philippines
Private Tutorials, Manila, Philippines
FELLOWSHIPS & GRANTS
2021 Emerging Creators Fellowship, Arts & Science Council, Charlotte, NC
2020 Artist Support Grant, North Carolina Arts Council, Blumenthal Endowment
AFFILIATIONS
Sozo Gallery, Charlotte NC
Picture That Art Consultants, Stamford CT
Monika Olko Gallery, Sag Harbor NY
Charlestown Gallery, Charlestown RI
Watershed Gallery, Ridgefield CT
Ridgefield Guild of Artists, Ridgefield CT
Westport Arts Center, Westport CT
Westport Artist Collective, Westport CT
Greenwich Art Society, Greenwich CT
Rowayton Art Center, Rowayton CT
Society of Philippine American Artists, New York NY
VIRTUAL (VIA ARTIST SUPPORT GRANT)
2021 When Nature Takes Back, Kunstmatrix
The Space Between: Color Collage Moments, Kunstmatrix
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2021 When Nature Takes Back, Bill & Patty Gorelick Gallery, Charlotte, NC
The Space Between: Color Collage Moments, 311 Gallery - Raleigh, NC
2016 MINI SOLOS, Katonah Museum at Schoolhouse Theater, Croton Falls NY
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2021 Waiting To Exhale, Jill Krutick Fine Art, Mamaroneck, NY
2020 CONGRUENCE, I Like Your Work Podcast Summer Exhibition
ASPEN ART CURATION, Spring 2020, Shim Art Network, Artsy.net
THE ART SHOW, Hart Witzen Gallery, Charlotte NC
2019 GOLDEN EXPRESSION, Golden Belt Gallery, Durham NC
IN BLOOM, Sozo Gallery, Charlotte NC
SOZO GALLERY COLLECTION, Sozo Gallery, Charlotte NC
2017 SCENE BY TWO, University of Connecticut, Stamford CT
LIFE IN COLOR, IONA College, New Rochelle NY
POP! UP ART SHOW, Westport Arts Center, Westport CT
WINTER FELLOWSHIP EXHIBITION, Phoenix Gallery, New York NY
2016 SPECTRUM MIAMI, Miami FL
NATIONAL JURIED EXHIBITION, Marin Museum of Contemporary Art, Novato CA SUMMER SHOW, Charlestown Gallery, Charlestown RI
2015 SHIM INVITATIONAL, ArtHelix Gallery, Brooklyn NY
35th FABER BIRREN COLOR SHOW, Stamford CT
TERRITORY UNLIMITED, Topaz Gallery, Woodside NY
MONIKA OLKO GALLERY, Sag Harbor NY
OLLEY COURT, Ridgefield CT
BRUSHWORK, Rowayton Art Center, Rowayton CT
On & Off the Wall, Art/Place, Fairfield CT
ART ABOUT TOWN, The Brownstone, Westport CT
53rd CCNS ART SHOW, Rowayton CT
HUMOR ME! Ridgefield Guild of Artists, Ridgefield CT
2014 Annual Juried Exhibition, Ridgefield Guild of Artists, Ridgefield
CT (Curator: Anne Strauss, MET)
THE ELEMENTS, LOFT Artist Association, Stamford CT
(Curator: Sophia Gevas)
ABSTRACTION, Rowayton Art Center, Rowayton CT - Second Place ART WALK, Rockwell Gallery, Ridgefield CT
Summer Show, Seven Arts Gallery, Ridgefield CT
Juried Member’s Show, Ridgefield Guild of Artists, Ridgefield CT (Curator: Laura
Einstein)
SPRING FORWARD, Xpozure Gallery, Wilton CT
SPECTRUM/SUSTAINABLE ART SHOW, Carriage Barn Arts Center, New Canaan
CT (Curator: Anne von Stuelpnagel, Bruce Museum)
Annual Juried Art Show, Greenwich Art Society, Greenwich
CT (Curator: Cara Manes, MoMA)
ANIMAL SPIRIT, Ridgefield Guild of Artists, Ridgefield CT
2013 LIGHT Juried Exhibition, The Golden Thread Gallery, West Hartford CT
Annual Art Exhibit, Society of Philippine-American Artists, New York NY Annual Art Show, Pequot Library, Southport CT - Honorable Mention
Annual Juried Exhibition, Ridgefield Guild of Artists, Ridgefield CT (Curator: Jacquie Little John)
Annual Member’s Show, Carriage Barn Arts Center, New Canaan CT Bedlam, Ridgefield Guild of Artists, Ridgefield CT
Juried Member’s Show, Ridgefield Guild of Artists, Ridgefield CT (Curator: Susan Hardesty)
Resolution, Ridgefield Guild of Artists, Ridgefield CT
2012 Graduate Show, The Art Academy, London UK
2011 Summer Show, Hampstead School of Art, London UK
Student Show, Greenwich Art Society Gallery, Greenwich CT
1998 Student Show, Ayala Museum, Makati City, Philippines
OTHER
1994 Co-founder and designer for handbags, FINO Leatherware Inc., Manila Philippines
