Website for Frank Yung-Fong Tang 譚永鋒

About the artist

Frank Yung-Fong Tang / 譚永鋒

Email: FrankTang+art@gmail.com
IG: franktang.art

Artist Bio

Frank Yung-Fong Tang was born in Taipei, Taiwan and now lives in Sunnyvale California and is a portrait artist focusing on painting self-portrait and faces of his close friends. He is exploring the use of Acrylic, Watercolor, Chalk, Collage, Photograph, and Oil to illustrate the intimate private image of a person. Frank exhibited his artworks in groups two times in De Anza Student Art Shows (2024 & 2025) in Empheure Museum of Arts, one time in Foothill College Student Art Show (2025), three times in Peninsula Bible Church in Cupertino (2018 & 2023). Frank’s Self-Portrait won Best Drawing Award in the 2024 De Anza Student Art Show. He was recently awarded the Annette Pearlstein Scholarship Award from Foothill College. Frank’s watercolor and poem was published in 2024 Red Wheelbarrow Student Edition. Frank received Associate in Arts in Art History (2024) and in Liberal Arts (2024) with the honor of Summa Cum Laude from De Anza College; Master of Information and Data Science (2022) from UC Berkeley; Master of Science in Computer Science (1993) from Northeastern University, Boston; College Diploma in Electronic Engineer (1987) from Ming-Hsin Junior Engineering College. Frank anticipates completing his Associate in Arts-Transfer (A.A.-T.) in Studio Arts for Transfer and Art History for Transfer from De Anza College by Fall 2025.

Artist Statement

In April 2018, I painted two portraits as my final gifts to my late stepfather while he was on his deathbed. He received them happily before his death and led me to paint more portraits to show my love to my loved ones, my family members, friends, and even colleagues, to express my affection toward them. In the meantime, I started to enjoy painting self-portraits in many unconventional compositions and angles. I realize I am the only model in this world who will always be available, fully cooperate, and never complain. Three artists, Chuck Close, Georgia O'Keeffe, and Hung Liu highly influenced my art making: After learning how Close embraced his disabilities- dyslexia, prosopagnosia, and quadriplegic, into his work, his story encouraged me to follow his footstep. His art making process affirmed me to utilize photography and grid methods to illustrate faces to maintain proportion accuracy. O'Keeffe’s close-in big flower style urged me to reexamine facial illustrations from different angles and distances to render an intimate and vulnerable “private image”, away from the traditional “public image” portrait painting. O'Keeffe’s repeating paintings of the same subject and composition also encourage me to explore different mediums and styles on the same composition. Finally, Liu opened up my imagination and inspired me to set up a mission to put more Asian faces into western art museums. I am now investigating and redefining portrait and self-portrait painting for the coming era.

Group Exhibitions

Virtual Exhibitions

Videos about My Artworks

Media Presences

Art Education

Publications

Awards

Other Education