Biography
Paul Peng (b. 1994) likes to make a lot of art and show some of it. He holds a BCSA in Computer Science and Art from Carnegie Mellon University and has also studied classical drawing at Barnstone Studios in Coplay, PA (2013) and experimental drawing at the Ox-Bow School of Art in Saugatuck, MI (2017).
Since completing undergrad in 2017, Paul has shown in multiple group and solo exhibitions across Greater Pittsburgh and occasionally outside of it. He has also provided illustrations for Talk Magazine Issue 04 (2022), the LUCKYME Advent Calendar 22 music compilation (2022), and ECOTONE Vol. 1, a drawing anthology published by Cram Books (2023). He has been an artist-in-residence with the Brew House Association (Distillery Emerging Artists Program, 2020–2021) and the Ox-Bow School of Art (Summer Residency, 2023).
Alongside his art practice, Paul is a roller coaster enthusiast, a programming language design hobbyist, and an aspiring long-distance runner and competitive DanceDanceRevolution player. He currently lives and works from Pittsburgh, PA.
Statement
I make non-representational and cartoon drawings based on what it feels like to be a real person. I began drawing like this as a teenager witnessing and participating in an internet-based folk art tradition of other sad queer teens drawing themselves as anthropomorphic fantasy creatures, anime monster boys, and other cartoons of things that they are not. Many motifs from this folk cartooning tradition show up in my work, but I am less interested in depicting this tradition’s narrative history and more interested in how my work, regardless of what it depicts, directly extends this tradition. How does my art, born from queer teen alienation, exist under conditions where that alienation used to exist but no longer does?