Artist Bio
Stella Chang is a contemporary abstract figurative artist whose work investigates the layered complexities of identity, memory, and resilience through visual narratives. Her process is rooted in the act of breaking and reassembling, both materially and conceptually, as a way to reveal the evolving nature of identity. For Stella, identity is never singular or fixed; it is in constant motion, unfolding through fragmentation and reconstruction, where rupture becomes a path to understanding, and reassembly creates new meaning.
Her compositions often carry a quiet tension, balancing fragility and strength, presence and absence, reflecting both personal experience and broader cultural landscapes. Born in San Jose, California, and shaped by a transnational upbringing across the U.S., Taiwan, and Canada, Stella brings a nuanced, multicultural perspective to her practice. Working primarily in painting, digital, and mixed media, she blends watercolor, acrylic, alcohol ink, and digital elements with unconventional materials such as glass and aluminum. These materials, some fluid, some rigid, mirror the contradiction and continuity of identity itself. The resulting works are meditative and layered.
A life-altering onset of Lupus in 2021 marked a profound turning point, ending her two-decade career in handbag and accessories design. Art became her way back, not only to creativity but to herself. It offered a means to process pain, uncertainty, and mortality while embracing transformation as a constant. Stella’s work also reflects on cultural identity, familial expectations, and the quiet solitude of daily survival. Her pieces invite contemplation, offering space where vulnerability becomes strength, and where the disruption of form gives rise to unexpected beauty and insight.
Stella earned her BFA from New York University, where she studied under video art pioneer Peter Campus and painter Keith Mayerson. Now based in New Jersey, she licenses select works through Rosenstiels, a UK-based fine art publisher, and serves as Chair of the Junior & Scholarship Committee at New York’s historic Salmagundi Art Club. She is the recipient of the 2025–2026 Individual Artist Fellowship awarded by the Jersey City Arts Council.