Fu Qiumeng Fine Art is pleased to present Constance Fong: A Joyous Nature, a solo exhibition celebrating the artist’s lifelong dialogue with life. Centered on the theme of nature, the exhibition explores how Constance (Connie) Fong transforms landscapes and everyday objects into a language of reflection and joy. On view from November 12 to December 20, 2025, at Fu Qiumeng Fine Art, the reception will take place on Saturday, November 22, from 5 to 8 PM. We invite you to step into Connie’s serene and radiant world.
Constance T. Fong descends from the Tang lineage of Pi’ling (now Changzhou) in Jiangsu Province—a family that upheld the scholarly traditions of Jiangnan, the culturally rich region south of the Yangtze River known for its literati refinement and artistic heritage, while actively engaging in China’s early modernization. Born in Wuxi and raised in Shanghai, she later pursued her education in the United States, growing up at the confluence of two cultures. Her earliest artistic awakening began with crayons and sketches, through which she encountered the sensibility and discipline of Western art. Over the years, through the close companionship and support of her husband, Wen C. Fong (1930-2018), one of the most eminent Chinese art historians in the US, her appreciation for Chinese art and antiquities became an integral part of daily life. For Connie, Chinese art was not merely an object of study or admiration but, through continual immersion, a way of life. In studying the works of Bada Shanren (1626–1705) and Qi Baishi (1864–1957), she developed a refined sensitivity to the playfulness of brush and ink, its expressive vitality and resonant charm.
Like those two classical masters, she focused not on grand themes but on the intimate details of everyday life—finding beauty in the delicate moments: the brightness of a single flower, the posture of a cat, the fine tracing of a leaf. In studying the old masters, she also learned to capture the vitality of living things with her brush. Drawn to diagonal compositions, she discovered in them a dynamic tension between disruption and renewal. In one of her paintings, beneath the blossoms, a black cat sits in stillness, its gaze both calm and alert; the red petals unfurl as if in quiet reply. In Connie’s vision, the world is supple and alive, all things share a silence that speaks beyond words.
This sensibility also shaped her landscapes, transforming perception and emotion into form. Connie once remarked that the Adirondack Mountains of upstate New York reminded her of Chinese shanshui—as though the rocks had crossed from one dream into another, their forms echoing those in classical painting. She often painted in the literati spirit of jixie, reconstructing scenery from memory rather than drawing directly from life. The nature in her paintings is less a record of what is seen than a reflection of her inner state. This approach echoes with the literati ideal of xieyi, to convey the idea rather than the form, rooting her practice in tradition while remaining open to the sensations of the present.
In her works, color is an extension of thought. She favors Windsor & Newton watercolors for their richness and purity, which provide a stable and vital foundation for her palette. Connie’s art does not seek the avant-garde; it grows quietly out of honesty and reflection. The strength of her work lies in this sincerity, in her unwavering attentiveness to the world within.
Connie paints with purity and persistence, transforming the rhythm of daily life into color and form. The flowers, mountains, and animals in her work embody a childlike curiosity toward life itself—at once vast and intimate, expansive and delicate. In an age of noise and haste, her art offers a personal way of seeing, a return to the innate way of looking. It carries within it a humble understanding of the world and a gentle response to it.
