Projects
Selected Works


























Chrystal Phan’s work brings viewers into her experiences growing up in Canada in a family of Vietnamese refugees. Her paintings often show scenes of ‘everyday’ family activities that represent how Canadian cultural traditions are experienced by first and second-generation Vietnamese Canadian families who are constantly adjusting how they perform their multiple identities as their sense of connection to their new homeland recalibrates over time.
Beyond the surface, each composition is embedded with multiple layers of meaning, using ordinary objects such as backpacks and watermelons to act as a conduit into the world of mixed cultural values and traditions.
The drive behind her work is to represent Asian faces in the mainstream fine art world in ways that are not exotic, magical, or otherwise orientalized and draw attention to how Canadian identity is formed and guarded that can keep racialized Canadians from ever feeling entirely and truly ‘Canadian.’
I acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts
and The Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation

Exhibitions, Publications, Awards
2022
Solo Exhibition of Selected Works, Victoria Arts Council @ McPherson PlayHouse (Oct-Dec)
Finalist, Boynes Emerging Artist Award, 6th Edition
The Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Grant
Solo Exhibition "Once For A While"
Chapel Gallery, Victoria BC
2021
Royal British Columbia Museum
RBCM@Outside Virtual Fieldtrip Interview December 2021
ArtAscent Art & Literary Journal 47 February 2021
10th Annual All Women Online Art Exhibition, Light Space & Time Online Art Gallery - Special Recognition for Excellence in Art for 'china town' 12"x24" oil on canvas
2020
Sooke Fine Art Show
2019
AIRE The Annual International Representational Exhibition, Vancouver
Sidney Fine Art Show
Sooke Fine Art Show