Kathy Chang visual artist

Born and raised in Hawaii, Kathy is a painter who has a distinctive body of work featuring her iconic kids. The stories built around them are universal.

At birth, Kathy surprised her mother, who had expected a boy based on a fortune teller’s prediction. In Chinese culture, the birth of a son is often seen as a blessing. While her mother never expressed any disappointment of having a daughter, Kathy grew up aware of a cultural environment that placed greater value on sons. That awareness deepened years later when she moved back into her parents’ home. There, a seemingly ordinary object stirred something unexpected: a porcelain statue her mother had cherished, affectionately called “Happy Boy.” To her mother, it was just a charming decoration. but to Kathy, it symbolized something more—a quiet, enduring reminder of expectations she was never meant to fulfill.

Over time, that innocent figure came to embody a layered legacy of favoritism, gendered longing, and unspoken inequity. Kathy’s response to that tradition is to paint kids without defined gender or race—deliberately stripping away the categories society uses to divide, judge, or reject. In doing so, she creates a new visual language—one that speaks directly to the soul, unburdened by labels. Her journey as an artist is a testament to resilience: how deep-seated cultural expectations and personal wounds can be transformed into something beautiful, healing, and liberating.

Through her work, Kathy hopes to create space for those who have ever been made to feel less, simply for being who they are. Before focusing her energy on painting Kathy worked as a graphic designer. She earned her B.F.A. in Graphic Design from the Academy of Art College in San Francisco in 1995. She also lived in Seattle and Las Vegas, eventually returning to Hawaii in 2003. Her experiences in different places have had a strong influence on her artistic style.

During a trip to Berlin, she was inspired to start painting in a loose, expressive way—throwing paint in a messy, free-flowing style that has since become a signature element of her backgrounds. A recent visit to Japan shifted her palette and approach; her work became more subdued, minimal, and tranquil.

Kathy’s work has been exhibited in Oʻahu at a variety of gallery shows, including Cedar Street Gallery (group show), “Stranger Together” (two-woman show at Downtown Art Center), “Art Xchange”(Hawai‘i Contemporary art auction benefit), Artists of Hawai‘i, and “Bittersweet” (eight-woman show at Ho‘ikeākea Gallery).