Andrew Chan's 'Transient City' Exhibition Opening

Andrew Chan’s 'Transient City' is a lively, sharply observed portrait of contemporary urban life. The exhibition runs from October 17th to November 7th. With the comic energy Ken Johnson described as “Red Groomsian,” Chan turns the familiar landscape of the city into something stranger, funnier, and more psychologically charged. Shopping carts, e-bikes, food trucks, skateboarders, commuters, influencers, couples, and solitary travelers populate his compositions like characters in an ongoing urban theatre. Pulled from the rhythms of daily life and rearranged into unexpected encounters, these familiar images take on new meaning. Chan’s layered approach to oil stick, oil paint, charcoal, wax, and acrylic mirrors the experience of the city itself. Humor and satire keep the work light on its feet, while beneath the visual chaos lies a deeper meditation on consumer culture, identity, isolation, nostalgia, and desire. Ultimately, 'Transient City' is about the strange contradiction of urban existence: being surrounded by millions of lives while constantly experiencing the fleeting nature of our own. Chan reminds us that the city is not simply a place we pass through—it is a place that passes through us. Born in Australia, Andrew Chan has a B.A. in Architecture and an M.A. from New York University. He now lives in New York since 1999 and has received grants from the Pollock Krasner Foundation, the New York Foundation for the Arts and a residency at The Lower East Side Print Shop. His work has been featured in the Wall Street Journal.