I first stumbled across Jennifer Tong’s work at a recent 5-woman show at San Francisco’s 1988 Gallery. The show just ended yesterday, funny enough, but the works of two illustrators, Allison Torneros and Jennifer Tong, stood out above the rest. What those two ladies had that the other three did not have as firm a grasp of was solid technical ability coupled with inventive composition.
Jennifer Tong’s latest “Femme-Bot” series is like a child’s story book gone wrong through the infestation of half-clothed women. Mirror Mirror (above) features rich, contrasting colors, and Purple (below) is fascinating in its awkward fluidity. By using oil paints and watercolors in a way that makes them sometimes representative of crayons and colored pencil, Tong’s art provides a sense of familiar, juvenile comfort to even the most mature of adults.