Artist: Wendy Duong
“Exercise, Nutrition, and Confidence”
Location: Thornton Park
Wendy Duong is a multidisciplinary Vietnamese-American artist based in Southern California. She graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts from CSU Fullerton and uses her artwork to relate to others by referencing everyday experiences, observing and confessing the absurdities of, at times private and embarrassing, life events in a dramatic manner to heighten the mundane. By creating and exhibiting her work, she is able to connect with viewers through common experiences.
Duong’s mural at Thornton Park’s Fitness Court was created in the framework of the National Fitness Campaign, which supports the creation of fitness court murals “as kinetic art pieces to showcase the value and inspiration born from connecting the power of the arts with the joy of wellness.” As often in Duong’s work, the mural at Thornton Park works with caricatured figures, distorted surroundings, and overly saturated colors to, as she says, “heighten the mundane.” At Thornton Park, anthropomorphic shapes move in and out of fitness equipment, exploding with vibrant color and enjoyable shapes.