We can’t get enough of Shawna X’s paintings and illustrations. Moving from China to the US at the age of 7, the artist’s first fluent language was that of art. Now based in New York, she’s known around the world for her vibrant and highly graphical image-making across mediums in digital, spatial and motion spaces.
“My work is often a result of personal musings in metaphysics and a simplicity in daily life through the filter of my subjective visceral experience, in which I communicate both visually and in speaking engagements,” she writes on her personal website. Those personal musings seemed to have resonated with others, grabbing the attention of brands like Adidas, Adobe, Ghostly International, and New Yorker, for whom she has collaborated.
Inspired by poetry by Richard Brautigan, Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera, and Italian Radical Design, she described her style as “pretty carefree and eclectic.” Speaking with the Dr. Martens Blog, she added: “I draw a lot of confidence from what I wear, what I draw, what I listen to, or who I connect with.”
Talking about her multicultural upbringing, she went on to say: “I grew up in-between Portland, Oregon, and Xiamen, China. I came to New York on a whim. I thought I’d be here for a month maximum, then go back to Chicago where I was living. That month became four months and then became half a year and now it’s three years. I never even had a proper goodbye. Insane how life works when you just let it flow.”
Check out some of her unique artwork in the gallery below.
