Crescent Cheng
b. 1993, Honolulu

Crescent Cheng is an oil painter based in Highland Park, Los Angeles. Her emotionally resonant landscapes depict her neighborhood walks as a form of journaling and personal storytelling. Trees, shadows and roads are metaphors for life experiences. Her push-and-pull method of adding and subtracting paint to reveal the colors underneath reflects an intimate dialogue between her inner and outer world. The resulting glowing edges and delicate marks suggest dreamlike revelations, quiet transformation, and reverence for her surroundings.

Beyond introspection, Cheng’s practice of walking, observing and painting investigates the interconnectedness of nature, the urban environment, and human psychology. This interest derives from her multicultural upbringing in Hawai’i, her experience with depression and ADHD, and her short time as a land use and environment lawyer in Southern California. Her work invites us to consider the cultural, ecological, and personal frameworks that influence our relationship to our local environment - how we understand this relationship, and what happens, within and around us, when we nurture it.

Most of her work features Los Angeles (HLP), Manoa, or Alexandria, LA - all places that she walks alone and with family. You can find her in her studio at The Pop-Hop on York Blvd!