ABOUT ANNA
Born in Manila, Anna Wyckoff had a foot in two cultures by the time she landed in Los Angeles at age five. The friction between the antipodes of East and West proved fascinating during a childhood where she was often asked about her ethnicity. Searching her own face for traces of origin, Anna became captivated by observing physiognomy and always identified as “other.”
There was no time when she didn’t draw, telling stories to herself with pencil, paint, and chalk, consuming reams of paper. Once, before their house was repainted, her father let her draw over every surface. The freedom of moving her body through large shapes and marks, sometimes running the length of a wall, left a lasting impression.
A self-taught oil-painter, Anna found the qualities of the medium ideal for exploring the corners of a face—from its scab-like texture when dry, to its fleshy dimensionality and hues. Her portraits feature those in her immediate circle, whom she paints from life. It takes months and many sittings to complete one piece. She explores the individual in still, spare architectural compositions.
In her Invisible Cities series inspired by Italo Calvino’s book, she trades her signature muted palette for vibrating color. The large-scale oil portraits set in Venice are emblematic of contemporary environmental decadence – the city is representative of the height of culture, with its feet in water. Anna dismisses traditional Western perspective and introduces figures held in the tension of remembered space.
