Warren Chang is a contemporary American artist. Born in 1957 and raised in Monterey, California, he graduated with honors from the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena in 1981, where he earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in painting.
Over the next two decades, he worked as an illustrator for various companies in California and New York before embarking on a career as a professional artist in 2009.
His realistic paintings can be divided into two main categories: biographical interior paintings and paintings of people at work. His interest in this style of painting is rooted in the work of the 16th-century artist Johannes Vermeer, and extends to subjects, self-portraits, portraits of family members, friends, students, studio, classroom, and home interiors. His goal in his realistic paintings is to create mood and emotion through the manipulation of light and the use of muted colors.
Chang rose to prominence after his transition to traditional fine art. Over the past 12 years, he has earned numerous awards and honors, the most prestigious being the Master Signature from the Oil Painters of America, the largest society of oil painters in the United States. Only one person out of 50 is ever given the opportunity to receive this award. Warren currently lives in Monterey and works in his studio, and he also teaches (and is known as a talented teacher) at the San Francisco Academy of Art.
