Manny Tang will show you that “cuteness has a dark side, too.”

Tang, a Taiwanese-American whose artist alias is China Cat 663, has lived and worked in Rockford since 2002.

Her art is omnipresent in the city and around the Midwest. Merchandise of her designs are for sale in the gift shop of Rockford Art Museum. Her latest group show, called “Rapture 2019. Muse” opened at the Aeon Gallery in Richmond, Illinois, on Oct. 26th.

The figures in Manny’s paintings take physical cues from the “Big Eyes” work of Margaret Keane. The humanoid figures have the strong feminine and fairy tale qualities of Manga and the classic sailor-girl tattoos. The sexuality is drawn for the female gaze as a rebuttal to pop-culture’s dominant, male-centric point of view.

The themes of bondage and domination create an ominous thread throughout her work that inspired her motto: “Cuteness has a dark side, too.”

Her acrylics and watercolors are masterful combinations of color that are pleasing to stare at. And her mostly monochromatic linoleum block prints equally reward lingering eye balls.

In this show, Manny talks about her artwork and reminisces about the unique and much-talked-about “Black Rabbit Masquerade Hoedown” at 317 Art Collective in early September.

More information

Rockford Register Star: www.rrstar.com

Host: Scott P. Yates; 815-987-1348; syates@rrstar.com; @scottpyates

Manny Chinacat: http://chinacat663.com

Instagram: @chinacat663

Music:

Music from https://filmmusic.io

"Darkness is Coming" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com)

License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)