Kuhlein Migue

Kuhlein Migue is a second-year student in the visual studies program at the University of Calgary. She grew up in the Philippines and moved to Canada in 2015 when she was 13 years old. Her works reflect her experiences growing up in two different cultures and are based around ideas regarding the body, gender, race, and the experiences of South East Asian immigrants, specifically Filipino-Canadians. Her paintings aim to raise discussions about colonial mentality (a form of internalized racial oppression), cultural dissonance, the demonization of femininity, and detrimental beauty standards set upon young women. She works with various mediums such as coloured pencils, acrylic, and oil paint to create portraits and landscapes that merge realism with abstraction. Various artists such as Fernando Amorsolo, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Jenny Saville, Francis Bacon and more influence her painting style. References to Philippine mythology and religious iconography are also apparent in her work.