| Sonya Fe | |
| Nationality: | American |
| Alma Mater: | Art Center College of Design |
| Known For: | Painting |
Sonya Fe (1952) is a Chicana painter born and raised in Los Angeles.
Fe is one of eight children born to Jewish-American mother Ruth Goldfein and father Joseph Williams who was Narragansett and Mexican-American.[1] During her childhood she lived in the William Mead Housing Project in Downtown Los Angeles.[2] As a young person, she witnessed and was visually influenced by the Chicano art movement.[3]
At age 13, Fe won a scholarship to participate in a summer program at Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles.[4] She has earned her B.A. degree from Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California.
She lives in Elk Grove in Sacramento County, and is married to Arturo Vasquez, a children’s book author and they have a son who is a graphic designer.[5]
Fe's work reflects social and cultural issues with themes centering on child abuse/neglect and the woman's place in society. Fe admits "The figures themselves are not anatomically correct-some have little definition. However, the faces are very defined, making the face the center of attention. My main concern is clearly with the relationships among these women's varying physical presence and at the same time bringing into equilibrium the active lines, and the colors that define them."[6]
Fe illustrated a children’s book titled You Can Draw Too, published by Publishing Children’s Stories, a press she co-founded.[7] In 1998, she received the national Artist Award from the California State Senate.[8]
As a Hispanic American artist, Fe's work reflects issues and inequalities in gender, race, and human thought.[9] Her work has been featured in magazines such as Forbes Sunstorm Magazine, Sacramento Magazine, and Sixteen Magazine.[10] A critique by Contemporary Chicana/Chicano Art: Artists, Works, Culture, and Education stated that her work was “a collage of transparent tissues.”[11] They discussed how her work seemed to be volumetric and transparent at the same time, holding glow and radiance at a gentle and extreme measure all at the same time.[12]
Fe's work has been exhibited nationally and are in the collections of CCH Pounder, Cheech Marin and the Smithsonian Institution.[13] In Los Angeles, she worked with other artists to restore the Great Wall of Los Angeles.[14]
The most known Sonya Fe exhibit is called “Are You With Me?” being shown from October 16, 2021- May 29, 2022 which included 27 oil paintings and 18 mixed-media drawings.[15] The exhibition sought to be a biographical depiction of her own life as well as depicting images of women’s roles decided by society as well as children’s innocence.[16] The exhibition catalog includes the Sonya Fe quote explaining her exhibit, “I want the viewer to stand with me while looking at the world. I want them to feel, see, and understand what I am saying- to not be left behind. I want to ask them, ‘Are you with me?’”[17] The exhibit “Are You With Me?” was curated by Norma Chairez-Hartell, and embarked on a national tour after it was shown at the Riverside Art Museum.[18]