Dr. Rodney Chang, “Pygoya”
(1945 - )

In this 21st Century where art and technology collide, Rodney Chang, also known as “Pygoya,” emerges as a visionary artist and a living Asian American cultural icon who is illuminating and pushing the evolution of art and humanity forward.

The second of five children, Chang was born and raised in a middle-class family in a small neighborhood outside of Honolulu, Hawai’i. He received poor grades in elementary art classes as teachers corrected and peers ridiculed him for “being the only kid to use every crayon color, go outside the lines and draw other ones”. These early childhood traumatic experiences fueled his rebellious artistry and lifelong search for self, place, and meaning through creativity.

Over the past 60 years, he prolifically produced a broad collection of works, including more than 30,000 artworks and writings. Self-described as an “Art Machine” and “The Artist Who Thinks Too Much”, Pygoya developed aesthetic theories and an art/life philosophy that drew on his diverse backgrounds in art, psychology, and even dentistry and created syntheses of fearless interdisciplinary exploration and ingenious boundary transcendence. The result has been a dynamic art making process which combined with a relentless fervor to apply it dances beautifully with the accelerant change definitive of the Information Age. 

Pushing Artistic Influences and Crossing Mediums

Early in his career, Pygoya’s works demonstrated his ability to honor art history while also embracing new technology as a new means of artistic expression. Classically trained in studio painting, drawing, and sculpture, Pygoya studied and admired icons, like Van Gogh and Pollock, while boldly questioning how he could push beyond them. Heavily informed by his research and creation of a Theory of Aesthetic Perception, he created a tapestry of analog and digital art that, while paying homage to past masters, forged a path of its own in both process and product. It was in a dream that he received the name “Pygoya” and boldly embraced it, a portmanteau of art masters, Picasso and Goya.

His works, such as "Neo-Chinese Facade" and "Splash of Pollock" demonstrate his ability to build on the past while embracing technology as a means of artistic expression.  

Contributions to Early Digital Art and Culture

Pygoya’s unwavering dedication to innovation led him to chronicling and leading the evolution of digital art during the advent of the Internet. His artworks and writings promote the potential of digital art as a cultural manifestation of high technology.

Two of his major historical art inventions include “Pixelism” (the artistic intent to create manually made paintings replicating the dot pattern comprising the computer image) and “Webism” (an art movement focused on creating digital art to be displayed and experienced online, with the goal of establishing an indigenous art form for global cyberculture).

His 1988 solo show at Shanghai Art Museum was China's historic first computer art exhibition. In 1997, he established one of the first and most visited online art museums, the “Truly Virtual Webmuseum" at Lastplace.com. He co-founded “Webism” in 1999. 

Pygoya’s influence has reached exhibitions worldwide from North America, Asia, Europe, and Oceania, showcasing the global impact of his works, while various publications highlight the influence of his thinking.

His well-documented activity and public digital artifacts offer unique insight into the mind of an artist who has devoted his life to expanding the frontiers of art in the digital age and internet culture. 

By continuously pushing the boundaries of digital artistic expression, Pygoya has contributed to bridging the gap between traditional art forms and the technological advancements characterizing the Information Age. His works stand as a testament to his belief that art should be an ever-evolving reflection of the world in which it is created.

Art x Philosophy x Psychology x Society 

As an US Army ROTC Armor Second Lieutenant, an extra year of undergraduate study followed by acceptance to dental school, led to a deferral from a potentially grave deployment to Vietnam. He later spent two years in South Korea as a dental officer in the US Dental Corps. Through the GI Bill, he was able to feed his insatiable hunger for learning and desire to build public credibility and worthiness, eventually earning a “Ripley’s Believe It Or Not” feature for his ten college degrees (list).

He gained a breadth of knowledge in diverse fields of art, psychology, education and dentistry, and with a Doctor of Philosophy in Art Psychology, he dove intellectually and practically into the enigmas of creativity and its influence on the making of art and shaping of culture.

Indeed, his 40+ year dentistry career, not only provided the means to support his wife and three children, but it found a unique place in his art and vice versa. A striking example of this is his groundbreaking phenomenological case study conducted in 1981, where he infused art into an unorthodox environment, his dental office called “Da Waiting Room”. In an audacious experiment, Pygoya transformed the usually austere atmosphere of a dental practice into a vibrant discotheque, redefining it as a work of art. This experiment underscored his belief in the limitless potential of aesthetic perception and the permeability of art into everyday life.

Impacting the Future of Art and Culture

As the world speeds into evermore advanced technologies like Generative AI, Pygoya's vast body of knowledge and pioneering artworks offer opportunities to inform and propel society and the art world forward.

To experience Pygoya's trailblazing spirit and invaluable insights is to help unlock new dimensions of creativity. Such an aesthetic experience can invariably shape the future of art and culture in the 21st century.

After retiring from dentistry in 2020, Pygoya has paradoxically returned to analog. He considers this going full circle as a matured artist–from crayons to digital mouse to paint–and states, “Working with digital tools accelerated and perfected sequential choices to build pictorial composition and complexity in both mediums. 35 years in the digital medium is enough. It’s prepared me for my golden years to be a painter who can mash pixels into acrylic paint.” And yet never one to settle he says, “Next, I’m planning to add seasoning via artificial intelligence. The frontier of art is wide open.”    

Pygoya currently resides in Volcano, Hawai’i.  To see what he is working on and creating next see here.