Scarborough Spotlight: Sharon Joy Tung

Scarborough Spotlight is an initiative by Scarborough Arts that highlights the work and profile of community, emerging and professional artists based in, working in, or with a strong connection to Scarbrorough. We are so excited to mark the return of this feature series with this month’s feature: Sharon Tung.

Image by Chara Ho, @uncharasmatic

Sharon Joy Tung is a queer, neurodivergent multidisciplinary community visual artist with ancestral roots in the Philippines and Singapore. Raised in Scarborough, she grew up surrounded by the resilience of diasporic communities—witnessing how creativity and collective care became acts of survival, resistance, and joy. This spirit fuels her artistic practice, where painting, illustration, collage, writing, and poetry come together as living, breathing spaces for healing and liberation.

Sharon’s work is a celebration of self-expression, inner-child healing, spirituality, and decolonial practice. She believes creativity is not a privilege, it is a birthright. Art is for everyone, and through her work, she strives to remind people that they don’t need permission to create. Having grown up with limited resources and no formal training, she is proof that artistry is something we hold within us.

In 2024, she was recognized for OUR ANCESTORS CATCH THEIR FLIGHTS FROM WARDEN STATION, a multimedia piece that reimagines Warden Subway Station as a portal to otherworldly realms. She has collaborated with The Community Arts Guild, RISE Edutainment, Asian Arts and Culture Trust, Greenhouse Theatre and TwentyTwenty Arts, growing her presence through exhibitions and grassroots initiatives.

Works featured below (in order):
ENERGY PROTECTION, 2024
IX CHEL, 2023
OUR ANCESTORS CATCH THEIR FLIGHTS FROM WARDEN STATION, 2024
SHARP EYES, 2023