Apparition

I am a New Jersey based artist born and raised in the state. I received my Bachelor’s degree from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2016, then spent three and a half years studying Dunhuang mural painting and experimental art as a Visiting Scholar at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing, China. In 2023 I received a Master’s degree from China Academy of Art in Hangzhou. I have presented my artwork work in Chinese and international contexts such as the Yanhuang Art Museum, as well as the Austrian embassy and the Korean Cultural Center in Beijing. I traveled to Kazakhstan to participate in an international art symposium after which my work was collected by the National Museum of Kazakhstan. I presented my experience in China at the Chinese Embassy of Chicago in December 2019.

During the pandemic, I returned to the US and began reflecting on the foreign community of Beijing, which I was remotely watching drastically change. I have sought to draw parallels between the Chinese diaspora of New York, and the foreign diaspora of Beijing, which was the focus of my Master’s degree thesis. I returned to China in 2023 to graduate, taking the opportunity to visit some former classmates in Taipei and Seoul. Although I am based in New Jersey, I try to maintain a strong connection to my classmates and friends, many of whom have scattered across Asia and the world, and some of whom have relocated to the US.

My experience as an artist and writer is unconventional and runs counter to the conventional logic of Asian youth who travel to the West for university education. This has allowed me to occupy a unique vantage point, with a deep understanding of Chinese educational systems, a Western cultural understanding, and the ability to communicate these cultural complexities in native English. My art and writing have been shaped by this unintentional experience, which continues its influence to the present.