3rd 店面 Artist-in-Residence: Vincent Chong

Watch our recap of Vincent Chong's Storefront Residency!

Vincent Ge-Ming Lia Chong (莊志明) is a queer mixed race Chinese American artist and printmaker. The Chinese side of his family has roots in Chinatown via the Daipang (大鵬) peninsula, and the Italian and English side of his family has roots in Binghamton, NY and outside of London, UK. He has studied Chinese calligraphy and stone seal engraving for about three years now, and he works as a printmaker in NYC. Vincent’s everyday art practice consists of calligraphy studies, watercolor painting, seal carving, etching, and bookmaking.

Vincent's proposal fills the Wing On Wo window with spring couplets (春聯) and a bookshelf displaying the artwork of participants in two residency long workshops—one on Chinese calligraphy, and one on bookbinding and box making. He would like to approach both traditions from a queer perspective. We often talk about the erasure of queer people and our narratives, but throughout Chinese history we have seen the burning of books and burying of intellectuals since the beginning of the dynastic system. Vincent believes it’s important to address not just the erasure of queer people, but the burning of our narratives and the burying of our lives. Throughout the residency, he wants to focus on reimagining and rewriting narratives to include those people erased from history as a central theme.