Vincent Chong is an American artist and community organizer who mixes drag, Asian American queer club culture, painting, and traditional Chinese artistic practices. He engages traditional Chinese art forms in a queer, contemporary way by reinterpreting the 1000+ year old practice of The Three Perfections: painting, poetry, and calligraphy. During the Northern Song dynasty (960–1127 AD), these three art forms became an intertwined practice for self-expression, typically among scholars and officials.
In his performances, these art forms take shape among gold ink, high heels, and a whole lot of red. Iconographies and practices from Chinese art history and contemporary queer Asian America come together in performances that serve as celebrations of the artist’s own diasporic queer community.
The performance at IAC is tied to Vincent’s debut solo exhibition at Skånes konstförening (May 20–June 19, 2022).
Biography
“Working and Living in New York City has given me opportunities to learn about myself and others. I am grateful for my community of qtpoc siblings. They give me space and support to learn to love and care for myself, my community, and others. Moving forward, I hope to learn as much as I can, sharing what I know along the way.”
Vincent Chong is a queer, mixed-race Chinese American artist from New York. His practice spans Chinese calligraphy, seal engraving, painting, printmaking, community organizing, and performance art. Prior to living in New York City, he spent two years studying with 吳文勝老師 Wu Wensheng, a Chinese Calligraphy teacher.
Currently based in Brooklyn, he has completed a year-long residency for the 2019-2020 cycle at the Center for Book Arts, the Wing on Wo Project residency in Chinatown (2019), and the GALLIM Moving Artist Residency (2022), and more. He has performed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (2020, 2022) and also at MoMA PS1 (2019) as part of Bubble T, the queer Asian dance party collective.
Read more about the solo exhibition at Skånes konstförening – skaneskonst.se
See a documentation of the performance by The Metropolitan Museum of Art on Youtube.
Visit Vincent’s artist page – vincentchong.art
Image: film still from the documentation by The Metropolitan Museum of Art.