Emily Cheng
成瑞嫻works in New York (b.1953, New York)
Emily Cheng received a BFA in painting from Rhode Island School of Design and attended the New York Studio School for three years. Her solo shows in New York include The Bronx Museum, Plum Blossom Gallery, Winston Wachter Fine Art, Bravin Post Lee Gallery, David Beiztel Gallery, and Lang and O’Hara Gallery. Emily has also had solo shows at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei (MOCA, Taipei); Zane Bennett Gallery in Santa Fe; Hanart Gallery in Hong Kong; Louis Vuitton, Kowloon, Hong Kong; Metropolitan Museum of Manila; and the Ayala Museum in Manila, Philippines; Byron Cohen Gallery in Kansas City; The Cincinatti Center of Contemporary Art; Schmidt Dean Gallery in Philadelphia; and Timezone 8 in Beijing and Shanghai.
In November 2023, Emily Cheng is featured in the “14th Shanghai Biennale: Cosmos Cinema”, located in Power Station of Art in Shanghai, China’s first state-run museum dedicated to contemporary art .Her work has been included in many group exhibitions such at MASS MoCA; Guangzhou Triennial, Guangdong Art Museum, China; Contemporary Art Museum at USF, Tampa, Florida; Yerba Buena Contemporary Art Center, SF; National Academy of Arts, NY; American Academy of Arts and Letters, NY; Katonah Museum of Art, NY; Hong Kong Art Centre; Sotheby’s, NY; Shanghai MOCA; Contrast Gallery, Shanghai; Juan Silos Gallery, Santander.
Emily Cheng has been the recipient of several awards including the New York Foundation of the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, Pollock Krasner Award and a Yaddo Fellowship. In 2007, Timezone 8 published; Emily Cheng, Chasing Clouds, A decade of studies, a compendium of studies made over the last ten years with essays by Chang Tsong Zung Johnson and Kevin Powers.
Education
| 1975 | Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, R.I., BFA in Painting |
| 1977-79 | New York Studio School of Painting, Drawing, and Sculpture, New York, N.Y. |
Selected Solo Exhibitions
| 2025 | Emily Cheng: Where Vision Leads, Central Art Museum, Hangzhou, China |
| 2024 | Opening the Egg, Hanart TZ Gallery, Hong Kong |
| 2023 | Intercodex, VillageOneArt, New York, New York, USA |
| 2022 | Like Gravity, Qualia Gallery, Palo Alto, California, USA |
| 2020 | Charting Sacred Territories, Palais Lichtenstein, Feldkirch, Austria |
| 2019 | some things unnamed, Johanniterkirche, Feldkirch, Austria |
| 2017 | FromBelowToAbove, Pablo Gallery, Manila, Philippines; Illes Arts, Amaganett, New York, USA |
| 2015 | RoundSky, Shenzhen Art Museum, Shenzhen, China |
| RoundSky, Paintings by Emily Cheng, Hanart TZ Gallery, Hong Kong | |
| 2014 | From Heaven to Earth, Da Wang Culture Highlands, Shenzhen, China; Ille Arts, Amagansett, New York |
| 2013 | WholeInOne, Zane Bennett Contemporary, Santa Fe, New Mexico |
| 2011 | Meander and Morphosis: Charting the Nature of Interior Spaces, Hanart TZ Gallery, Hong Kong |
| Charting Sacred Territories, MOCA Taipei, Taipei, Taiwan | |
| 2010 | Emily Cheng: Circle of Time, Louis Vuitton Maison, Kowloon, Hong Kong |
| 2008 | Across the Providence, Satori Gallery, New York, USA |
| 2007 | Emily Cheng Drawings, Timezone 8, Beijing and Shanghai, China |
| 2006 | LotusCloudTreeMist, Ayala Museum, Makati, Philippines |
| CloudMistTree, Winston Wächter Fine Art, New York, USA | |
| 2005 | Refresh!, 2×13 Gallery, New York, NY; with Ran Huang, curated by Lilly Wei |
| Triple Candie, Facade Project, New York, USA | |
| 2004 | Jewel in the Heart, Plum Blossom Gallery, New York, NY; with Lois Conner |
| 2002 | Almost Mapped and Charted, Winston Wächter Fine Art, New York, USA |
| Almost Mapped and Charted, Schmidt/Dean Gallery, Philadelphia; Hobart and William Smith College Gallery, New York; USA | |
| 2001 | Byron Cohen Gallery, Kansas City, MO |
| 1998 | Emily Cheng New Paintings, Schmidt/Dean Gallery, Philadelphia, USA |
| 1997 | Metropolitan Museum of Manila, Philippines |
| Christine’s Gallery, Baguio City, Philippines | |
| John Post Lee, New York, NY, Projects Room | |
| 1996 | Configured: Paintings by Emily Cheng, Hanart TZ Gallery, Hong Kong; |
| 1994 | Enigmatic Puzzles: A Melding of East and West, Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, Ohio, USA |
| 1993 | Schmidt/Dean Gallery, Philadelphia, USA |
| 1992 | David Beitzel Gallery, New York, USA |
| Schmidt/Dean Gallery, Philadelphia, USA | |
| 1990 | Lang & O’Hara Gallery, New York, USA |
| Schmidt/Dean Gallery, Philadelphia, USA | |
| 1989 | The Bronx Museum, Bronx, USA |
| 1988 | Lang & O’Hara Gallery, Philadelphia, USA |
| 1987 | Lang & O’Hara Gallery, Philadelphia, USA |
| 1985 | White Columns, New York, USA |
| 1983 | Pittsburgh Plan for Art, Pittsburgh, USA |
| 55 Mercer Street Artists, Inc., New York, USA |
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Selected Joint Exhibitions |
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| 2025 | 2025 Jincheng’s Contemporary Visions of Historic Architecture: Cosmic Alignment, Urban Experience Center, Jincheng, Shanxi |
| 2024 | GODZILLA: Echoes of the 1990s Asian American Arts Network, Eric Firestone Gallery, New York, New York |
| Art Basel, Hanart TZ Gallery, HongKong | |
| Taipei Dangdai, Taiwan Hanart TZ Gallery, Taipei | |
| 2023 | Cosmos Cinema, Shanghai Biennale, Power Station, China |
| Embark. Hang, Central Art Museum, Hangzhou, China | |
| 2022 | Matter Matters, Chambers Fine Arts, New York, USA |
| 3 Person Group Show, 39+ Art Space, Singapore | |
| 2020 | Physics, Hubei Triennial, Hubei Museum of Art, China |
| 2019 | B.A.T. State II, SoLA Gallery, Los Angles, USA |
| B.A.T. State III, Carolyn Campagna Kleefeld Contemporary Art Museum, Long Beach, USA | |
| The Garden of Winter Light, Hanart TZ Gallery, Hong Kong | |
| 2017 | Art Basel Hong Kong, Hanart TZ Gallery, Hong Kong |
| 2016 | Self-Cultivation-The Personal Technology of Living, Ying Arts Center, Shanghai, China |
| 2014 | Inspired by Dunhuang: Re-creation In Contemporary Chinese Art, China Institute, New York, NY |
| Lange Nacht in den Gerichtshöfen, Gerichtshöfen, Berlin, Germany | |
| Feral Objects, Creon, New York, NY | |
| B.A.T., Off Ramp Galler, Pasadena, California | |
| 2013 | Beijing Art Fair(with Space Station), Beijing, China |
| 2012 | I am you and you are me, perhaps, Galería Juan Silió, Santander, Spain; curated by Kevin Power |
| Transnational Narrations: Paperworks, Bangkok University Gallery, Bangkok, Thailand | |
| 2011 | Color and Line, Thompson Giroux Gallery, Chatham, New York |
| Summer Show, Hanart TZ Gallery, Hong Kong | |
| Architectural Museography: Selected prints from El Nopal Press, Morono Kiang Gallery, Los Angeles, California |
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| 2010 | Towards Transculturalism, Museum of Chinese in America, New York, NY |
| El Ultimo Libro, Zentral Bibliothek, Zurich, Switzerland | |
| 10th Anniversary, Kidspace, MASS MoCA, Williamstown, MA | |
| 2009 | Cross Currents, The Lobby Gallery @ 499 Park Avenue, New York, NY, 2 person show |
| Metaphors of Un/Real, Animamix Biennial 2009-2010, Museum of Contemporary Art – Shanghai, Shanghai, China | |
| 2008 | Farewell to Post Colonialism – Guangzhou Triennial, Guangdong Museum of Art, Guangzhou, China; curated by Johnson Chang, Sarat Maharaj, and Gao Shiming |
| Across the Providence, Satori Gallery, New York, NY; 2 person show | |
| Mei Guo, Contrasts Gallery, Shanghai and Beijing, China; curated by Lilly Wei | |
| 2007 | Year of the Pig, Elga Wimmer PCC, New York, New York |
| Touched by Women’s Hands, Flushing Town Hall, Queens, NY | |
| 2006 | Dragon Veins, USF Contemporary Art Museum, Tampa, Florida |
| 2005 | Microcosm, Brewery project Space, Los Angeles, CA |
| Group Show, Hammond Museum, North Salem, New York | |
| Magic Gardens, Kidspace at MASS MOCA, North Adams, Massachusetts | |
| 2004 | Hanart 20th Anniversary Exhibition, Hong Kong Arts Centre, Hong Kong |
| The Annual, American Academy, New York, New York | |
| 2003 | The Radical Line, Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, Ohio; curated by Ethan Cohen |
| Rally for Triple Candie, Triple Candie, New York, NY | |
| 2002 | DDM Warehouse, Shanghai, China |
| Visual Dialogue, China 2000 Fine Art, New York, New York | |
| Long March Project, Maotai, China | |
| Mural, Asilah Summer Arts Festival, Asilah, Morocco, (large-scale outdoor mural) | |
| The Players-Asian American Art, Asian American Art Center, New York, NY | |
| Faculty Exhibition, Anderson Ranch, Snowmass, CO | |
| 2001 | China without Borders, Sotheby’s, New York, New York |
| 2000 | Twice Born: Beauty, Mills Gallery, Boston Center for the Arts, Boston, Massachusetts; curated by Shelly Bancroft |
| Abstraction in Painting, Castle Gallery, the College of New Rochelle, New Rochelle, New York | |
| The Figure: Another Side of Modernism, Newhouse Center for Contemporary Art, Staten Island, New York; curated by Lilly Wei | |
| What Goes Around, Katonah Museum of Art, Katonah, New York | |
| American Academy of Arts and Letters Invitational Show, American Academy of Arts and Letters, New York, New York |
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| OVERTHETOPFRENZY, Kingsborough College Art Gallery, NY | |
| 1999 | The Masters of Graphic Arts, International Biennial, Museum of Gyor, Gyor, Hungary |
| Working Together, The Art Museum, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH | |
| Personal Visions, A Survey of Contemporary Photography, Ayala Museum, Makati, Philippines | |
| 1998 | Urban Encounters, New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, New York |
| Part of the Fabric, Rhode Island School of Design Museum, Providence, RI | |
| 1997 | 1997 Art on Paper, Weatherspoon Gallery, Greensboro, North Carolina |
| March Six, Ikon Gallery, Los Angeles | |
| 1996 | Special Exhibition: Iris Prints, LA Art Expo, Los Angeles, California |
| Allegory and Identity, Visceglia Art Center, Caldwell, New Jersey | |
| New York, (3 person) Kunsthaus in Hofgarten, Munich, Germany | |
| 1995 | Master of Graphics Art International Biennial, Muveszeti Museum, Gyor, Hungary |
| Asian Reflections, New York University, New York | |
| Contradictory Conclusions, The Gallery at Northhampton, PA | |
| Digital Dialects, New Paradigms, Creiger-Dane Gallery, Boston, Massachusetts | |
| 1994 | Couples, Elga Wimmer Gallery, New York, New York |
| The Computer in the Studio, Computer Museum, Boston, Massachusetts | |
| New Old Masters, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, California | |
| 1993 | Exquisite Corpse, Drawing Center, NY; traveled to Corcoran, Washington, D.C., Santa Monica Museum, Santa Monica CA; The Forum for Contemporary Art, St. Louis MO; American Center, Paris, France (C.) |
| Appraising the Preternatural, Patricia Shea Gallery, Santa Monica, California | |
| Malta’s Cradle: Reflections on the Abyss of Time, Solo Press Gallery, New York | |
| 1992 | 1992, Art on Paper, Weatherspoon Gallery, Greensboro, North Carolina |
| Group show, Albright-Knox Museum, Buffalo, New York | |
| 1990 | Group show, Mathew Scott Fine Art, Los Angeles, California |
| 1988 | Mutations, Annina Nosei Gallery, New York, New York |
| Imprimatur, Greenville County Museum of Art, Greenville, South Carolina; North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, North Carolina | |
| Double Visions, Hallwalls, Buffalo, New York; Longwood Art Gallery, Bronx Council on the Arts, New York, New York; curated by Fred Wilson | |
| 1986 | Small Scale Abstractions, Grace Borgenicht Gallery, New York, New York |
| Abstraction, Abstraction, Klein Gallery, Chicago, Illinois; curated by Elaine King | |
| 1985 | Abstract Issues, Oscarson Hood Gallery, Tibor de Nagy Gallery, Sherry French Gallery, New York; curated by Steven Henry Madoff |
| 1984 | New Abstraction, Tibor de Nagy Gallery, New York, New York; curated by John Post Lee |
Awards
| 2014 | Art Residency, Da Wang Art, Shenzhen, China |
| 2010 | Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant |
| 1996 | New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship |
| 1995 | Yaddo Fellowship |
| 1982 | National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship |
