Emily CHENG
Emily Cheng’s art has revitalized the value of universalism that lies at the core of modernism, yet it is neither about the autonomy of art nor the ambitious internationalism of post-war modernists. Her project, spanning three decades, embraces the legacy of spiritual art worldwide, cutting across disparate cultural histories for constituents of iconographic language, analysing its vocabulary and syntax while avoiding the trap of symbolic meaning. Like the Chinese ideographic character-word, CHENG’s iconic imageries bring out the universal in the culturally specific through the power of visual presence. Most importantly, with her own creative work, CHENG demonstrates the possibility for a new spiritual painting, an art that seeks to ground our spiritual being in the physical, and to create a universal sensibility within time-tried imageries—an act of faith that both confronts and ameliorates the world of image fatigue we live in today.
Emily Cheng was born in 1953 in New York. She received her BFA in 1975 from the Rhode Island School of Design and attended the New York Studio School. Cheng has exhibited widely in the US and in Asia. In 2019, her majour solo exhibition “Some Things Unnamed” was installed in the Feldkirch Cathedral in Austria, featuring her new works, including a 9-meter long monumental painting.
| 1975 | Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI, BFA Painting |
| 1977 - 79 | New York Studio School of Painting, Drawing and Sculpture, New York, NY, USA |
| Awards | |
| 1982-1983 | National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship |
| 1995 | Yaddo Fellowship |
| 1996 | New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship |
| 2010 | Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant |
| 2011 | United States Artists Fundraising Fellowship |
| Curatorial Projects | |
| 1984 | Large Scale Drawings, New York University Law School, New York, USA |
| 1990 | Not Not, ES Vandam Gallery, New York, USA |
| 2000 | overthetopfrenzy, Kingsborough Community College Art Gallery, Brooklyn, NY, USA |
| 2009 | Eye World, Triple Candie, New York, USA, co-curated with Michelle Loh |
| 2011 | Richard Meier, Sculptures and collages, The Gallery at 1 Grand Army Plaza, Brooklyn, NY, USA |
| 2013 | Where are we (going)? Guest curator, Silvermine Art Center, New Cannan, Conneticut, USA |
| Selected Solo Exhibition | |
| 2019 2015 | Some Things Unnamed, Feldkirch Cathedral, Austria RoundSky: Paintings by Emily Cheng, Hanart Gallery, Hong Kong |
| 2014 | Heaven to Earth, Da Wang Culture Highlands, Da Wang, China |
| Ille Arts, Amagansett, New York, USA | |
| 2013 | Zane Bennett Contemporary Art, Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA |
| 2011 | Museum of Contemporary Art, (MOCA),Taipei, Taiwan |
| Meanders and Morphosis: Charting the Nature of Interior Spaces, Hanart Gallery, Hong Kong | |
| 2010 | Louis Vuitton (flagship store), Kowloon, Hong Kong |
| 2009 | Cross Currents(2 person show), 499 Park, New York, USA |
| 2008 | Across the Providence(2 person show), Satori Gallery, New York, NY, USA |
| 2007 | Emily Cheng Drawings, Timezone 8 Gallery, Beijing and Shanghai, China |
| 2006 | Winston Wächter Fine Art, New York, USA |
| Ayala Museum, Makati, Philippines | |
| 2005 | Facade Project , Triple Candie, New York, USA |
| Refresh!, 2 x 13 Gallery, New york, USA | |
| 2004 | Plum Blossom Gallery, New York, USA |
| 2002 | Winston Wächter Fine Art, New York, USA |
| Schmidt/Dean Gallery, Philadelphia, USA | |
| Hobart and William Smith College, Geneva, Switzerland | |
| 2001 | Byron Cohen Gallery, Kansas City, USA |
| 1998 | Schmidt/Dean Gallery, Philadelphia, USA |
| 1997 | Metropolitan Museum of Manila, Philippines |
| Bravin Post Lee, New York, Projects Room | |
| 1996 | Hanart T.Z. Gallery, Hong Kong |
| 1994 | The Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, USA |
| 1993 | Schmidt/Dean Gallery, Philadelphia, USA |
| 1992 | David Beitzel Gallery, New York, USA |
| 1990 | Lang & O’Hara Gallery, New York, USA |
| Schmidt/Dean Gallery, Philadelphia, USA | |
| 1989 | The Bronx Museum, New York, USA |
| 1988 | Lang & O’Hara Gallery, New York, USA |
| 1987 | Lang & O’Hara Gallery, New York, USA |
| 1985 | White Columns, New York, USA |
| Selected Group Exhibitions | |
| 2014 | B.A.T., Off Ramp Gallery, Pasadena, California, USA |
| Lange Nacht en der Gerichtshofen, Berlin, Germany | |
| 2013 | Beijing Art Fair, with Space Station, Beijing, China |
| 2012 | Galleria Juan Silio, Santander, Spain |
| Bangkok University Gallery, Bangkok, Thailand | |
| 2011 | LINE and COLOR, Thompson & Giroux Gallery, Chatham, New York, USA |
| Summer Show, Hanart Gallery, Hong Kong | |
| Architectural Museography, selected prints form el Nopal Press, Los Angeles. Morono Kiang Gallery, Los Angles, USA | |
| 10th Anniversary, Kidspace, MASS MoCA, Williamstown, USA | |
| 2009 | Animamix, MOCA Shanghai, Shanghai, China |
| 2008 | Small Works, Satori Gallery, New York, USA |
| Farewell to Post Colonialism, Guangzhou Triennial, Guangdong Museum of Art, Guangzhou, China | |
| Mei Guo, Contrast Gallery, Shanghai and Beijing, China | |
| Singapore Art Fair, Singapore | |
| 2007 | Year of the Pig, Elga Wimmer PPC, New York, USA |
| Touched by Women’s Hands, Flushing Town Hall, Cheryl McGuinnes Gallery, NY, USA | |
| 2006 | Dragon Veins, USF Contemporary Art Museum, Tampa, USA |
| 2005 | Hammond Museum, North Adams, USA |
| Magic Gardens, Kidspace, MASS MoCA, Williamstown, USA | |
| 2004 | Hanart 20th Anniversary Exhibition, Hong Kong Art Centre, Hong Kong |
| The Annual, National Academy of Arts, New York, USA | |
| 2003 | The Radical Line, Bowling State University, OH, USA |
| 2002 | DDM Warehouse, Shanghai, China |
| Visual Dialogue, China 2000, New York, USA | |
| Long March Project, Maotai, China | |
| 2002 Summer Arts Festival, Asilah Arts Festival, Asilah, Morocco | |
| 2001 | China Without Borders, Sotheby’s, New York, USA |
| 2000 | Twice Born: Beauty, The Mills Gallery, Boston Center for the Arts, Boston, USA |
| Abstraction in Painting, Castle Gallery, College of New Rochelle, NY, USA | |
| The Figure: Another Side of Modernism, Newhouse Center, Staten Island, NY, USA | |
| What Goes Around, Katonah Museum of Art, Katonah, NY, USA | |
| American Academy of Arts and Letters Invitational Show, American Academy, NY, USA | |
| 1999 | The Masters of Graphic Arts, International Biennial, Museum of Gyor, Hungary |
| 1998 | Urban Encounters, New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, USA |
| 1997 | 1997 Art on Paper, Weatherspoon Gallery, Greensboro, NC, USA |
| March Six, Ikon Gallery, Los Angeles, USA | |
| 1996 | Special Exhibition, Iris Prints, LA Art Expo, Los Angeles, USA |
| Allegory and Identity, Visceleglia Art Center, Caldwell, NJ, USA | |
| New York, (3 person) Kunsthaus in Hofgarten, Munich, Germany | |
| 1995 | Digital Dialects, New Paradigms, Creiger-Dane Gallery, Boston, USA |
| 1994 | Couples, Elga Wimmer Gallery, New York, USA |
| The Computer in the Studio, Computer Museum, Boston, USA | |
| New Old Masters, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, USA | |
| 1993 | Exquisite Corpse, Drawing Center, NY; Corcoran Museum, Washington, DC, USA |
| Appraising the Preternatural, Patricia Shea Gallery, Santa Monica, USA | |
| 1992 | 1992, Art on Paper, Weatherspoon Gallery, Greensboro, NC, USA |
| Group Show, Albright-Knox Museum, Buffalo, NY, USA | |
| 1990 | Group Show, Mathew Scott Fine Art, Los Angeles, USA |
| 1988 | Mutations, Anina Nosei Gallery, New York, USA |
| Imprimatur, Greenville County Museum of Art, SC, USA; North Carolina Museum of Art, NC, USA | |
| Double Visions, Hallwalls, Buffalo, NY, USA; Longwood Art Gallery, USA | |
| Bronx Council of the Arts, New York, USA | |
| 1986 | Small Scale Abstractions, Grace Borgenicht Gallery, New York, USA |
| Abstraction, Abstraction, Klein Gallery, Chicago, USA | |
| 1985 | Abstract Issues, Oscarson Hood Gallery, Tibor de Nagy; Sherri French Gallery, New York, USA |
| 1984 | New Abstraction, Tibor de Nagy Gallery, New York, USA |
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