Tseng Kwong Chi

Born in Hong Kong, 1950.

Left Hong Kong with family in 1966.

Educated in Hong Kong, Vancouver, Canada, Montreal, Canada, Paris, France.

Settled in New York City, New York 1979.

Died in New York City, New York 1990.

EDUCATION

 L' École Superior d’Arts Graphiques at L’Academie Julien, Paris, France

Sir George Williams University, Montreal, Canada

University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2008    “Tseng Kwong Chi: Self-Portraits 1979-1989,” Paul Kasmin Gallery, New York, NY (catalogue)

           “Tseng Kwong Chi: Self-Portraits 1979-1989,” Ben Brown Fine Arts, London, UK (catalogue)

            "Tseng Kwong Chi", Heather James Fine Art Gallery, Palm Springs, CA

2007     “Tseng Kwong Chi: Ambiguous Ambassador,” Bernard Toale Gallery, Boston, MA

2005-06 “Tseng Kwong Chi: East Meets West,” Galleria Carla Sozzani, Milan, Italy

2005     “Tseng Kwong Chi: Ambiguous Ambassador,” Stephen Cohen Gallery, Los Angeles, CA

2004     “Tseng Kwong Chi: Ambiguous Ambassador,” Hanart Gallery, Hong Kong

2003     "Tseng Kwong Chi: East Meets West," Lee Ka-Sing Gallery, Toronto, Canada

2002     "Tseng Kwong Chi: Ambiguous Ambassador," Chambers Fine Art, New York,

"Tseng Kwong Chi: A Retrospective, " Philadelphia Art Alliance, Philadelphia, PA (catalogue)

"Tseng Kwong Chi," SK Josefsberg Studio, Portland, OR

 "In America: Vintage Prints, 1979-1987," Julie Saul Gallery, New York, NY

2001    "Costumes at the Met," Portland Institute of Contemporary Art, Portland, OR

2000    "East Meets West," Carol Ehlers, Chicago, IL

1999-01 "Tseng Kwong Chi: Citizen of the World," organized by the Center for Creative

Photography, traveling exhibition continues on to Johnson County

Community College Gallery of Art, Overland Park, KS; Southeast

Museum of Photography, Daytona Beach, FL; J. Wayne Stark University

Center Galleries, Texas A & M University, College Station, TX

1998-99 "Tseng Kwong Chi: The Expedition," Art Gallery of Windsor, Ontario, Canada

1997  "Tseng Kwong Chi, Citizen of the World," Center for Creative Photography, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ

"The Gang’s All Here: New York in the Eighties," Julie Saul Gallery, New York, NY (portfolio)

"East Meets West: The Expeditionary Series," Haines Gallery, San Francisco, CA

"East Meets West: The Expeditionary Series," Robert Klein Gallery, Boston, MA

"East Meets West: The Expeditionary Series," Jackson Fine Art, Atlanta, GA

1996     "East Meets West: The Expeditionary Series," Julie Saul Gallery, New York, NY

1993     "Tseng Kwong Chi: Polaroids, Portraits, Expeditions,"Alternative Museum, New York, NY

1992     "Tseng Kwong Chi: The Expeditionary Works," Houston Center for Photography, Houston, TX (catalogue)

1989    "Tseng Kwong Chi," BASE, Paris, France

1987    "Tseng Kwong Chi," Rodman Center for the Arts, Ripon College, Ripon, WI

"Tseng Kwong Chi: Canadian Rockies Series," Gallery Casa Toledo Oosterom, New York, NY

1986    "Tseng Kwong Chi: N.A.S.A. Series," Semaphore Gallery, New York, NY

1984    "Art in Transit," a collaboration with Keith Haring, Semaphore Gallery, New York, NY

"East Meets West: American Monuments Series," C.E.P.A. Gallery, Buffalo, NY

 "East Meets West: New Photographs," Semaphore Gallery, New York, NY

1983    "East Meets West," Bonlow Gallery, New York, NY

 “East Meets West: American Series," Beulah Land, NY

1981    "East Meets West," Mudd Club, New York, NY

ARTIST MONOGRAPHS

Tseng Kwong Chi: Self-Portraits 1979-1989, exhibition catalogue with texts by Lilly Wei, Dan Cameron, 

Kenny Scharf and Muna Tseng, Paul Kasmin Gallery, New York, NY, 2008.

Houston Street & Bowery Mural, Tseng Kwong Chi, Keith Haring, Jeffrey Deitch, Deitch Projects, 2008.

Tseng Kwong Chi, Ambiguous Ambassador, monograph of 95 photographs from the Expeditionary Self-Portraits Series, 

with texts by Dan Cameron, Richard Martin and Grady T. Turner, Nazraeli Press/JGS, 2005.

A Retrospective, Improbable Pilgrim: The Photographs of Tseng Kwong Chi, essay by Amy Ingrid Schlegel, Philadelphia Art Alliance, 2002.

Tseng Kwong Chi: The Expeditionary Works, essay by Barry Blinderman, Houston Center for Photography, Houston, TX, 1992.

Tseng Kwong Chi, foreword by Richard Martin, Art Random, Kyoto Shoin, 1990.

Art in Transit, New York Subway Drawings by Keith Haring, introduction by Henry Geldzahler and text by Keith Haring, Harmony Books, Crown Publishers,1984.

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS (last ten years)

2010-11 “Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture”, National Portrait Gallery, Washington DC

2010      “Dreamlands”, Centre Pompidou-Museé National d’art Moderne, Paris, France.

2008-09 "Self and Other : Portraits from Asia and Europe", National Museum of Ethnology, The National Museum of Art, Osaka, Fukuoka Asian Art Muesum, The Museum of Modern Art, Hayama, Kanagawa Prefectural Museum of Cultural History, Japan.

2008     “Against All Odds: from the Rubell Family Collection”, Palm Springs Art Museum, California

2008     ”People and Places: Selections from the Allen Thomas Jr. Photography Collection”, Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art, Winston-Salem, NC.

 “Keith Haring Retrospective, with photographs by Tseng Kwong Chi,” Museum of Contemporary Art, Lyon, France

2007-08 “Brasil: desFocos,” Centro Cultural do Banco do Brasil/Rio, Pao das Artes, Sao Paulo, Brazil, curated by Messia Pope and Paul Herkenhoff, (bi-lingual catalogue)

“From Street to Studio,” curated by Mara Williams Oakes, Brattleboro Museum, Brattleboro, VT  

“Energy,” Visual AIDS January 2007 Web Gallery, curated by the NYU Ticsh High School Photography Program,

2006-07  “The Grand Canyon: From Dream to Icon,” Tucson Museum of Art, Tucson, AZ

 “The Downtown Show: The New York Art Scene, 1974 - 84,” curated by Carlo McCormick, Grey Art Gallery, New York University, New York, NY; The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh, PA; The Austin Museum of Art, Austin, TX (catalogue)

“The Jean-Michel Basquiat Show,” Le Mostre della Triennale di Milano, Milan, Italy

2006   “Placed in China,” Walsh Gallery, Chicago, IL

“Smoke and Mirrors: Deception in Contemporary Art,” Visual Arts Gallery, The University of Alabama at Birmingham, AL

“Personal Perspectives: Aspects of American Photography,” de Young Museum, San Francisco, CA

“Keith Haring: Journey of the Radiant Baby,” curated by Ron Roth, Reading Museum, Reading, PA

2005    Visual AIDS November 2005 Web Gallery, curated by Lei Chou, www.thebody.com/visualaids/web_gallery

“The Keith Haring Show,” Le Mostre della Triennale di Milano, Milan Italy

“Pop Shop Tokyo Photographs,” published by George Mulder Fine Art and Malca Fine Art, Suzanne Biederberg Gallery, Amsterdam, Holland and Galerie Raab, Berlin, Germany

 “L’art a la Plage: Keith Haring,” (Pop Shop Tokyo photographs), Galerie Enrico Navarra in cooperation with Galerie Jerome de Noirmont and George Mulder Fine Art, St. Tropez, France

“Artists Interrogate: Race and Identity,” Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, WI

“Site Seeing: Photographic Excursions in Tourism,” from the Collections of the George Eastman House, Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach.

“Collection Remixed,” curated by Antonio Sergio Bessa, The Bronx Museum of the Arts, Bronx, NY

“Vintage East Village,” curated by Rick Prol, Hal Bromm Gallery, New York, NY

 Visual AIDS February 2005 Web Gallery, curated by Nayland Blake.

2004-05 “East Village USA,” curated by Dan Cameron, New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, NY

 “The Andy Warhol Show,” Le Mostre della Triennale di Milano, Milan, Italy

2004    “Tseng Kwong Chi: Ambiguous Ambassador,” Shanghai Art Museum, Shanghai Biennale, China.

“Camera/Action,” Museum of Contemporary Photography, Columbia College, Chicago, IL

 Visual AIDS November 2004 Web Gallery, curated by Bruce Silverstein.

2003-04 "Only Skin Deep: Changing Visions of the American Self,"  International Center of Photography, New York, NY

2003     "Commodification of Buddhism," The Bronx Museum of the Arts, Bronx, NY

 "Road Show," curator Cindy Rucker, Margaret Thatcher Projects, New York, NY

 “Me, Myself and I: Looking at Portraiture,” CRG Gallery, New York, NY

 "The Bold 1980's: A Collector's Vision," Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, VA

2002-04 "Portrait of the Art World: A Century of ARTnews Photographs," The New York Historical Society, New York, NY; National Portrait Gallery at the S. Dillon Ripley Center International Gallery, Washington, DC; Elmhurst Art Museum, Elmhurst, IL; Museum of New Mexico, Museum of Fine Arts, Santa Fe, NM (catalogue)

2002-03 "Who? Me? Role Play in Self-Portrait Photography," Zabriskie Gallery, New York, NY

 "New York après New York," Musée de l'Elysée, Lausanne, Switzerland; Caves de la Maison de Courten à Sierre, Sierre, Switzerland

2002      "Archi-Tourism," Buell Center of American Architecture, Columbia University, New York, NY

 "Where is Elvis?"  Howard Greenberg Gallery, New York, NY

 "Uniforms in Fact and Fantasy," American Textile History Museum, Lowell, MA

 "Manicurated: Conversations with the Permanent Collection, A Project with Judi Werthein," The Bronx Museum of the Arts, Bronx, NY

 "Visualizing the Blues: Images of the American South 1862-1999," Austin Museum of Art, Austin, TX

 "Contemporary Photographs," Galerie Jerome de Noirmont, Paris, France

 "Portrait as Performance," curated by Carla Hanzal and Ashley Kistler, Hand Workshop Art Center, Richmond, VA; Contemporary Art Center of Virginia, Virginia Beach, VA

2001-02 "Issues of Identity in Recent American Art," Roland Gibson Art Gallery, SUNY Potsdam, NY; University Galleries, Illinois State University, Normal, IL; The Ewing Gallery of Art and Architecture, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN; Ben Shahn Galleries, William Paterson University, Wayne, NJ; Samek Art Gallery, Bucknell University, Lewisburg, PA

2000     "Recent Acquisitions," The Walker Arts Center, Minneapolis, MN

             "A Day With(out) Art Web Action," www.creativetime.org/dwa

"Our Quarter Century: The University of Arizona's Center for Creative Photography Turns 25," Center for Creative Photography, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ

 “Into Our Prime: Acquisitions Since 1996,” Center for Creative Photography, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ

1999   "The Cultured Tourist," Carol Ehlers Gallery Limited, Chicago, IL

"Your I," Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY

"Looking Into the Collection: Celebrity," Center for Creative Photography, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ

“Bodies of Work: Series and Obsessions from the Center of Creative Photography,” The University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ

 "Basquiat photographed by Tseng Kwong Chi," L'Espal Centre Culturel, Le Mans, France

 SELECTED PUBLIC COLLECTIONS

 Ackland Art Museum, Chapel Hill, North Carolina

The Bronx Museum of the Arts, Bronx, New York

Center for Creative Photography, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona (catalogue)

  (A set of 85 large-format modern prints from the East Meets West Expeditionary self-portraits series)

Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Virginia

Dartmouth University Art Museum, Hanover, New Hampshire

Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, Fukuoka, Japan

The George Eastman House, Rochester, New York

The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, New York

The Johnson County Community College, Overland Park, Kansas

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, California

MIT List Visual Arts Center, Cambridge, Massachusetts

Musee de l'Elysee, Lausanne, Switzerland

Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas

The New School for Social Research, New York, New York

The New York Public Library, New York, New York

The Queens Museum, Flushing, New York

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco,California

The Spencer Museum of Art, Lawrence, Kansas

University of Connecticut, William Benton Museum of Art, Storrs, Connecticut

The Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota (catalogue)

Davis Museum and Cultural Center, Wellesley College, Wellesley, Massachusetts

SELECTED PRIVATE / CORPORATE COLLECTIONS

 The Alturas Collection, Boston, Massachusetts

Dow Jones, New York, New York

The Equitable Corporation, New York, New York

Goldman & Sachs Corporate Collection, New York, New York

Hallmark Photographic Collection, Kansas City, Missouri (catalogue)

The Keith Haring Foundation, New York, New York

HBO, New York, New York

La Salle Bank, Chicago, Illinois

The Martin Margolis Collection, Miami, Florida

Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Minnesota Regional Sleep Disorders Center, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota

The Refco Collection of Modern Photography, Chicago, Illinois (catalogue)

The Rubell Family Collection, Miami, Florida (catalogue)

The West Collection at SEI, Oaks, Pennsylvania

The Sprint Collection, Overland Park, Kansas

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY (Reviews and Articles)

2008     “Tseng Kwong Chi at Paul Kasmin Gallery,” Art in America, June/July 2008.

            “Tseng Kwong Chi,” ArtUS, Summer 2008.

            “Tseng Kwong Chi,” The New Yorker, May 5, 2008.

“Tseng Kwong Chi,” Interview, April 2008.   

            “Tseng Kwong Chi Opening at Paul Kasmin in NYC Tonight!” Paper, April 2008.

            “The Resurrection of Tseng Kwong Chi,” Paper, March 2008.

2007    “Tseng Kwong Chi,” Mao Mag, February 2007.

2006     “The Downtown Show,” Frieze, May 2006.

2005     “United States: our Selection A-Z,” The Art Newspaper, February 2005.

2004     “Suitable Attire Required,” Art AsiaPacific, cover and article, Fall 2004.

  “The Accidental Ambassador,” Post Magazine, Hong Kong, September 12, 2004.

“Le Guide du Rout’Art,” BeauxArts, July 2004.

“Floods and Imposters,” ricepaperonline.com, Spring 2004.

  “Asiamericasia: Towards a Globalized Asian American Art History,” CAA Conference 2004.

  “Claiming Postcolonial America: The Hybrid Asian-American Performances of

  "Tseng Kwong Chi", Asian North American Identities, 2004.

2003   “Tseng Kwong Chi at Chambers Fine Art,” Yishu: Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art, December 2003.

“Commodification of Buddhism,” Art Asia Pacific, Fall 2003.

“It’s Official,” Eye Weekly, www.eye.com, May 8, 2003.

“Examining the Artist as Subject,” The Washington Post Weekend, February 14, 2003.

          “Who? Me?” The New York Times, January 10, 2003.

2002   “Photography Review,” The New York Times, November 22, 2002.

Chinese Art News, November 2002.

"Tseng Kwong Chi: Ambiguous Ambassador," Asian Art, October 2002.

          “Art cue: Tseng Kwong Chi,” New York, October 21, 2002.

          "Lessons Learned," Public Art Review, Fall/Winter 02.

"Lost in America," The Oregonian, April 26, 2002.

"A Life in Chinese Drag," The Advocate, April 2, 2002.

"The Ambiguous Ambassador," The Philadelphia Inquirer, March 28, 2002.

"University Exhibit Meditates on pre-Sept. 11 New York," Lawrence Journal-World, March 2002

"Tseng Kwong Chi," The New York Times, March 1, 2002.

"Ultimate Tourist," Where, March 2002.

"Voice Choices," Village Voice, February 2002.

2000   "Collection Takes Viewers on Journey," The News Journal, October 29, 2000.

"Spectacle of Invisibility: The Photography of Tseng Kwong Chi and Nikki S. Lee," Dialogue, Spring-Summer 2000.

 AWARDS

 Yale Brachman Award for Distinguished Cultural Contribution, Timothy Dwight College, Yale University.

Award for Distinguished Work, Asia American Arts Institute, New York City.

PERFORMANCES

1986   "Keith Haring’s Party of Life III," The Palladium, New York City.

1982   "Scandinavia Today," The Clocktower, Institute for Art and Urban Resources, New York City.

“The Kitchen Tour," Staten Island Ferry, New York City.

"Space Invaders," P.S. 1, Long Island City, Queens, New York City.

"Valentine’s Day," Stilwend, New York City.

1981   "Avalon Beach Patrol Lifeguard Ball," Wildwood, New York City.

"Inaugural Ball," The Mudd Club, New York City.

"Royal Wedding," The Underground, New York City.

1980   "Chinese Costume Exhibition," Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City.

"Artists and Models Ball," Danceteria, New York City.

"First Invitational," Club 57, New York City.

 FILMS AND VIDEOS

 "East Meets West: Portrait of Tseng Kwong Chi," 6 1/2 minute film by Christine Lombard, 1984, collection of Hirshhorn Museum, Washington, DC.; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY; Center for Creative Photography, Tucson, AZ.