What is social justice art? A talk with artist Siyan Wong.
Photo by Alvin Tsang
Save the Date: March 4th at 7:30 PM EST
"So much to celebrate in 2021! Vaccines, climate justice back on the agenda, and a president who speaks of hope rather than hate. How about a drink to celebrate all that over the enjoyment of art with me? We will explore my paintings and hear my artistic vision. If you are inclined to buy any of my paintings, please know that 25% of sales will be donated to Womankind if purchased in March, April or May 2021."--Siyan
About the Artist
Siyan Wong is a New York City based artist whose subjects are the working poor, the homeless, women and the elderly. Her art practice is to explore her subject’s experiences by creating a series of paintings and then exhibiting them together in one space.
The issues she explores reflect who she is. Working since she was 13 and a child of Chinese immigrant workers, she paid her own education to become a workers rights lawyer. Her work experiences and her subsequent contacts with everyday working people continue to inform her artistic vision. Each of her projects makes visible the people who would otherwise be invisible and made disposable. Her projects honor the human spirit to live a better life while questioning our current societal values.I paint to give voice to myself and the voiceless. I paint to add something meaningful to the world - to record a voice that would otherwise be absent.
Photo by Alvin Tsang
Since 2018, she has shown her paintings at the New York Art Equity Gallery, the New York Arts Center, and spoken at a solo workshop about her art and paintings at the Museum of Chinese in the Americas (MOCA) and at local independent radio shows. Her current and on-going projects include:
- "Five Cents A Can: Making Visible the Invisible” - It is about the people who survive on picking up cans and bottles in a city of abundance. This project is supported by grants from the Asian Women Giving Circle and the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. It is also fiscally sponsored by the New York Foundation for the Arts. (Available to exhibit)
- “Home and Homeless” - It is about the haves and have nots, and why. (Ready for exhibition in 2023)
- “Remembering Our History” - Through 50 paintings that trace the work of Chinese immigrants since 1965, this project shows the human spirit to better one’s life and future generations from working in garment factories to scavenging the streets for five-cents cans and bottles. (Ready for exhibition in 2022)
- “Asian American Portrait” - Paintings of everyday or famous Asian Americans will be created every week in 2021. Suggestions are welcomed.
Remembering Our History, 2022
Home and Homeless, 2023
Distance, 2023
