Yongqi Tang
Art
Statement
Having studied and worked between China and America, Yongqi has been influenced by the drastically different cultural and ideological contexts. Her works investigate, deconstruct and remodel her identities and roles in both private and public space through the act of painting and drawing. Each of her projects is grouped around specific focus on the different identity explorations, such as gender, sexuality, and nationality. Using the dining experience as an entry point, her thesis examines the ambiguous anxiety to be in the liminal state between the alienation from her country of origin and the displacement at current settlement. The works inspect how we see ourselves through the concepts others have of us and the groups we belong to, and perform identities under the impact of the surrounding conditions. Identity therefore becomes a duplicated phenomenon — people are both themselves and a project they make of themselves.
Bio
Born in China in 1997, Yongqi Tang attended University of Washington and received a BA in painting and drawing in 2019 and an MFA in 2022. Her artistic practices involve a variety of materials including but not limited to oil, watercolor, acrylic, and charcoal.
Committee
- David Brody
- Sangram Majumdar
- Ann Gale
- Philip Govedare
- Zhi Lin
- Helen O’Toole
Education
- MFA, Painting + Drawing, University of Washington, 2022
- BA, Art, School of Art + Art History + Design, University of Washington, 2019
- BS, Psychology, University of Washington, 2019
Exhibitions
- 2021 – The Reordering of Things, Jacob Lawrence Gallery, Seattle, WA
- 2021 – Summer, Sand Point Gallery, Seattle, WA
- 2020 – Work in Progress Show, Sand Point Gallery, Seattle, WA
- 2020 – Small Expressions, Northwind Arts Center, Port Townsend, WA
- 2020 – Eros, C’est la Vie, Gallery 110, Seattle, WA
- 2019 – Honors Graduation Exhibition, Jacob Lawrence Gallery, Seattle, WA
- 2019 – Painting + Drawing Open House, Sand Point Gallery, Seattle, WA
- 2018 – Honor Exhibition, Parnassus Café, Seattle, WA
Awards
- 2021 – Graduate Study Equity & Excellence Tuition and Graduate Supplemental Award, University of Washington, Seattle, WA
- 2021 – Boyer and Elizabeth Bole Gonzales Scholarship, University of Washington, Seattle, WA
Links
Excerpt from interview by Jordan Amirkhani
The works examine how we construct identities around food. What interests me is not who is eating or what food they consume, but what they are doing around the table. Now I am interested in social events where you can see a lot of artificial bonds, disingenuousness and tension.
