Curated by Larry Lee
Chinoiserie (Chinesey Things) brings together a disparate array of forms, colors, themes, and elements evocative of the artists’ Chinese American identities. Father-daughter team, Adrian Wong and Clementine Reid Wong (second and third-generation immigrants, respectively) collaboratively produced the works on view while reflecting on the question, “What makes a thing Chinese?” and further to the more intrinsic question of “What makes us Chinese?” The title of the exhibition, Chinoiserie, is drawn from the emergence of Orientalist motifs in 17th century European decorative arts, from Rococo frescoes to Delftware to Medici Porcelain – specifically, the imitation of Chinese artistic traditions built upon an imagined, romantic ideal of the Far East, or, as abstracted by Reid Wong in the parenthetical, “Chinesey Things”. The gifted 5-year-old Reid Wong, who grew up in a more multi-cultural society than her father, questions and brings to fore design elements imbued in what is seen as her cultural heritage.
Meet the Artists
