News Archive 2011

11/16–12/10: Enter a Small Room Arranged for this Purpose: Part Three

Updated November 9, 2011

I'm very excited to present a new text-based installation made of ribbon and fabric, and relating to gratitude, at this exhibition-within-an-exhibition.

Enter a Small Room Arranged for this Purpose is a series of three exhibitions in Project Space Leeds’ version of Untitled Gallery, created for Peering Sideways, a new exhibition and programme of events at PSL. This ambitious project brings together artists’ groups from around the UK (London, Manchester, Wakefield).

The project also aims to expand the networks of the participating artists and groups, sparking new relationships and collaborations. The project comprises three separate group shows running concurrently, with some of the work developing in the space over the course of the project.

November 16–December 10, 2011
Enter a Small Room Arranged for this Purpose: Part Three

[part of Peering Sideways, September 10 – December 10, 2011]
Untitled Gallery (Manchester) @ PSL [Project Space Leeds] 
Whitehall Waterfront, 2 Riverside Way, Leeds, LS1 4EH, UK

notes on object-viewer relations published

Updated November 9, 2011

I've contributed a new speculative text responding to psychologists’ research on the aesthetic encounter to the inaugural issue of Set to Signal.

Introducing Set To Signal, an art and culture bulletin concerning the future.

The future needs to be reclaimed, just ask:

Daniel Coffeen · Sarah Lehrer-Graiwer · Gabriel Ritter · Christine Wong Yap

SetToSignal.com

review posted

Posted October 6, 2011

My review of Residency Projects II, a group show at Kala Art Institute Gallery featuring Elisheva Biernoff, Zachary Royer Scholz, Renée Gertler, Jennie Ottinger, and Jessica Ingram, was published in Art Practical 3.2.

jerome foundation travel and study grant received

Revised August 2, 2011

I am honored that my application for a Travel and Study grant from the Jerome Foundation was accepted. With the funds, I'll advance my study of optimism and pessimism by attending a positive psychology conference in Philadelphia, and meeting with a UC Berkeley professor and social psychologist. I'm tremendously grateful for these opportunities.

The International Positive Psychology Association's Second International World Congress on Positive Psychology was an incredible experience. I posted copious reflections and photos on my blog.

2011 Travel and Study Grant
Jerome Foundation
Press Release (PDF)

9/3–10/2: the beautiful kiosk @ As is, oakland, ca

Updated September 18, 2011

Curatorial project by Brandon Drew Holmes.
Participating artists: Brianna Addams, Cathy Hong, Christine Wong Yap, Edmund White, Hunter Longe, Hye Park, James Sterling Pitt, Jason Benson, Joseph Dean, Keyona Tyler, Liesa Lietzke, Maggie Foster, Marcella Faustini, Matt Kennedy, Natalia Gomez, Nathan Anderson, Phylis Wilson, Shannon Green, Usman Maroof, Xavier Wood

September 2–October 2, 2011
The Beautiful Kiosk
Reception: Friday, September 2, 7–10 pm
As Is Exhibitions
4707 Telegraph Ave., Oakland, CA
Contact gallery to make an appointment.

through 8/31: window work @ dxdx studio

Posted August 22, 2011

Have a look! One of my Positive Signs has been interpreted as a window drawing in Plymouth, UK.

WINDOW WORK is a programme of artworks in a display window of an artist run studio space. 

The current WINDOW WORK project asks artists (through an open call submission process) to propose a text work, diagram, drawing, instruction piece, design etc that can easily be drawn (translated) onto the main studio window using chalk pens.

The selected works are drawn/traced/copied onto the window by studio members who follow simple instructions provided by the artist. 

Window Work

8/16–8/31
DXDX Studio
Regent Street, Plymouth, UK

through september 3: summer selections in san francisco and new york

Posted June 26, 2011

I am happy to exhibit my latest ribbon texts in bicoastal group shows at Jenkins Johnson Gallery. In Chelsea, I'll unveil hopexpectation and take charge of your happiness, while unlimited promise continues its residence in the project space. In San Francisco, think good thoughts / fortify good attitudes was on exhibit.

June 30–September 3, 2011

Summer Selections
Jenkins Johnson Gallery
NYC: 521 W. 26th Street, 5th Floor (near 10th Ave); gallery hours: Tue–Sat, 10am–6pm
SF: 464 Sutter Street (between Powell & Stockton); gallery hours: Tue–Fri, 10am-6pm and Sat, 10am-5pm

through 8/27: negative space@ steven wolf gallery

Updated August 2, 2011

I am truly excited to exhibit a selection of Positive Signs drawings at Steven Wolf Fine Arts’ beautiful new space in the Mission/Potrero Hill. Steven shows art with a lot of attitude. This show will be no exception. I've enjoyed his button-pushing vision for many years, so I’m delighted to have the chance to work with him.

Summer is the time for happy thoughts. And we at Steven Wolf Fine Arts would like to share our happy thoughts with you in our next show, Negative Space, which brings together art that embodies the various meanings and senses behind the phrase. Art that is pissed off, art that comes from the avant garde critical place we call negation, art that revolves around the void, art that poses an emptiness or art that implies one. The show will open with a Sunday afternoon barbecue, co-produced with our cross-street neighbor Guerrero Gallery.

Artists: Matt Borruso, Nina Zurier, James Hayward, Davis Robbins, Guy Debord, Nicholas Knight, Christine Wong Yap, Whitney Lynn.

Installation views

Reviewed in the San Francisco Bay Guardian on August 2.

Negative Space
Exhibition: 7/17–8/27
Opening with BBQ: Sunday, 7/17, 3–7pm
Steven Wolf Fine Arts
2747 19th Street, A, San Francisco, CA 94110
Gallery hours: Wed–Fri 10:30–5:30; Sat 11–5; or by appt.

information graphics reprinted in artist's book

Posted August 2, 2011

My short essay and massive information graphic comparing art competition odds has been reprinted an artist’s book by Tattfoo Tan.

A collection of rejection letters by artist Tattfoo Tan with an essay by Christine Wong Yap on the arts opportunities odds. Size: 8" x 10", Pages: 212, Cover: color, Pages: black and white.

Rejected, a collection of rejected letters by artist Tattfoo Tan

Available at McNally Jackson, New York, NY

woodstock byrdcliffe guild residency awarded

Posted May 28, 2011

I was honored to participate in a four week residency at Woodstock Byrdcliffe Guild this summer. It was a great opportunity to develop new projects, dialog with artists, get out of the city, tackle my summer reading list, and enroll in a woodworking class.

Read blog posts from my residency.

Artist-in-Residence
Woodstock Byrdcliffe Guild, Woodstock, NY

new essay and review published

Posted June 23, 2011

I published a short essay and massive information graphic comparing art competition odds on Temporary Art Review, a new online journal from Saint Louis, MO.

I also published a review of an exhibition at the Swiss Institute in New York on Art Practical.

“Art Competitions: A Selective Comparison of Applicant Pools, Awards, and Odds” Temporary Art Review, June 15, 2011

  

“Under Destruction I & II”
Art Practical Issue 2.19, June 16, 2011
Also appeared on Daily Serving on June 30.

featured in social text, duke university

Artworks from the 2007 Galleon Trade exhibition by Stephanie Syjuco, Reanne Estrada, Gina Osterloh, and myself are discussed in a new essay.

Eric Estuar Reyes' essay “explores Filipino American aesthetic practices that engage with the corporeal and discursive production of the ‘Filipino’ in both America and Filipino America.”

Eric Estuar Reyes
“Fictions of Return in Filipino America” [abstract]
Social Text Vol. 29, No. 2 107. (Summer): 99–117.

Social Text is a publication of Duke University Press. 

sfmoma open space contributor

Updated March 26, 2011

I'm very excited to be a contributor to Open Space, the blog of the SFMOMA.

Every Wednesday, I'll contribute Positive Signs, a weekly series of interpretive diagrams, quotes, and speculations on creativity, optimism and the lives of artists.

I'm honored to be invited to contribute, especially alongside these fellow contributors: poet, educator, and translator Norma Cole; archivist, filmmaker, and writer Rick Prelinger; writer, critic, and curator, teacher Glen Helfand; and artist Taraneh Hemami.

Curator Aimee Le Duc shared her enthusiasm for Positive Signs on the Bay Citizen (April 4, 2011).

Positive Signs will be published every Wednesday on SFMOMA Open Space

March – June 2011

through 7/31: re-covering @ untitled gallery

Posted May 23, 2011

I re-designed the cover of Mihaly Csizkzentmihalyi's Creativity—the form doubles as a creativity test—for this group show in Manchester, UK.

Curated by Mike Chavez-Dawson, Re-Covering is an exhibition of works by 40 local and international artists who redesign the cover of an influential book onto a reclaimed piece of oak from school libraries. Displayed on an installation of shelves, the works are standard paperback size (110mm x 178mm x 15mm).

Artists: David Shrigley, Billy Childish, Harry Hill, Magda Archer, Robert Casselton Clark, Laurence Lane, Mike Chavez-Dawson, Jane Chavez-Dawson, Monica Biagioli, Brian Reed, Lisa Slominski, Mr&Mrs, Andrew Bracey, Lee Machell, Paul Cordwell, Richard Healy, Nick Jordan, John Hyatt, Naomi Kashiwagi, Bren O’Callaghan & Mandy Tolley, Paul Stanley, Kai-Oi Jay Yung, David Alker, Ben Cove, Stratton Barrett & Peter Wankowicz, Cecilia Wee, Jake Geczy, Roisin Byrne, Christine Wong Yap, Ludovica Gioscia, Julie Hammonds & Kit Hammonds, Jason Minsky, Mark Haig & Sarah Perks, Ed Barton, Daniel Staincliffe, Margaret Cahill, Contents May Vary, Elizabeth Leeke, The Centre of Attention, Steve Hawley, Lee Campbell, The Confraternity of Neoflagellants & BABEL Working Group, Nicola Dale.

Concurrent programming includes The Reading, a multiple writers’ residency that will be projected live across multiple screens in Manchester including Cornerhouse, International Anthony Burgess Foundation, CUBE, Chinese Arts Centre, Castlefield Gallery, Manchester Art Gallery, Whitworth Art Gallery, and The Reading Room Collection, MMU Library.

June 17– July 31

Re-Covering
Preview: Thursday, June 16, 6-9pm
Untitled Gallery
Friends' Meeting House, 6 Mount Street (Bootle Street Entrance), Manchester, UK
Gallery hours: Wednesday 12–7; Thursday–Saturday 12–6; Sunday 12–5

may 5–june 25: t_xt_rt @ jenkins johnson Gallery

Updated May 23, 2011

think good thoughts / fortify good attitudes, 2011, ribbon, thread, pins, ~30 x 40 x 1 in / 76 x 100 x 2.5 cm. Unlimited Promise, 2009, installation: foil paper, thread, light, shadow, dim. var.

I'll show think good thoughts / fortify good attitudes and Unlimited Promise in this promising group show featuring text-based art.

T_XT_RT highlights the connection between artists and writers, visual art and written word, and author and audience through a wide variety of mediums ranging from interactive electronics to neon signs, drawings, paintings, photography, sculpture, installation, and spoken word.

Artists: Jeremy Bert, Samantha Boudrot, Brian Dettmer, Tim Etchells, Claudia Goulette, Cody Hoyt, Mena Kamel, Glenn Ligon, Jack Pierson, Burt Ritchie, Felandus Thames, Leonie Weber, Christine Wong Yap, and Samson Young.

Two readings accompany the exhibition. Reading I will feature Susan Brennan, Will Edmiston, Adam Fagin, Evan Kennedy, Jesse Seldess, and Stacy Szymaszek. Reading II will feature David Buuck, Tom Comitta, Monica de la Torre, Julie Patton, and Kim Rosenfield.

May 5–June 25, 2011

T_XT_RT
Opening Reception: Thurs, May 5, 6-8pm
T_XT_RT reading I: Thurs, May 19, 6pm
T_XT_RT reading II: Thurs, June 2, 6pm
Jenkins Johnson Gallery
521 W. 26th Street, 5th Floor (between 10th & 11th)
New York, NY
Gallery hours: Tue–Sat, 10am–6pm

5/6–6/12: procedural @ macarthur b arthur

Updated May 14, 2011

I always welcome experimental opportunities, so I was thrilled when the curators asked me to participate. I sent instructions inspired by experimental psychology, and can't wait to see how the project takes shape, especially alongside such a killer line-up of artists.

Procedural is an exhibition of instruction-based works. Thirteen artists were invited to create new pieces in the form of instructions to be performed and fabricated by the curators, Jackie Im and Aaron Harbour. The resulting works are both products of the artists’ hand and their conceptualizing process, as well as representing the series of decisions made during production, in this case by Im and Harbour. The visible hand of the curators in each work directly implicates the curator as not just a supervisor but also as a collaborator. Procedural reflects on and questions the importance of the individual artists’ hand versus concept and explores artwork as a collaboration between artists, curators, fabricators, and audience.

Artists: Miguel Calderón, Chris Cobb, Anthony Discenza, Maggie Haas, Kelly Lynn Jones, Mads Lynnerup, Julio César Morales, Marco Rios, Trevor Shimzu, Chris Sollars, Charlene Tan, Kara Tanaka, and Christine Wong Yap.

Curated by Jackie Im and Aaron Harbour.

May 6–June 12, 2011
Procedural
Reception: Fri, May 6, 7–10pm
MacArthur B Arthur
4030 Martin Luther King Jr Way, Oakland, CA.
Gallery hours: Sundays, 1-5pm and by appt.

6/1: Headlands' 2011 Benefit Art Auction

Posted May 7, 2011

I donated a recent Banner to benefit the Headlands, an amazing artists' colony in Northern California.

Headlands Center for the Arts' 2011 Benefit Art Auction
Wed, June 1, 2011
5:30 preview / 6:30 general admission
Herbst International Exhibition Hall in the Presideo, 385 Moraga Ave, San Francisco, CA

Published: strategic optimism and interviews on Art Practical

Updated May 7, 2011

For my latest feature, I interviewed Torreya Cummings, Amanda Curreri, Tattfoo Tan and Earthbound Moon, to sort out artists' survival strategies and strategic optimism. It's in Art Practical's current issue, whose title, "Attempting the possible is not terribly exciting. Attempting the impossible is exhilarating," is a quote by Earthbound Moon's Lee Pembleton.

“Portrait of an Artist, Wily and Engaged”
Art Practical
Issue 2.16, May 5, 2011

through May 21: The black Portrait @ Rush Arts Gallery

Updated May 23, 2011

I'm developing a new iteration of mirrorsblack to exhibit alongside portraits by talented New York artists.

The word black has several meanings in our society. It may reference individuals or groups with dark skin; a complete absence of light; the opposite of white; or the embodiment of a negative or pessimistic disposition. A portrait is understood to represent a person or thing, usually in the form of a drawing, painting, photograph, engraving, or text.

When these terms are linked, a sense of alchemical potency is suggested. This exhibition brings together paintings, photographs, videos, collage and sculpture by ten artists contending with what it means to make a black portrait. It aims to use this linkage to expand dialogue about identity, difference, and belonging in contemporary culture.

Artists: Kajahl Benes, Delphine Diallo, Duron Jackson, Coby Kennedy, Toyin Odutola, Kambui Olujimi, Shane Aslan Selzer, Keisha Scarville, Felandus Thames, Christine Wong Yap. Curated by Hank Willis Thomas and Natasha L. Logan.

The exhibition coincides with Beauty and Fashion: The Black Portrait, a symposium hosted by Dr. Deborah Willis on April 1 and 2 at NYU Tisch School of the Arts.

Thanks to Natasha L. Logan, Hank Willis Thomas, Charlotte Mouquin and Rush Philanthropic Arts Foundation for exhibition and programming support.

March 31–May 21

The Black Portrait
Opening reception: Thursday, March 31, 6–8pm
Artist's Talk: Saturday, May 14, 4pm

Rush Arts Gallery
526 W. 26th Street, Suite 311 (between 10th & 11th), New York, NY
Gallery hours: Wed–Sat, 2–6pm

Shadowshop

Updated November 17, 2010

I'm pleased as punch to contribute a new multiple, as well as editioned miniatures and artist's books, to Stephanie Syjuco's project, Shadowshop.

With alternating texts on each side, u&me/me&u is a new pillow designed and sewn by Christine Wong Yap. It acknowledges the give and take in relationships between lovers, friends, and artists and viewers, and the validity of diverse perspectives. It is inspired by a pillow embroidered by activists Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon.

u&me/me&u are sewn by the artist in small editions. The open edition will premiere at Shadowshop, a temporary and alternative store/distribution point by Stephanie Syjuco for the exhibition The More Things Change at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

100% of profits from u&me/me&u at Shadowshop will be donated to Marriage Equality USA, an all-volunteer, national non-profit organization whose mission is to secure legally recognized civil marriage equality for all, at the federal and state level, without regard to gender identity or sexual orientation.

November 20, 2010—May 1, 2011

Opens to the public on November 20, 2010
A temporary and alternative store/distribution point by Stephanie Syjuco for the exhibition The More Things Change
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 151 Third Street, San Francisco
Shadowshop hours: Monday–Tuesday: 11:30am–5pm; Wednesday: closed; Thursday: 11:30am–8:45pm; Friday–Sunday: 11:30am–5pm. Please visit SFMOMA.org for specific hours, museum holidays, directions and admission (Free admission on Thursdays from 6-8:45, and first Tuesdays of each month).

through 4/16: CCac print show

Posted April 2, 2011

An early reduction woodcut of mine is included in an exhibition of prints from the California College of the Arts' Printmaking Department.

THE FAMOUS, NOT-SO-FAMOUS AND THE TOTALLY UNKNOWN

An exhibition of prints spanning 60 years of printmaking from the print shop at the California College of the Arts—formerly known as the California College of Arts and Crafts. Examples of lithography, intaglio, relief and screen printing will be on display. Over the years, the CCA(C) print shop has seen many students and teachers using the presses to create images to remember. This survey is a celebration of that long history of creativity.

Curated by CCA(C) alumni and instructor Tim Sharman and CCA(C) alumni and professor Jack Ford, this exhibition honors the traditional craft of printmaking.

March 4 – April 16
IMPRESSIONS: From the CCA(C) Print Shop
Studio Quercus
385 26th Street, b/Broadway & Telegraph, downtown Oakland, CA

review posted

Posted March 27, 2011

My review of Curtain Call, a solo exhibition by sculptor Robert de Saint Phalle at Dodge Gallery, NYC, was published in Art Practical, Issue 2.13.

2/28–4/1: Portraiture: Inside Out

I'll unveil a new cutout text installation at this group show. It will be an optimistic, exhuberant update to my copper and elastic installation, Cloud. The exhibition includes two members of the collective, Brolab.

Portraiture:  Inside Out examines public expressions of private identity through the display of multi-media works including performance and installation. Featured artists include Sarah Bliss, Dominic Guarnaschelli, Gwen Hardie, Jenny Hyde, Pat Lay, Greg Leshé, So Yoon Lym, Ryan Roa, Steve Rossi, Jesse Eric Schmidt, Travis LeRoy Southworth, Tonja Torgerson, Peter Whittenberger, Christine Wong Yap and Raphael Zollinger. Artist Ryan Roa will stage a public intervention throughout the opening and documentation of the event will be on view for the remainder of the exhibition. A full color exhibition catalogue will be available. 

February 28 – April 1, 2011
Portraiture: Inside Out
Opening Reception: Thursday, March 3, 5–9pm
Walsh Gallery at Seton Hall University, South Orange, NJ
Gallery hours: Monday–Friday, 10:30am–4:30pm

feature published

My feature story is out now in the current issue of Art Practical. Based on interviews with artists Michael Arcega, Pablo Guardiola, Stephanie Syjuco, Emma Spertus, and Jenifer K Wofford, I explore why artists leave San Francisco—and why the stay.

"Should I Stay or Should I Go?"
Christine Wong Yap
Art Practical, Issue 2.10
January 28, 2011

mural printed on book cover

 

A mural I painted many years ago appears on the cover of a recently released book.

Dangerous or Endangered:
Race and the Politics of Youth in Urban America

by Jennifer Tilton

New York University Press

2010

How do you tell the difference between a “good kid” and a “potential thug”? In Dangerous or Endangered?, Jennifer Tilton considers the ways in which children are increasingly viewed as dangerous and yet, simultaneously, as endangered and in need of protection by the state.

 

stay in touch

News and exhibition announcements are published monthly in a private, secure email newsletter. Email Address:

Archive

2013
2012
2011
2010
2009
2008
2007
2006
2005