Albert Chong (born 1958) is an artist of

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

n and

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...

descent. Chong works across medias and has produced series of photographs as well as installations and

sculpture Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable ...

s. He states that the purpose of much of his art is to "represent and reanimate his family history.""About The Artist"
Albert Chong.com. Retrieved 7 August 2008. He has said that he uses his family heritage as "an alternative way of putting more out there that's about people of color, letting other stories be heard, other viewpoints".

Early life

Chong was born in Kingston, Jamaica, in 1958. His parents ran a grocery store and his father was a well-respected justice of the peace. His multicultural heritage is described in an L.A. times article: "Half-Chinese, half- Jamaican Chong was raised

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

but has followed Rastafari, the

Ethiopian Ethiopians are the native inhabitants of Ethiopia, as well as the global diaspora of Ethiopia. Ethiopians constitute several component ethnic groups, many of which are closely related to ethnic groups in neighboring Eritrea and other parts of ...

-inspired political/religious movement, and Santeria, the syncretic religion forged by African slaves living under Christian domination in the Caribbean." The article also relates an episode from Chong's early childhood, wherein his father brought both a Catholic priest and an Obeahman

shaman Shamanism is a religious practice that involves a practitioner (shaman) interacting with what they believe to be a spirit world through altered states of consciousness, such as trance. The goal of this is usually to direct spirits or spir ...

to bless a new house they had bought in Jamaica. Chong immigrated permanently to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

in 1977, settling first with his sisters in

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

. He attended the

School of Visual Arts The School of Visual Arts New York City (SVA NYC) is a private for-profit art school in New York City. It was founded in 1947 and is a member of the Association of Independent Colleges of Art and Design. History This school was started by ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

from 1978 to 1981, and in 1981, Chong started his exhibiting career.Hemmings, Brad T.
"Albert Chong - Caribbean Hall of Fame"
Caribbean Hall of Fame. Retrieved 8 August 2008. In 1988, his family moved to

San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United State ...

, and Chong attended the

University of California, San Diego The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego or colloquially, UCSD) is a public land-grant research university in San Diego, California. Established in 1960 near the pre-existing Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego is t ...

. In 1991, Chong received his Master of Fine Arts degree from that university.Guh, Jessica
"Albert Chong"
Stanford Institute for Diversity in the Arts, Stanford University. Retrieved 7 August 2008.

Artwork

Chong works across art medias, primarily in photography, installation, and sculpture. The content of the work deals with mysticism, spirituality, race and identity, as well as investigating the inherent value in images and objects. Chong’s best known bodies of work are black and white still life photographs.

Notable series

These links lead to galleries on Chong's official website.
Black-and-white
an
color
still lifes, which have been described by the artist as "performances in a way, too," with the assembling of objects "as a sacred ritual act, a gathering together of objects of power".
Thrones Series

Projections

I-Traits (Self-Portraits)
which according to the L.A. Times, are "named for the Rastafarian belief that the eye and the 'I' are profoundly linked means of perception".

Teaching

Chong lives in the

and has taught at several different colleges and universities. From 1982 to 1988, he taught at the

in New York City; from 1989 to 1991 at

Mira Costa College MiraCosta College is a public community college serving coastal North San Diego County in California with two campuses, one in eastern Oceanside and the other in Cardiff-by-the-Sea, and many satellite locations, including the Community Learnin ...

in Oceanside, California; and from 1996 to 1997 at the

Rhode Island School of Design The Rhode Island School of Design (RISD , pronounced "Riz-D") is a private art and design school in Providence, Rhode Island. The school was founded as a coeducational institution in 1877 by Helen Adelia Rowe Metcalf, who sought to increase the ...

Providence, Rhode Island Providence is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Rhode Island. One of the oldest cities in New England, it was founded in 1636 by Roger Williams, a Reformed Baptist theologian and religious exile from the Massachusetts ...

. Currently Chong teaches at The University of Colorado Boulder, in Boulder, Colorado.

Awards

Chong has been awarded a number of prestigious awards for his work. In 1992 he was awarded an individual artist fellowship from the

National Endowment for the Arts The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal ...

. In 1998 he was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship, and later that same year he was awarded a

Pollock-Krasner Foundation The Pollock-Krasner Foundation was established in 1985 for the purpose of providing financial assistance to individual working artists of established ability. It was established at the bequest of Lee Krasner, who was an American abstract expressio ...

Grant.

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chong, Albert Jamaican artists 1958 births Living people Jamaican emigrants to the United States Artists from Kingston, Jamaica American artists of Chinese descent School of Visual Arts alumni University of California, San Diego alumni School of Visual Arts faculty Rhode Island School of Design faculty National Endowment for the Arts Fellows