Cecile Chong is an American artist based in Brooklyn, New York, whose work addresses the process of cultural assimilation and the development of individual identity. For many years she has contributed to New York City public school art programs as a teaching artist.

Early life

Cecile Chong was born in Guayaquil Ecuador. She went to China when she was 10, attending the Sacred Heart Conossian School in

Macau Macau or Macao (; ; ; ), officially the Macao Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (MSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China in the western Pearl River Delta by the South China Sea. With a pop ...

, and then at 15 returned to Ecuador to attend the International section of the Colegio Americano High School in Quito. She came to New York City at age 19 to study art.

Background and education

She studied studio art at Queens College, receiving a BA in 1988. She received a master's degree in art education at

Hunter College Hunter College is a public university in New York City. It is one of the constituent colleges of the City University of New York and offers studies in more than one hundred undergraduate and postgraduate fields across five schools. It also admi ...

in 1994. During graduate studies at the

Parsons School of Design Parsons School of Design, known colloquially as Parsons, is a private art and design college located in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City. Founded in 1896 after a group of progressive artists broke away from established Manhatt ...

she was challenged to explore her own, genuine and constructive narrative, receiving an MFA degree in 2008.

Selected works and exhibitions

2015 - ''Time Collision -'' in the Project Room of

BRIC Arts Media BRIC, formerly known as BRIC Arts Media or Brooklyn Information & Culture, is a non-profit arts organization based in Brooklyn, New York founded in 1979 as the "Fund for the Borough of Brooklyn". A presenter of free cultural programming in Brookly ...

Chong presented an installation of Eastern and Western objects and images in landscape format mixing cultural incongruities. 2018 ''In Between Daylight'', FiveMyles Gallery, Brooklyn NY consisted of a large wall installation of artificial and real flora with small guagua's facing it. and represents the risk, danger and beauty of the immigrant journey. 2017 - 2019 ''El Dorado - The New Forty-niners'' is a New York City installation of many small swaddled baby (guagua) sculptures. Forty-nine percent of the figures are painted gold, representing the percentage of NYC households that speak a language other than English. Speaking to issues of immigration, the installation as such re-images a present-day wealthy metropolis. Sunset Park in Brooklyn was the first public park iteration as it travels to the five boroughs of NYC; Lewis Latimer House Museum in Flushing Queens was a second in 2018; and a third appeared in the Bronx at a 2019 Wave Hill summer group show described as a multi-piece “guagua” sculptural installation and a tribute to New York City's immigrant populations. Solo exhibitions * 2017 Selena Gallery, Brooklyn, NY * 2015 BRIC Arts Media, Brooklyn, NY * 2013 Emerson Gallery Berlin, Germany, * 2014 Honey Ramka Project Space, * 2012 Figuresworks, * 2011 Praxis International Art Project Space, * 2010 ArtSPACE * 2008 Corridor Gallery

Fellowships and residencies

* EFA studio program, current * Joan Mitchell Center Residency 2017 *

Wave Hill Wave Hill is a estate in the Hudson Hill section of Riverdale in the Bronx, New York City. Wave Hill currently consists of public horticultural gardens and a cultural center, all situated on the slopes overlooking the Hudson River, with exp ...

Winter Workspace Residency 2017 *

Lower East Side Printshop Lower East Side Printshop, also known as L.E.S. Printshop (founded in 1968) is a nonprofit arts organization and printmaking studio located in New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of ...

2016–2017 *

MASS MoCA The Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA) is a museum in a converted Arnold Print Works factory building complex located in North Adams, Massachusetts. It is one of the largest centers for contemporary visual art and performing ar ...

Studios Residency * Jerome Foundation Travel and Study Grant 2015 * The Center for Book Arts Residency 2013 * Socrates Sculpture Park 2011 * AIM -

Bronx Museum The Bronx Museum of the Arts (BxMA), also called the Bronx Museum of Art or simply the Bronx Museum, is an American cultural institution located in Concourse, Bronx, New York. The museum focuses on contemporary and 20th-century works created by A ...

2011 * Urban Artist Initiative NYC 2009 * Aljira Emerge * the Joan Mitchell Foundation MFA Grant 2008

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chong, Cecile 1964 births Living people 20th-century American women artists 21st-century American women artists Artists from Brooklyn Hunter College alumni Parsons School of Design alumni People from Guayaquil