Art, Identity and Legacy: Ching Ho Cheng, Miguel Ferrando, and Tseng Kwong Chi

Identity looms large as a rubric for attending to artistic legacies. With dedication to more expansive cultural histories in regard to race, diaspora, gender, sexuality, and HIV status, this approach is essential. But tensions and slippages often arise when applying identity-based analysis retroactively, especially for artists whose work was made against autobiographical interpretation.

During this event, short presentations introduced the work of three artists who immigrated to New York City and developed their practice in relation to distinct artistic scenes. In the conversation that followed, the artist’s sisters – all stewards of their sibling’s legacies for over thirty years – reflected on the often gendered labor of legacy work and their role in translating the artistic, social, and political concerns of a deceased artist into contemporary discourse.

Moderated by Chelsea Spengemann, Executive Director, Soft Network and Jayne Cole, Co-curator of "Legacies" at 80WSE. With an introduction by Kyle Croft, Executive Director, Visual AIDS.

Attendees were encouraged to view work by all three artists before the event. Work by Ching Ho Cheng and Tseng Kwong Chi was on view at 80WSE as part of “Legacies: Asian American Art Movements in New York City (1969-2001),” curated by Howie Chen. Work by Miguel Ferrando was on view at Candice Madey Gallery as part of “Darrel Ellis and Miguel Ferrando.”

This event was organized by Visual AIDS, 80WSE and Soft Network.

Participants

Sybao Cheng-Wilson has worked as a model and fashion designer. In 1950, her family immigrated to New York from Cuba, where her father had held a diplomatic post for the Republic of China. Her brother, Ching Ho Cheng (1946–1989), lived in the Chelsea Hotel in the 1970s, where he mingled with the avant-garde of New York and produced a body of work that ranges from psychedelic paintings and airbrushed still lifes to torn paper and alchemical reactions.

Muna Tseng is an acclaimed choreographer and the founder of Muna Tseng Dance Projects. Raised in Hong Kong, she moved to New York in 1978 with her brother, the photographer Tseng Kwong Chi (1950–1990). Kwong Chi was part of the downtown arts scene of the 1980s and is best known for his self-portrait series East Meets West in which he poses in front of iconic tourist sites in a Mao suit.

Teresa Ferrando Kleint and her brother Miguel Ferrando (1957–1996) moved to New York from Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic in the early 1960s. From the late 1970s, Miguel was active as a painter and performer in downtown New York, becoming close with artists Darrel Ellis and Richard Brintzenhofe. His paintings often juxtaposed art historical references with buildings and landscapes of the Dominican Republic.

Support

The Visual AIDS Archive and associated programs are supported by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Arts, The Cowles Charitable Trust, Hauser & Wirth Institute, Lambent Foundation, The National Endowment for the Arts, The New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.