ARTIST STATEMENT
What warrants an object to be elevated to the status of a valuable cultural object? In my recent artists’ books, I explore different facets of familial stories contextualized in political histories. For example, my artist’s book, Three Generations Happy Family, is designed to resemble a restaurant takeout menu. The book contains a timeline of my familial history told via food as a political and socioeconomic indicator. My father survived China’s Great Famine, a tragedy that claimed 55 million lives. My mother endured malnutrition under food rationing in Taiwan, during the longest period of Martial Law prior to Syria.
Years later, in the United States, a takeout restaurant became the first economic steppingstone that enabled the chain migration of my family. This restaurant was also the meeting place of my Taiwanese mother and Chinese father, in a re-stitching of identity that happens as a direct result of colonialism and diaspora. The books enter my families stories at different points, moving between historical recollection and allegorical reimagining. They simultaneously feel common yet precious, calling into question what gets treated with the regard of a valuable cultural expression, and who gets to author the stories we pay attention to and consume.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Jenie Gao (they/she) is a full-time artist running an anti-gentrification arts business, specializing in printmaking, public art, social practice, and community storytelling. They consult for cultural organizations and the public sector on equity and ethics. Jenie pulls from personal and professional experiences as a second generation Taiwanese-Chinese American and a descendant of working class immigrants, with a work background in the museum industry, public education, and lean manufacturing. Through their cross section of experiences, Jenie has become attuned to issues of artists’ labor, cultural power, and institutional accountability.
They run a paid apprenticeship program and have thus far mentored 25 emerging artists. Jenie has a BFA in Printmaking/Drawing from Washington University in St. Louis and an MFA from Emily Carr University of Art + Design. Their work is in over 40 institutional collections including Bainbridge Island Museum of Art, Library of Congress, Cornell University, and Stanford University. Their recent exhibits include Museum of Wisconsin Art, Trout Museum of Art, and South Bend Museum of Art. Their work has been included in publications such as PBS, Shoutout LA, and Fête Chinoise. Their art residencies include Women’s Studio Workshop in Kingston, New York; Art in the Park with Vancouver Board of Parks & Recreation: Decolonization, Art, & Culture; Ma’s House in the Shinnecock Reservation in Southampton, New York; Proyecto’ace in Buenos Aires, Argentina; and Museo de Arte Moderno in Chile. They are a TEDx Madison speaker and gave a talk entitled The Power and Purpose of Creativity.
© Jenie Gao