Astra Huimeng Wang b. 1990, Inner Mongolia, China
Astra Huimeng Wang creates events and circumstances to study the manufacture of truth and identities, collaborating extensively with orchestras, poets, actors, and sometimes strangers. In her diverse practice across media, 21 people tattooed different words onto their bodies and collectively formed a short poem of hers; a choir sang and chanted variations of Ode to Joy in security cages; a piano was shot 400 times in the California desert; and a three-day chocolate fountain party attended by hundreds went terribly wrong as intended. Wang’s work draws inspiration from literature, cinema, and her own biomedical background, with recurrent elements of desire and conflict, and a lingering sense of dark comedy which foreshadows a crisis in the human condition.
Wang received her M.F.A. in Studio Art from San Francisco Art Institute and B.E. in Biomedical Engineering from Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics. She has received fellowships and held residencies at MacDowell, Millay Arts, Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts, and Wilhardt & Naud, among others. Selected exhibitions and performances include those at Make Room (Los Angeles), Woaw Gallery (Hong Kong), Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture (San Francisco), the Pennsylvania State University, and the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra.
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Mysterious but Capable of Being Infallibly Comprehended by the Application of a Few Leading Principles of Psychology, 2021
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To Have Still the Things You Had Before (After Stravinsky’s The Soldier’s Tale), 2021
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Ode to Orderly Joy, 2019
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This Might Not Be the Darkest Time of Your Life…or it Might!, 2019
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When I Look at the Unfulfilled Desires of a Mother I Am Looking at Decay Itself, 2019
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A Beginner's Guide to the Art of Throwing the Perfect Chocolate Fountain Party, 2016
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You Are Beautiful You Should Be Seen, 2015
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Astra Huimeng Wang
Premiere Today: In collaboration with Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra March 12, 2021In collaboration with Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, whose 2020-21 season features classical music performances set to artwork created by invited artists, Astra Huimeng Wang draws...Read more -
Astra Huimeng Wang
Awarded MacDowell Colony Fellowship 2020 January 4, 20202020.1.14 view more: https://www.artforum.com/news/macdowell-colony-awards-fellowships-to-eighty-seven-artists-81859Read more -
Astra Huimeng Wang
Solo exhibition "Ode to Orderly Joy" is on view at Borland Project Space December 11, 20192019.12.11 Wang Huimeng’s solo exhibition Ode to Orderly Joy is currently on view at Borland Project Space at Penn State University, curated by Lonnie Graham....Read more