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.