The Queens College School of Arts has selected Leekyung Kang and Jian Yang to be the artists in residence for this 2024-2025 academic year.
Kang will be in residence this fall semester while Yang’s residence will take place in the spring 2025 semester. Kang and Yang’s residence are a part of a large program financed by the Thomas Chen family/Crystal Windows endowment supporting Asian contemporary art at QC. The artists were selected by a panel led by Art Department faculty members, who selected Kang and Yang from a pool of 68 international applicants based on their work in the field of Asian contemporary art and their potential to contribute to research on the subject.
“The artist-in-residence program aligns seamlessly with the School of Arts’ mission of enhancing our educational offerings and cultivating a vibrant, diverse creative environment. By hosting distinguished artists like Leekyung Kang and Jian Yang, we infuse our curriculum with groundbreaking perspectives that elevate the academic experience of our students.” Simone Yearwood, Interim Dean of Faculty, School of Arts & Humanities stated.
Artists in residence programs provide artists with an opportunity to work in a new environment, provided by a host organization, where an artist is provided a space and the resources to develop their work. The community benefits from an artist in residence through direct interaction with public exhibitions, lectures, and workshops. In a statement given to The Knight News Yearwood emphasized the importance of these residencies for the School of Arts:
“Artist-in-residence programs are vital for enriching both academic and cultural experiences at the School of Arts. They offer students opportunities to engage directly with accomplished artists and gain insights into contemporary practices and techniques that will enhance their artistic development. For faculty, these residencies introduce new perspectives and foster innovative research, teaching methods, and professional growth within the academic community.”
Kang was born in South Korea and has a BFA and MFA from Seoul National University and a MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design. Her work in the field of contemporary Asian art explores the cyclical characteristics of Buddhist cosmology through the mediums of large-scale painting, raw materials, mirrors, digital prints, and video installations. According to an August 14th press release from QC, Kang hopes her work will foster a cultural dialogue within the QC community and beyond, with potential collaborative projects throughout the city by building an immersive exploration of Buddhism and Asian history.
Yang, who was born in Fujian, China, has an MA from Xiamen University Art College and completed previous art residencies all over Europe. Yang’s work explores the concept of “clean” in relation to censorship, viewing it as a byproduct of the COVID-19 pandemic alongside the racial and ideological divisions it intensified.
In the same press release, Yang “plans to explore the relationship and mechanisms behind the concepts of “clean/censor,” particularly in the context of societal and digital environments, and visualize how “clean” leads to an intolerance for differing opinions, increasing societal divisions. Yang will also examine the metaphorical and literal violence associated with the concept of “clean.”
“Kang’s exploration of Buddhist cosmology and Yang’s examination of censorship during the COVID-19 pandemic will offer our students insight into how different concepts can be expressed through various artistic mediums and stimulate meaningful discussions within our community.” Yearwood said.
