Liyen Chong

Liyen Chong’s work has, in the past, drawn upon Eastern and Western traditions to create her strikingly detailed, delicate and high concept art across a range of media, including embroidering with her own hair. Using a personal vocabulary of images and symbols as diverse as Magritte’s bowler hat, Chinese dragons, and the skulls and skeletons of the Baroque artistic genre of Memento Mori, the viewer is invited to contemplate a sophisticated and staggering diversity of codes and knowledge systems.

Chong completed her Masters in Fine Art at the University of Canterbury School of Fine Arts in 2003 and has exhibited nationally and internationally. In 2011 she was artist in residence at McCahon House in Titirangi, Auckland and Tylee Cottage, Whanganui. In 2012 and 2015, she received the Asia New Zealand Foundation residencies at the Goyang Art Studio in Seoul, South Korea, and Cemeti Art House in Yogyakarta, Indonesia respectively. Her work is held in major public and private collections including the Chartwell Trust Collection in Auckland, The University of Canterbury Art Collection, Christchurch Art Gallery and the National Gallery of Australia Collection in Canberra. She is currently based in Houston, Texas, having previously been living in Berlin, Germany.

Dr Andrew Paul Wood