Yancey Richardson presents at Independent New York 2025 a solo exhibition of photographs taken between 1979 and 1989 by Chinese-American photographer, performance artist and provocateur, Tseng Kwong Chi. Combining performance and photography, political satire and personal identity, Tseng’s pioneering work exemplifies the irreverence and experimentation of the eighties while anticipating the social, political and philosophical issues of the present day. The presentation will include a selection of iconic self-portraits from the series East Meets West (1979-89), in addition to a series of portraits of Andy Warhol, Jean-Michael Basquiat and Keith Haring, who Tseng knew and photographed often.
Wearing a Zhongshan suit—also known as a ‘Mao suit’—sunglasses and an ID badge, Tseng traveled to major American landmarks. His enigmatic and reflective self-portraits, made with a 1940s Rolleiflex camera, mischievously and subtly investigated core issues of outsider and identity politics. Pictured at the Grand Canyon, the Statue of Liberty and other monumental sites, Tseng’s persona at times suggests that of an austere, visiting dignitary paying homage to sites signifying American greatness, whereas in others he leads with playfulness and humor.
A close friend and collaborator of Keith Haring, Tseng traveled with and photographed the artist extensively. From his early guerilla-style subway drawings to his AIDS-related projects and later to his interactions with other artists in the New York art scene, Tseng photographed Haring and his wider social circle, including other influential and even iconic artists, such as Basquiat and Warhol, often capturing them candidly in the studio surrounded by their work. These portraits demonstrate the humanism at the heart of Tseng’s larger photographic project of political and cultural critique.
About Tseng Kwong Chi
Born in Hong Kong and raised in Vancouver by exiled Chinese nationalists, Tseng moved to Manhattan in 1978, becoming a fixture of New York’s downtown art scene and a close friend of Keith Haring whose work and activities he documented extensively for a decade. Soon after arriving, Tseng began the series East Meets West, photographing himself at iconic tourist locales throughout America, wearing a “Mao Suit,” dark sunglasses and an enigmatic expression. Pictured at the Grand Canyon, the Statue of Liberty and other monumental sites, Tseng’s fabricated persona suggests that of an austere, visiting dignitary, paying homage to sites signifying American greatness.
Deceased in 1990 at age thirty-nine from AIDS-related illness, during his lifetime Tseng exhibited at P.S.1, the Whitney Museum and The Kitchen. Subsequently his work has been exhibited and collected by numerous museums including the National Gallery of Art; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Tate Britain, London; the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C. among others. In 2015, a retrospective Tseng Kwong Chi: Performing For the Camera was held at the Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk and the Grey Art Gallery at New York University. A selection of Tseng’s East Meets West was featured on the facade of the new M+ Museum, Hong Kong in Fall 2021.
Yancey Richardson | Independent New York | Booth 614
May 8-11, 2025
VIP Opening May 8, 2025
Spring Studios
50 Varick Street
New York, NY 10013
https://www.independenthq.com/fair
Yancey Richardson
525 West 22nd Street
New York, NY 10011
www.yanceyrichardson.com
