The Grey Art Gallery at New York University presents the first museum retrospective of works by Tseng Kwong Chi (1950–1990), a prolific artist and key documentarian of Manhattan’s downtown scene in the 1980s, through July 11, 2015. The exhibition features over 80 art works and archival materials by Hong Kong–born Canadian artist, who died in 1990 at the age of 39 from AIDS– related complications.
In addition to twelve works from the artist’s best-known East Meets West and Expeditionary series, as well as nine images of his close friend Keith Haring’s drawings in New York city subways, Tseng Kwong Chi: Performing for the Camera presents over 60 examples from less well-known bodies of work. These include Costumes at the Met; photographs of South Jersey lifeguards and partying beachgoers at Jacob Riis Park; his biting critique of the politically conservative Moral Majority; “It’s a Reagan World!,” an assignment from the Soho Weekly News; portraits of notable artists; group portraits of East Village denizens; rubber-stamped Polaroid photomontages; and digitized snapshots of the artist’s fellow night-clubbers. Performing for the Camera is co-organized by NYU’s Grey Art Gallery and the Chrysler Museum of Art in Norfolk, Virginia. Amy Brandt, McKinnon Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Chrysler, curated the show, which is accompanied by a lavishly illustrated publication featuring four essays that illuminate the many facets of Tseng’s work, his all-too-brief life, and his influence on younger artists.
In combining photography with performance, personal identity with global politics, and satire with farce, Tseng created a compelling body of work whose complexity is belied by its easy humor and grace.
EXHIBITION
Performing for the Camera by Tseng Kwong Chi
Grey Art Gallery
New York University
100 Washington Square East
New York, NY 10003
