Ching Ching Cheng
I have been interested in science and engineering since I was little. Every summer break from junior high school I would visit and help out at my father’s factory in Taiwan. Hanging out at my Dad’s factory is one of my fondest childhood Memories. I couldn’t stop staring at those giant mechanical devices, and trying to figure out how they worked. Every part of each machine connected to another massive machine, moving and working smoothly together, just like a human body. While studying the human form I came see it as an incredible machine. Similar to the wonder that my father’s machines made me feel as a child, the human form fascinated me. Specific parts of the human form, like the organs, brain, and the way our bodies perceive the world around us are the focus of my work.
A mechanical device such as a camera captures a photograph, a photograph has no history, but humans give a picture a story, and we put our personal memories into a picture placed before us. This picture, the moment that this picture represents becomes a memory, which is interpreted differently from one individual to another. Our brain is like a cognitive camera, and each blink of the eye captures a fragment of a memory. I want to make a connection between what we see, what we remember, and what is actually there.
The medium used for this series is found books, found maps, film negatives, resin, and archival adhesive. Old books carry with them a history that I find interesting. The histories that the books hold are not only the information within them but also the thought of where the book and maps could have been before and who owned it. I tear pages from old books and maps, glue each of the pages to one another individually, then cut into the glued together blocks of paper to form mechanical parts of different cameras. The process of tearing, skimming through the pages, gluing and sealing the pages together, becoming a block represents the process of our brain goes through while storing memories. The process of shaping, carving back into the blocks pages by pages with x-acto blade, and revealing part of the words or maps underneath the pages represent the process of recalling our memories.
Born in Taiwan, lives and work in Altadena, CA
Education:
Art Center College of Design, BFA, Pasadena, CA, 2006-2009
Santa Monica College, Art, Fashion Design, Santa Monica, CA, 2003-2006
Solo Exhibitions:
“Transverse” solo show at College of Southern Maryland, La Plata, MD, 2013
“Transverse” solo show at Gibbs Street Gallery, Rockville, MD, 2013
“Transverse” solo show at Art-merge Lab, Los Angeles, 2013
“Winter Exhibition” 2 person show at LACMA Rental and Sales Gallery, Los Angeles, 2012
“Capture & Record” 2 person show at College of the Sequoias Art Gallery, Visalia, CA, 2012
“Obsession of Memories” 2 person show at McKinley Arts and Culture Center, Reno, NV, 2012
“Born in the 1980s” 4 person show at Gallery Y, Los Angeles, 2012
“Apparatus” Barbara’s, Los Angeles, 2012
“Recaptured End” 2 person show at DAC Gallery, Los Angeles, 2012
“Obsess” Olive DeLuce Gallery at Northwest Missouri State University, Missouri, 2012
“Rootless” Nordica Gallery, Kunming, China, 2011
“Pupa” Prime Grind, Los Angeles, 2011
“Flavors of Childhood” 2 person show at Scoops, Los Angeles, 2011
“Obsess” 4 person show at Gallery 825, Los Angeles, 2010
“Winter Exhibition” 3 person show at LACMA Rental and Sales Gallery, Los Angeles. 2010
“Bed Time” The World’s Darkest Gallery, Monrovia, CA, 2009
“Made in LA” AHUSA UCLA 3rd Annual Fine Art Exhibition, Los Angeles, 2009
Selected Group Exhibitions:
2014
“L.A. Heat” Chinese American Museum, Los Angeles
“Landmark” L’Art Projects, Los Angeles
2013
“Alchemy” The Loft at Liz’s, Los Angeles
2012
“Obsess” Frank Pictures Gallery, Los Angeles
“Rock, Paper, Scissor” Coagula Curatorial, Los Angeles
“Diverted Destruction 5” The Loft at Liz’s, Los Angeles
“Random Acts Of Time” OCCCA, Orange County
“Changarrito” Craft And Folk Art Museum, Los Angeles
2011
“Transmit” Den Contemporary, Los Angeles
“Summer Reading” Stephen Cohen Gallery, Los Angeles
“Chain Letter” Shoshana Wayne Gallery, Los Angeles
“Thirteen By Thirteen” DAC Gallery, Los Angeles
Baker Arts Center 13th National Juried Art Exhibition, Kansas
Craig Krull Gallery, Los Angeles
“A Novel Approach” Rheeway Gallerie, Los Angeles
“Hecho A Mano” Gallery 825, juried by curator Idurre Alonso from MOLAA, Los Angeles
Topanga Canyon Gallery Juried Show, juried by Craig Krull from Craig Krull Gallery
2010
“See Thru” Icon, science-art collaboration with CalTech, Los Angeles
“Marine Salon No. 6” Marine Art Salon, Santa Monica, CA
“See Thru” Gallery 825, science-art collaboration with CalTech, Los Angeles
“Diverted Destruction 3” The Loft at Liz’s, Los Angeles
“Exalted One” Gallery 825, juried by Sam Lee from Sam Lee Gallery, Los Angeles
“Out There” Gallery 825, juried by Hillary Metz from Blythe Projects, Los Angeles
“Zipor, Ziporim, Zippora” Galerie Lichtpunkt, Germany
“Gem” Gallery 825, Los Angeles
“Following Feitelson” Gallery 825, juried by Feitelson scholar Marie Chambers, Los Angeles
2009
“The Canvas Project” Art House, Atlanta Airport
“Open Show” Gallery 825, juried by curator Apsara DiQuinzio from SFMOMA, Los Angeles
“TarFest” Korean Cultural Center, juried by curator Rita Gonzalez from LACMA, Los Angeles
“Out There” Gallery 825, juried by curator Bert Green from Bert Green Fine Art, Los Angeles
“Immigration” Korean Cultural Center, juried by curator Alma Ruiz from MOCA, Los Angeles
2008
“TarFest” Korean Cultural Center, juried by curator Howard N. Fox from LACMA, Los Angeles
Art Fairs:
Texas Contemporary, represented by Timothy Yarger Fine Art, TX, 2014
Silicon Valley Contemporary, represented by Timothy Yarger Fine Art, CA, 2014
LA Art Show, represented by Timothy Yarger Fine Art, Los Angeles, 2014
Art Aspen, represented by Timothy Yarger Fine Art, Aspen, CO, 2013
Art Platform, Los Angeles, 2012
Photo LA, Los Angeles, 2012
“Salon Art Shopping” international art fair at Carrousel du Louvre, Paris, 2010
Benefit Auctions:
Keystone Gallery, 2013, 2014
Craft and Folk Art Museum, 2013
Center for the Arts Eagle Rock, Los Angeles, 2012, 2013, 2014
LAMAG Benefit Auction, Los Angeles, 2011, 2013
Scores LA, Los Angeles, 2012
Soledad Enrichment Action 39th Silent Auction, Los Angeles, 2011
”Enlighten” Culver City, CA, 2009
Gallery 825, Los Angeles (Annual Benefit Auction) 2009-2012
Artist-in-Residency:
943 Studio, China, July to September, 2011
Lectures:
College of Southern Maryland, Maryland, 2013
Create LA, Los Angeles, 2013
ADL Arts and Education Center, Los Angeles, 2012
Northwest Missouri State University, Missouri, 2012
Nordica, Kunming, China, 2011
943 Studio, Kunming, China, 2011
Grants:
Phoenix Education Foundation 2011
Award:
Topanga Canyon Gallery Juried Show, Honorable Mention, 2011
LAAA Scholarship, 2011
IA21 8th International Juried Competition, Featured Artist, 2010
4th International Arte Laguna Prize, Finalist, Italy, 2010
Art Interview 19th International Online Artist Competition, Honorable Mention, 2009
ArtSceneToday, “Word, Word, Word” juried exhibition 2nd winner, 2009
ArtSceneToday, “Women and Children First” juried exhibition 2nd winner, 2009
The Juried Art Show, Works on paper 2nd winner, 2009
Creative Quarterly 16, Fine Art Merit, 2009
Art Center College of Design Gallery, Pasadena, CA
Art Center College of Design Scholarship, 2007-2009
Bibliography:
2014
Frank, Priscilla. “An Art Show Dedicated Entirely To Hot Sauce Is Making Our Spicy Dreams Come
True” Huffington Post, March (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/16/hot-sauce-art-
show_n_4958900.html?ir=Arts)
Wong, Martin. “L.A. Heat: Taste Changing Condiments At CAM” Imprint Culture Lab, March
(http://www.imprintculturelab.com/editorial-2/l-a-heat-taste-changing-condiments-at-cam/)
Lasane, Andrew. “The Chinese American Museum Opens an Art Exhibition Inspired by Sriracha
and Tapatio Hot Sauces” Complex Art+Design, March (http://www.complex.com/art-
design/2014/03/sriracha-and-tapatio-inspired-art-exhibition-at-the-chinese-american-museum)
Lai, Gina. World Journal. March(http://www.worldjournal.com/pages/full_anews/search_content)
Huang, Ursula. LA 18 News. March (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7IX9-M3jjrg)
2013
Barnes, Sara. “Ching Ching Cheng” Brown Paper Bag, February
(http://www.brwnpaperbag.com/ching-ching-cheng/)
Haselbacher, Nancy. “Transerse by Ching Ching Cheng at Art Merge Lab” Fit To Print Printmaking,
February (http://blogs.otis.edu/otisfittoprint/2013/02/15/transvese-by-ching-ching-cheng-at-
artmerge-lab/)
2012
Laden,Tanja M. “Ching Ching Cheng: Transverse” Flavorpill, November
(http://archive.flavorpill.com/losangeles/events/2012/11/15/ching-ching-cheng-transverse)
Lesh, Lyndsey. “The Symbolic Figurative Works & Artifacts of Ching Ching Cheng” Beautiful Decay,
December (http://beautifuldecay.com/2012/12/10/the-symbolic-figurative-works-artifacts-of-ching-
ching-cheng/)
2011
Coagula Art Journal “Ron English, Roland Reiss, Los Angeles Art World Artists” November
(http://www.coagula.com/blog/2011/11/ron-english-roland-reiss-los-angeles-art-world-artists/)
2010
Magana, Lainya. “Paper Sculptures by Ching Ching Cheng” Argot and Dochre, December
(http://argotandochre.wordpress.com/2010/12/02/paper-sculptures-by-ching-ching-cheng/)