Frank WANG Yefeng, “and” (detail), Drawing on paper, colored pencil, watercolor, 11 x 17 cm, 2022.
Avatopology
October 4 – November 6, 2024
Frank WANG Yefeng
Curated by Natasha Chuk
Opening Reception: Friday, October 4, 6-8pm
Live performance by Dan Lippel and Douglas Boyce: Friday, October 18, 7-8 pm
NARS Project Space
Avatopology, a solo exhibition featuring work by Frank WANG Yefeng, explores a dialectic of control and submission among participants as they navigate the tricky terrain of creative collaboration. The work on view is the result of commissioned contributions by freelance creators around the world. It reflects the developing interpersonal relationships with the artist and the constraints on creative freedom as they each negotiate expectations, artistic identity, and the end result.
Text by Natasha Chuk. Frank WANG Yefeng is a NARS International Residency Alumni from 2013.
NARS Foundation Galleries are open to the public from 12pm - 5pm, Monday - Friday. Please contact info@narsfoundation.org with any other inquires.
About the artist:
Frank WANG Yefeng (b. Shanghai) is an interdisciplinary artist, researcher, and digital nomad situated in-between New York City and Shanghai. Initially trained as a sculptor, Yefeng’s practice spans a wide range of media, including video installation, experimental 3D animation, painting, drawing, and writing. His art explores the experience of "in-betweenness" that arises from a nomadic transnational existence. Interweaving physical and digital realms, his projects critically examine fixed identity formations, the genealogies of racialized others, and the alienation of people and objects in dominant cultural and technological narratives.
Yefeng earned his MFA in Art and Technology Studies from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2011. His projects have been featured in exhibitions internationally, including the BRIC Biennial (NY, US), the OCAT Biennial (SZ, CN), the WRONG Biennale (US), City Project of the 14th Shanghai Biennale (SH, CN), Art Basel Hong Kong (HK, CN), The Armory Show (NY, US), CCS Bard Hessel Museum of Art (NY, US), Smack Mellon (NY, US), Times Square (NY, USA), Denver Theater District (CO, US), Gasworks London (LDN, UK), Jeju Museum of Contemporary Art (Jeju, KR), Pylon Lab (DRS, DE), Tai Kwun Contemporary (HK, CN), Hyundai Motorstudio Beijing (BJ, CN), Shanghai K11 Museum (SH, CN), etc. Yefeng has also been awarded solo exhibitions, residencies, and fellowships at K11 Art Foundation x ArtReview (WH, CN), International Studio & Curatorial Program (ISCP) (NY, US), New York Art Residency & Studios (NARS) Foundation (NY, US), Pratt Institute (NY, US), Asia Art Archive in America (NY, US), MacDowell (NH, US), and Vermont Studio Center (VT, US), among others.
About the curator:
Natasha Chuk, PhD is a New York City-based media theorist, arts writer, educator, and independent curator whose work examines the intersection of art, philosophy, and creative technologies. She is the author of Vanishing Points: Articulations of Death, Fragmentation, and the Unexperienced Experience of Created Objects (Intellect, 2015) and the forthcoming Photo Obscura: The Photographic in Post-Photography (Intellect, 2025).
NARS exhibition programs are made possible in part through the generous support from the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature, and, in part, supported by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.
