Nina Kuo Explained

Nina Kuo
Native Name:郭麗娜
Native Name Lang:zh
Nationality:American
Occupation:Visual Artist
Painter
Multimedia Artist
Years Active:1975-present
Notable Works:Tang Ladies
Partner:Lorin Roser

Nina Kuo is an Asian American painter, photographer, sculptor, author, video artist and activist who lives and works in New York City.[1] Her work examines the role of women, feminism and identity in Asian-American art.[2] [3] Kuo has worked in partnership with the artist Lorin Roser.[4] Kuo has been described as being a pioneer of AAPI and Chinese American art and culture.[5]

Kuo grew up in Buffalo, New York, the daughter of abstract painter James K.Y. Kuo. She received a Bachelor of Science degree from State University College At Buffalo.[6]

After moving to New York City, Kuo became part of the CETA-funded Cultural Council Foundation Artists Project. She worked in activist art communities such as Basement Workshop and as the first resident artist at the Asian American Arts Centre building registries through interviews and curation. Kuo was part of the Godzilla Asian American Arts Network. She went to China and met her grandmother who she photographed and referenced in later photographic books and exhibits. She was part of the 1990 Clocktower exhibition at MpMA PS1 in a show against racial prejudice, and her mural Politeness in Poverty of 1988 was installed in the Broadway Lafayette subway station in New York City.[7] [8]

In 1991, Kuo's photographs of the Brooklyn West Indian Day parade were selected by Thelma Golden for a group show at the Wunsch Arts Center. She was included by Marcia Tucker in the Bad Girls (art exhibition) at The New Museum in 1994.[9] Her photo work was included by Lucy Lippard in The Lure of the Local: Senses of Place in a Multicentered Society following a residency at Museum of Chinese in America.[10] In 1999 Kuo exhibited her Chi Pao (Chinese Banner Dresses) at the Center for Photography at Woodstock that addressed gender stereotypes prevalent in Chinatown.[11]

Work

In 2002 Lehman College Art Gallery presented If the Shoe Fits....[12] Holland Cotter noted that when the artist first met her grandmother in 1980 she proudly displayed the three-inch-long shoes she wore on her bound feet.[13] [14] In 2009, Kuo created a series of video, animation and installation art works called Mythical Montage, which examined "illusion, feminine irony and transformations of Asian influences"[15] [16] and her Tang Ladies [17] were described as "statuesque, delicate and quiet on the canvas as they investigate anachronistic details" referencing the Chinese woman's desire to fit in, as well as the often negative connotation given to them by society, specifically in New York City.[18] In 2013, Kuo commemorated Danny Chen, who committed suicide after harassment and hazing for being Asian-American.[19] In 2014 she was featured in a solo show at Andre Zarre.[20] Her animated experimental videos, “Ideas City,” was shown at the New Museum in 2015 and Mana Contemporary, Miami in 2019. Early cultural influences from her travels in China, Japan, Thailand, Southeast Asia and Hong Kong were documented in 2016 on WNYU radio.[21] That same year, she submitted her Face Montage to the What is Feminist Art? collection at the Lawrence A. Fleischman Gallery, it consisted of various images of Chinatown bands and a portrait of Danny Chen.[22] She has described her Art Deviation exhibition in 2020 as “work that has more surprise and mystery, that is more thought provoking, pleasing and enticing so that it's not just technique... You are trying to draw them into a conversation, to bring in something unusual, to make the viewer sense there is a tantalizing experience.”[23] In 2022–2023, her hand printed photo works Contrapted Series Chinatown and Contrapted Series Quilt, Brooklyn (both 1983), which overlay photographs of New York neighbourhoods with colourful fragments, demonstrating how cultural memory is made from scattered debris, were shown at the Museum of Modern Art's Just Above Midtown (JAM) Gallery.

Kuo received scholarships and studied at International Center of Photography in New York City. Her work is in the collections of Brooklyn Museum of Art[24] and New Museum in New York City. She has lectured at the New School, Newark Museum, Beijing University, Central Academy of Art, Beijing.

In 2020, she created a series of sculptures in relation to the coronavirus, honoring the lives of those lost with her "Tomb Clay Figures," which she described to an interviewer for Forbes: "This global pandemic pinpoints how death is mentally difficult. My goal is to create art that can reinvent these emotions, while honoring people we have all admired."[1]

In 2020, she had her work exhibited in The Smithsonian's exhibition, "What Is Feminist Art? Revisted.[25]

The Art Newspaper 4 November 2022 writes, "Nina Kuo’s Contrapted Series Chinatown and Contrapted Series Quilt, Brooklyn (both 1983), overlay photographs of the titular New York neighbourhoods with colourful fragments, demonstrating how cultural memory is made from scattered debris."[26]

Exhibitions

Solo

Group

Collections

Kuo's work is in the collections of the Brooklyn Museum,[40] Library of Congress,[41] Biblioteque Nationale,[42] and New Museum.[43]

Grants and residencies

Publications

Further reading

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Sayej . Nadja . Nina Kuo Pays Homage To Lives Lost With Sculpture . https://web.archive.org/web/20210707020015/https://www.forbes.com/sites/nadjasayej/2020/06/15/nina-kuo-pays-homage-to-lives-lost-with-sculpture/ . 2021-07-07 . 2020-06-29 . Forbes . en.
  2. Web site: Caught Between Worlds: Artist Nina Kuo Asiance Magazine . https://web.archive.org/web/20191116235157/https://asiancemagazine.com/2006/04/01/Caught-Between-Worlds-Artist-Nina-Kuo/ . 2019-11-16 . 2019-11-16.
  3. Web site: Kuo, Nina: Profile. 2015. Asian American Arts Centre.
  4. Web site: exhibitions & events. Broadway. Gallery 456 Chinese American Arts Council456. YorkNY. 3fl10013 New. ArtSlant. 2019-11-30.
  5. Web site: Warnick . Connor Sen . 11 January 2024 . Nina Kuo's Chinatown . https://web.archive.org/web/20240717205617/https://www.aaartsalliance.org/magazine/stories/nina-kuo-s-chinatown . 2024-07-17 . 2024-07-17 . Asian American Arts Alliance . en.
  6. Web site: 2014 . Brooklyn Museum's Feminist Art Base: Nina Kuo, New York, USA . . Database.
  7. Web site: Nina Kuo MoMA. The Museum of Modern Art. 2019-11-17.
  8. Book: Mixed Blessings: New Art in a Multicultural America. Lippard. Lucy R.. 2000. New Press. 978-1-565-84573-2. New York, NY. 140. 43958184.
  9. Web site: Images. New Museum Digital Archive. 2019-11-17.
  10. Book: Lippard. Lucy R.. The Lure of the Local: Senses of Place in a Multicentered Society. 1997. New Press. New York. 978-1-565-84247-2. 17. 34958680.
  11. News: Nina Kuo: Chi Pao (Chinese Banner Dresses). Center for Photography at Woodstock (CPW). September 1999.
  12. News: Femininity in Contemporary Asian Art If the Shoe Fits... and Vernal Visions. Karetzky. Patricia Eichenbaum. 2002. Lehman College Art Gallery.
  13. News: ART IN REVIEW; 'Femininity in Contemporary Asian Art'. Cotter. Holland. 2002-04-26. The New York Times. 2019-11-17. 0362-4331.
  14. Book: Karetzky, Patricia. Femininity in Asian Women Artists' Work from China, Korea and USA: If the Shoe Fits. July 2012. KT press. 9780953654123.
  15. Web site: Visual Artist Nina Kuo. Chinese American Arts Council (CAAC).
  16. News: AsianConnections - Nina Kuo and Lorin Roser: Mythical Montage - Paintings Parallel 3D Animated Video. AsianConnections. 2009.
  17. Web site: The Drawing Center - Viewing Program - Nina Kuo. www.drawingcenter.org. 2019-11-18.
  18. Book: Envisioning Diaspora: Asian American Visual Arts Collectives: From Godzilla, Godzookie to the Barnstormers. Chang. Alexandra. New York University. Asian/Pacific/American Studies Program and Institute. 2009. Timezone 8 Editions. 978-9-881-75223-9. Beijing. The Network: Godzilla. 465331057.
  19. News: Commemorate Private Danny Chen's Life. 1 May 2013. AsianInNY.
  20. News: SinoVision Journal: Nina Kuo. Stone. Jane. 21 April 2014. SinoVision.
  21. News: Episode 14. 3Q Radio: Nina Kuo. 20 January 2016. WNYU Radio.
  22. Web site: Nina Kuo response to "What is Feminist Art?", 2016, from the What is Feminist Art? questionnaire responses, 2019. 2020-10-15. www.aaa.si.edu. en.
  23. Web site: Nina Kuo's Art Deviation. 2020-10-15. Whitehot Magazine of Contemporary Art. en.
  24. Web site: Brooklyn Museum: Search Results. www.brooklynmuseum.org. 2019-11-17.
  25. Crawford, 2020.
  26. Tavangar, Anisa. "The Big Review: Just Above Midtown at the Museum of Modern Art" The Art Newspaper 4 November 2022.
  27. Web site: Goings On January 17, 2007: Nina Kuo, FF Alumn, at Cheryl McGinnis Gallery, reception/talk Jan 19, 6-9 pm. Franklin Furnace. 17 January 2007.
  28. Web site: Chinese American Arts Council; Gallery 456. www.caacarts.org. 2019-11-29.
  29. Web site: ART DEVIATION. 2020-10-15. Asian American Arts Alliance. en.
  30. Web site: MythicalMuse.com . MythicalMuse.com . 2022-08-13 . NINA KUO Mythical Muse.com . en-US.
  31. Book: Jones, Kellie . EyeMinded: Living and Writing Contemporary Art . Duke University Press . 2011 . 9780822348733 . Durham . 31.
  32. News: Braff . Phyllis . 1991-01-27 . ART; A Pictorial Look at Street Life and Where People Interact . en-US . The New York Times . 2022-08-16 . 0362-4331.
  33. Web site: Exhibitions. New Museum Digital Archive. 2019-11-18.
  34. News: Cotter. Holland. Art Review; When East Goes West, The Twain Meet Here. The New York Times. 23 March 2001.
  35. News: Occupied Canvas: Nina Kuo. Nelson. Lani. 9 September 2014. SinoVision.
  36. Web site: What is Feminist Art? questionnaire responses, 2019. 2020-10-15. www.aaa.si.edu. en.
  37. News: The Big Review: Just Above Midtown at the Museum of Modern Art. 2022-12-28. www.theartnewspaper.com. en.
  38. News: A Utopian Space for Black Artists, Reimagined at MoMA. The New York Times . 13 September 2022 . 2022-12-28. en . d'Souza . Aruna .
  39. Web site: Velie . Elaine . 2024-01-23 . The Maverick Legacy of Godzilla Asian American Artists Network . https://web.archive.org/web/20240514193550/https://hyperallergic.com/867483/the-maverick-legacy-of-godzilla-asian-american-artists-network/ . 2024-05-14 . 2024-08-06 . Hyperallergic . en-US.
  40. Web site: Nina Kuo: Profile. ArtSlant.
  41. Web site: Prints by Chinese American artists produced by the Basement Workshop, New York. Includes: Arlan Huang - untitled; William Jung - Slave II; Nina Kuo - Neon Deviation; Colin Lee - untitled; John Woo - untitled. Library of Congress. 1 January 1982.
  42. Web site: Win unforgettable experiences with Houston Rockets & AAPI artist . 17 February 2023 .
  43. Web site: Nina Kuo (New York, NY). Center for Photography at Woodstock: CPW.
  44. Web site: New York Foundation for the Arts. New York Foundation for the Arts.

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