Utica, N.Y. — Munson will host an exhibition by internationally acclaimed artist Jenie Gao titled “The Deer Garden,” opening Friday, Feb. 6, and on view through March 6 in the Pratt Munson Gallery in Fountain Elms. This exhibition is free and open to the public.
A printmaker with a focus in public art, social practice, community story, and the anti-gentrification movement, Gao pulls inspiration from experiences as a second-generation Taiwanese-Chinese American and a descendant of working class immigrants. “The Deer Garden” centers on two installations from their ongoing series “The Negotiation Table” that offer different interpretations of their mother’s personal allegories from her childhood in Keelung, Taiwan, in which she explores how people maintain a sense of home in the face of uncertainty.
“The tension of disappearance in these stories alludes to the repeated displacement my own family members, who have lost their homes to multiple occupying governments across generations, from the Chinese Nationalists’ persecution of Taiwanese people after World War II, to the U.S. government using eminent domain to seize my grandparents’ home for freeway construction,” says Gao.
Gao has run an anti-gentrification arts business since 2014, consults for cultural organizations and the public sector on equity and ethics, and was recently appointed executive director of Centre A: Vancouver International Centre for Contemporary Asian Art.
Gao has a BFA in printmaking/drawing from Washington University in St. Louis and an MFA from Emily Carr University of Art + Design. Their work is in 40 institutional collections including Bainbridge Island Museum of Art, Bowdoin College, Cornell University, Stanford University, and the Library of Congress. Their recent exhibits include Museum of Wisconsin Art, Trout Museum of Art, Burnaby Village Museum, Cedarburg Museum, and South Bend Museum of Art. Their work has been included in publications such as “PBS,” “Shoutout LA,” and “Fête Chinoise.” Their art residencies include Women’s Studio Workshop in Kingston, N.Y.; Art in the Park with Vancouver Board of Parks & Recreation: Decolonization, Art, & Culture; Ma’s House in the Shinnecock Reservation in Southampton, N.Y.; Iowa Lakeside Laboratory in Okoboji, Iowa; the Bubbler at Madison Public Library in Madison, Wis.; Artist Campaign School in Chicago, Ill.; Proyecto’ace in Buenos Aires, Argentina; and Museo de Arte Moderno in Chile. They are a TEDx Madison speaker and gave a talk entitled “The Power and Purpose of Creativity.”
For more information, visit munson.art/jeniegao.
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Munson is at 310 Genesee St. in Utica. For more information, visit munson.art.
About Munson
Munson is an internationally recognized fine arts organization in Utica, serving diverse audiences through the renowned Munson Museum of Art, live performances and events, community arts classes, and Pratt Munson College of Art and Design, the upstate extension campus of the prestigious Pratt Institute.
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