Born in Hong Kong to Chinese Nationalists escaping the reign of Chairman Mao, Tseng Kwong Chi (1950-1990) was hailed as a child prodigy when began painting at the age of 10. In 1966, his family emigrated to Vancouver, Canada. Tseng then set his sights on studying photography at L’Académie Julian in Paris, graduating in 1975. Three years later, he arrived in New York and quickly became an integral part of the downtown art and club scenes of the 1980s. With three continents under his belt, Tseng viewed himself as a citizen of the world, rather than labeling himself or his art as Chinese.
.
Yet Tseng understood how he was seen, and began mischievously playing with his identity. In 2015, his sister Muna recounted a story of Tseng arriving at a dinner his parents threw at the posh Windows on the World restaurant located at the top of the World Trade Center wearing a Zhongshan suit purchased in a Montreal thrift store. His parents were appalled but the maitre’d treated Tseng like a visiting dignitary. That encounter planted the seeds for the “Ambiguous Ambassador,” a persona Tseng adopted for East Meets West (a.k.a. Expeditionary Self-Portrait Series), a selection of which is now on view in an intimate exhibition at Yancey Richardson Gallery in New York.
.
.
