PROCESS
FORM
DISRUPTION
PLACE
I am a multidisciplinary artist whose work in sculpture, installation and photography investigates problematic tropes concerning the Asian-American female identity and my own image. Over seven years I developed an ink that utilizes ancient ink-making methods that date back to 12th century BC China, so that I may write myself into history with my ink body sculptures. My ink is transformative - dehydrated and formed and may be rehydrated and deformed - and acts as a medium to disrupt conventional associations, and for me to reconcile my nihilism with hopeful notions of power, belonging, the environment and the self.
I'm the author of the photographic monograph Pees On Earth (Miss Rosen Edition/ powerHouse Books 2006) - eight years of claiming my body and place with one continuous act, and how I developed the idea of "the existential pee puddle." In the book forward, I discuss with Annie Sprinkle my desire "to break down the bathroom walls." In 2010, I self-published my second photographic monograph Getting to Know My Husband's Cock, featured in aperture Books' Self Publish Be Happy by Bruno Ceschel, and in the academic textbook Radical Intimacy in Contemporary Art: Abjection, Revolt and Objecthood by Keren Moscovitch (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2023.) It was the subject of my solo show at Allegra LaViola Gallery, now Sargeant's Daughters, in 2011. Vince Aletti reviewed the exhibition of prints in The New Yorker, "it's her unapologetic lust that comes across most appealing here."
New sculptural work in ink began after a trip to Guilin China in 2014 after which I decided to revisit my earliest memories painting in my childhood home in Queens using the ink stick. My father’s passion for traditional Chinese painting and practices would become a Saturday ritual from the time I could pick up a paint brush through high school. Returning to this memory is a touchstone for the reinvention of ink as my own and pivotal to the creation of my mythology.
I was born in Queens, NY and started my career in downtown Manhattan. A self directed residency in Upstate NY sparked an urge to transform and is where I embarked on making ink for ink sculptures. I moved to LA in 2019.
SOLO SHOW
2023 Another Mother, Situations Gallery NY
2022 Future Eve, Praz-Delavellade Gallery Los Angeles, CA
2015 Sea Bounds, Basement 6 Collective Space, Shanghai, China
2012 Invisible Line curated by Amani Olu, Allegra LaViola Gallery NY
SELECTED GROUP SHOW
2025 The Art of Oscar, Curated by Michael Slenske/Presented by The Hollywood Reporter, AF Projects LA
2024 Hollywood Dream Bubble, Ed Ruscha's Influence in Los Angeles and Beyond, Curated by Gallucci Tull, The Hole, LA
2021 Five Minutes To Live curated by Benjamin Tischer, New Discretions, NY
2020 The Empty Gallery Group Show 5 curated by Scott Ogden, Shrine Gallery, NY
2019 Every Woman Biennial, LaMaMa Galleria, NY
2018 Current: Abortion curated by Barbara Zucker, A.I.R. Gallery, NY
2015 I Never Could Talk To You, with Bazaar Teens, City Bird Gallery, NY
2014 XXX curated by Mathieu Borysevicz, Bank MABSociety Gallery, Shanghai, China
2011 Self-Publish Be Happy curated by Bruno Ceschel, Micamera Milan, Italy
2009 The Vice Photo Show, Le Lieu Unique, Nantes, FR
2006 Toy Box with White Box, Robert Miller Gallery, NY
2006 Speed Limit, LMCC’s Redhead Gallery, NY
2005 Pretend Friendly curated by Alfredo Martinez, the:artist:network, NY
ART FAIR
2023 NADA Miami, Situations Gallery NY
2017 Milk and Night curated by Coco Dolle, Spring Break Art Fair NY
2016 Bazaar Teens, curated by Dustin Yellen, Spring Break Art Fair NY
2010 Empire State of Mind, Copenhagen Photo Festival, Copenhagen, DK
2009 ArtLog/Manish Vora presents, Pulse Art Fair, Miami, FL
SPECIAL PARTICIPATION
2025 Grief x Hope LA Fire Relief Fundraiser, White Label Editions, LA
2022 Impact: LA for Choice and W.R.R.A.P Benefit on Artsy, Anat Ebgi Gallery, LA
2013 The Watermill Center Summer Benefit, The Watermill Center, NY
2013 Whitney Art Party, The Whitney Museum of Contemporary Art, NY
2011 MiCamera Bookshop, Self Publish Be Naughty Presentation, Milan Italy
2010 Crone Benefit, Gavin Brown Enterprise, NY
REVIEWS
Isabella Miller, Contemporary Art Review Los Angeles May 2024
Michael Bullock with Jerry Saltz, Fantastic Man, April 2024
Carlo McCormick, Photograph Magazine July 2012
Vince Aletti, The New Yorker June 2012
Sean O’Hagan, On Photography, The Guardian July 25, 2012
Bruno Ceschel, Foam Magazine Issue #29 Oct 2011
Alec Soth’s Best Photo Books of 2010, 2010
AWARDS
2024 International Sculpture Center Innovator Award, Honorary Mention
PUBLISHED WORKS/SITATIONS
2025 sm;le Book Vol 2, Blurring Books, NY
2023 Gender, Bodies & Transformation: Phalluses in 21st Century Culture,
Edited by Meredith Jones and Evelyn Callahan, Routledge London
2023 Radical Intimacy in Contemporary Art: Abjection, Revolt and Objecthood
by Keren Moscovitch Bloomsbury Publishing, NY
2015 Self Publish Be Happy by Bruno Ceschel, Aperture Books, NY
2010 Getting To Know My Husband’s Cock, Self-Published, NY (monograph)
2009 Public Panics: Problematic Bodies in Social Places, Adam Eldridge, London UK
2007 Vice Photo Book, Vice Magazine Publishing, NY
2006 Pees On Earth, Miss Rosen Edition/powerHouse Books, NY (monograph)
Ellen Jong © 2020