Gelatin silver print, printed 2024
“I am an inquisitive traveler. A witness of my time and an ambiguous ambassador,” stated Kwong Chi about his photographic series East Meets West. From 1979 to 1989, he photographed himself at American landmarks, outfitted in a thrifted Zhongshan suit—a style made famous by Mao Zedong and sporting sunglasses and a visitor’s badge. In these images, Kwong Chi satirized Euro-American stereotypes of China at the time, complicating his own transnational identity. At the same time, his deadpan parody of a Chinese government official drew upon the drag and experimental performance scene of Downtown New York—where the artist lived until his passing from AIDS-related causes.
202: In the Shadow of the American Dream, 2026
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In the Shadow of the American Dream
Gallery 202In 1980s New York, artists produced work from the front lines of an embattled social landscape marked by urban desolation, financial precarity, and the AIDS epidemic.
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