Jiawei Zhao
Jiawei Zhao is a Chinese-born photo-based artist living and working between New York City and Beijing.
Zhao recently participated in the artist-in-residence program at MASS MoCA, ChaNorth, and Kala Art Institute, and he received an MFA Fine Arts degree from Pratt Institute in 2018. His work has been exhibited at many museums and galleries. Zhao's work will be exhibited in China, Italy, and the US in the year 2021. My work and I have been interviewed by Forbes, Wall Street International, Musee, Photography of China and etc.
Exhibition
Wallpapers #2 (2020)
My photo-based practice stems from personal experience, which I have moved or transferred among many different types of places since my childhood. I question the truth of reality, and then transcend among the memory and overwhelmed image world. I am investigating how a foreign Chinese person creates a balanced space of both identity and a sense of belonging in photographs when they live in the United States. Viewers will follow the journey of a foreign Chinese person who initially came to the States for higher education, lost somewhere between the American image-culture and their self-isolated living space. Then they create their own cross-cultural space with the desire for immigration and "re-inventing" the photography technique for their identity. My work is process-based, including the practice of installation. I use "Chinese" materials such as traditional watercolor ink and rice paper, in combination with “American” materials, like photo developer chemicals, darkroom photo paper, the U.S. letter-size golden paper, darkroom filter, etc.
Jiawei Zhao is a Chinese-born photo-based artist living and working between New York City and Beijing.
Zhao recently participated in the artist-in-residence program at MASS MoCA, ChaNorth, and Kala Art Institute, and he received an MFA Fine Arts degree from Pratt Institute in 2018. His work has been exhibited at many museums and galleries. Zhao's work will be exhibited in China, Italy, and the US in the year 2021. My work and I have been interviewed by Forbes, Wall Street International, Musee, Photography of China and etc.
My photo-based practice stems from personal experience, which I have moved or transferred among many different types of places since my childhood. I question the truth of reality, and then transcend among the memory and overwhelmed image world. I am investigating how a foreign Chinese person creates a balanced space of both identity and a sense of belonging in photographs when they live in the United States. Viewers will follow the journey of a foreign Chinese person who initially came to the States for higher education, lost somewhere between the American image-culture and their self-isolated living space. Then they create their own cross-cultural space with the desire for immigration and "re-inventing" the photography technique for their identity. My work is process-based, including the practice of installation. I use "Chinese" materials such as traditional watercolor ink and rice paper, in combination with “American” materials, like photo developer chemicals, darkroom photo paper, the U.S. letter-size golden paper, darkroom filter, etc.