Discipline: Interdisciplinary Art – performance

Astra Huimeng Wang

Discipline: Interdisciplinary Art – performance
Region: San Francisco, CA
MacDowell Fellowships: 2020

Wang Astra Huimeng is originally from Inner Mongolia, China, and received her B.E. in bio-medical engineering from Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics and M.F.A. in studio art from San Francisco Art Institute. Drawing upon research on a systematic body of texts and literary traditions, her practice spans performance, installation, video, sculpture, and the Internet, dealing with issues such as cultural identities, cultural domination, and Neo-orientalism. Wang has received grants from and held residencies at Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts, ACRE, Millay Colony for the Arts, Otis College of Art and Design, and Wilhardt & Naud, among others. She was a finalist for the 2020 Creative Capital Award, and will be collaborating with Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra to create a project inspired by Stravinsky's The Soldier's Tale in December 2020, as part of LACO's Close Quarters series, a channel changing blitz of classical music performances set to visual art, created in a first-of-its-kind digital studio.

At MacDowell she worked on the first draft of her first novel, tentatively titled The Year I Invented Her, or, The Life and Death of Aurelia Clifton. Her work has been exhibited in Make Room Gallery, Morlan Gallery, Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture, Root Division Gallery, SOMArts Cultural Center, Embark Gallery, and Pennsylvania State University, among others.

Studios

Mixter

Astra Huimeng Wang worked in the Mixter studio.

Built in 1927–1930, the Florence Kilpatrick Mixter Studio was funded by its namesake and designed by the architect F. Winsor, Jr., who also designed MacDowell's original Savidge Library in 1925. Mixter Studio, solidly built of yellow and grey-hued granite, once had sweeping views of Pack Monadnock to the east. The lush forest has now grown…

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