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Yanyi "Sunny J" Jiang

Born in Ningbo, China.

 

Sunny J is a multidisciplinary artist, working primarily in painting, textile art, installation and various crafts. She holds a B.A. in Studio Arts from the University of Rochester and an M.F.A in Painting from the National Higher School of Visual Arts - La Cambre.

 

Sunny's works focus on the exploration of identities. A nomad artist living on three continents, her visual practice is tightly knitted into her personal experience of cross-cultural crafting, painting, art education, and curating. Seeking at once to establish borders and eliminating them, Sunny questions the frontiers in the intricate triad of human body, the natural ecosystem, and the built environment. Her art places these three players in delicate encounters, provoking clashes between different materials, as well as launching conversations between flat pictorial surfaces and sculpted volumes. 

She has been an artist in residency at the Old School Residency (Gorna Lipnitsa, Bulgaria), Shangyuan Art Museum (2016, China), AADK Residency (2017, Spain), Glo'art Center (2018, Belgium), and most recently a resident at the Swatch Art Peace Hotel in Shanghai, China. 

Sunny currently works and lives in Antwerp, Belgium. 

Education

MFA - Painting 

ENSAV-La Cambre (Brussels, Belgium)                                                   

                                                                                                                                                

BA - Studio Arts 

University of Rochester (Rochester, NY, United States) 

 

Exchange studies  

Académie de la Croix-Nivert (Paris, France)                                                                                                                             

École Supérieure des Beaux-Arts (Nantes, France)

Apprenticeship

Studios of Luca Buvoli, Leslie Dill, Jocelyn Hobbie (New York, USA)         

                                                                                                   

 

Solo Exhibitions 

2018       Reliqaires, La Résidence Municipal Art Center, Dompierre-Sur-Besbre, France

2018       Wunderkammer, Galerie Alpha, Thiers, France

2016       Shell, Shangyuan Art Museum, Beijing, China

2015       Not A Single One, 464 State Street Gallery, Rochester NY, USA

Art Residencies    

2019         Swatch Art Peace Hotel Residency, Shanghai, China

2018         GLO’ART Residency, Lanaken, Belgium

2017         AADK Residency, Centro Negro, Blanca, Spain

2016         International Residency Program, Shangyuan Art Museum, Beijing, China

2015         Old School Residency, Gorna Lipnitsa, Bulgaria             

     

                                                                       

Performances

“The Making of a Lady”, Galerie de la Reine 10, Brussels, Belgium, 12 May 2017 

“Wedding of All Times”, The Old School, Gorna Lipnitsa, Bulgaria, 21 August 2015

“Tie”, Interfaith Chapel, Rochester, United States, 14 May 2015

“’Tis the Lady of Shalott”, ASIS Gallery, Rochester, United States, 19 February 2015

“Nana?Nana!”, ASIS Gallery, Rochester, United States, 3 December 2014

Selected Group Exhibitions

 

2024      Barn to Stable, Stadsgalerij Breda, Netherlands

 

2022      The Way (online exhibition), Albe Art Gallery, St Petersburg, Russia

2019      Her, IINNOO Gallery, Bellagio Hotel, Shanghai, China

 

2017       Finalist exhibition for 2017-18 selection of artist-members of La Casa de Velazquez (Academy of France in  Madrid)

Salle Comtesse de Caen, Academy of Fine Arts, Paris, France

               Daring Tales, Salle Delvaux, Free University of Brussels (ULB), Brussels, Belgium

               Shell, Niko Matcha Salon, Brussels, Belgium

               Troposphère, Espace 6B, Saint-Denis, France

2016       Weekend Salon, Koala Space, Tianjin, China

               Rose était presque kaki, Avenue Louise 186, Brussels, Belgium         

               Ritual Art - Time and Space, Old School Group Show, traveling exhibition in Sofia, Plovdiv, Varna, Burgas, Ruse, Stara Zagora, Bulgaria

 

2015       Not A Single One, 464 State Street Gallery, Rochester, USA

               Impossible Journey, mural work installed in Wilson Commons, University of Rochester, USA

               Art Awake, One-day art festival in Rochester City, USA

               Rochester Erotic Arts Festival, Radisson Riverside Hotel, Rochester, USA

               HeART of Disorder-an exhibition exploring mental disorder, University of Rochester, USA

               (en)Gendered: Between Identities and Environments, Art & Music Library, Rochester, USA   

                                                        

2014       Nana – a collaboration of senior Studio Arts majors, ASIS Gallery, Rochester, USA

               “Say Something”, GlobeMed Art Gala, Art Museum of Rochester, Rochester, USA

               Abundance, Bridge Art Gallery, Office of Mental Health Promotion, Medical Center, Rochester, USA

               Annual Members Show, Rochester Contemporary Art Center, Rochester, USA

               Myth: paintallation from Advanced Painting, ASIS Gallery, Rochester, USA                                                                        

2013       In Labor: Gendering (Re)Production, Art & Music Library, Rochester, USA

                  

2012       Mapping, Sage Art Center, Rochester, USA

    Art Walk, University Avenue, Rochester, USA   

    Annual Undergraduate Juried Exhibition, Hartnett Gallery, Rochester, USA

    HeART of Disorder-an exhibition exploring mental disorders, Hirst Lounge, University of Rochester, Rochester, USA

    ArtAwake, Rohrbach Brewing Company, Rochester, USA

    Nature 2.0/Introductory Digital Art /Printmaking, Sage Art Center, Rochester, USA

   “Failure is Impossible”: Feminism’s Past, Present and Future, Sage Art Center, Rochester, USA

Grants and Awards

2017       Grant for artist residency program in Spain, International Fund of Friends of La Cambre

2017       Artichoke Grant, Bureau of International Youth (BIJ Brussels)

2015       Joseph P. O’Hern Award for Travel and Study in Europe, Phi Beta Kappa National Honor Society

2015       Elizabeth M. Anderson Prize for Excellence in the Arts, University of Rochester

2015       First Medal Prize, Research in Visual Arts Contest, University of Rochester

2011-15  Global and Renaissance Scholarship, University of Rochester

2013-14  David Porter Diversity Scholarship, IES Abroad

2011       Innovation Grant for research in the arts and humanities, University of Rochester

2011       Iota Book Award, University of Rochester

 

Collections

Swatch Art Collection, Shanghai / Basel 

Copelouzos Family Art Museum, Athens, Greece

GLO’ART Center, Lanaken, Belgium

Shangyuan Art Museum, Beijing, China

Private Collections in USA, China, France, and Belgium 

Public Commissions

“Voyage to the Future”, Mural Project, Wilson Commons, University of Rochester

“73 Pagina Dos”, permanent sidewalk engraving, Art Walk Project, University Avenue, Rochester

Workshops and Talks

​​​​​​​​“Inner Chambre and Feminine Crafts - Interwoven Soft Lives”, presentation at conference-workshop “Universe of Female Artists”, 27 July 2019, Aurora Plaza, Shanghai

“Her”, workshop on creative documentation and scrapbooking, 20 July 2019, IINNOO Gallery, Shanghai

Bibliography

Print Media 

Baozhong Cui, Troposphère, exhibition catalogue, VIA Paris, 2019

 

Willy Gilissen, dir., Glo’Art, art center catalogue, Glo’art Center, 2019 

 

Elpida Livanou, ed., 35 x 35 Art Project, catalogue,  Copelouzos Family Art Museum, 2019 

 

“Lady Sausage”, “Gemini”, “Impartial Drawing I—China”, LOGOS: the Annual Art and Literature Journal of the University of Rochester, 2014-2015

 

“She’s Cool”, “Shining Water in Venice”, “Apart”, LOGOS: the Annual Art and Literature Journal of the University of Rochester, 2013-2014

 

Website Publications 

Zhang Yi, Su Feng-lei, “Shell – Solo Exhibition of Sunny J”, exhibition announcement, Shangyuan Art Museum, 2016

 

Anne Graham, “Sunny J - Jiang Yanyi”,  artist interview, Art Reveal Magazine, #12 (Janurary 2016), pp34-40, 2016 (http://go.shr.lc/1XGUssF)

 

Television 

“Chinese Woman Married Herself”, news coverage on Bulgaria national TV Nova and DIR, 2015 (life.dir.bg/news.php?id=19843563&nt=5)

Publications

Jiang, Y. (2017). Artisanats féminins et art contemporain en Chine [Feminine Crafts and Contemporary Art in China], master thesis, Université Libre de Bruxelles / École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Visuels de La Cambre, Brussels, Belgium

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

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