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.
Baked salt dough installation at AADK Spain
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
