Jia Sung

Through a diversity of approaches including zinemaking, observational drawing and painting, journal writing, and embroidery, Sung encourages participants to create their own sense of connection to their surroundings and experiment with ways to convey their point of view through choice of colors, words, or imagery.

Jia Sung is an artist and educator, born in Minnesota, bred in Singapore, now based in Brooklyn. She received a BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) in 2015, and she is currently a 2018–2019 Smack Mellon Studio Artist, a Van Lier Fellow, and an art director at Guernica. Her paintings and artist books have been exhibited across North America, including the Knockdown Center, RISD Museum, Wave Hill, EFA Project Space, Lincoln Center, Yale University, and MOMA PS1, and in publications including Hyperallergic, Jacobin Magazine, Asian American Writers Workshop, and The Guardian. She has taught workshops at organizations like the AC Institute, Abrons Arts Center, Children’s Museum of the Arts, and Museum of Chinese in America. Sung’s first solo show, Chaos, Whims, Lust, curated by Alexis Wilkinson, opens on November 2 at Knockdown Center in Queens and will be on view through December 15.

Family Studio: Art Workshops

October: Small World
Create a miniature landscape out of clay. Look closely at your surroundings and explore ways to capture the textures and shapes you like most in the clay—by rolling it, poking it, and scratching it with a pencil.

November: Instant Book
Learn to make your own little book out of just a single sheet of paper, and fill it with stories and landscapes.

January: Paper Garden
Use a variety of recycled papers to create a collaged landscape. Different colors, textures, and shapes can come together to suggest different plants and animals that you might see around you.

Public Workshops

Saturday, October 26, 1–4pm
Symbol of Self: Art Workshop for Humans of All Ages
When the night is falling, and the moon comes out to play, humans transform in a supernatural way! Use the language of animal symbolism to show how you see yourself! Choose an animal that you most identify with and create a symbolic self-portrait and surroundings through drawing and collage, using colors and textures that represent you.

Saturday, November 30, 1:30–3:30pm
Sense of Place
Teaching Artist-in-Residence Jia Sung will guide visitors in analyzing the ways in which artists have captured moments and moods in landscape and cityscape through their use of color and language. Then, participants practice these very methods by making their own notebooks out of recycled paper, filling them with observational drawings, drawings from memory, and journal entries.

Saturday, January 11, 1:30–3:30pm
Stitch Diary
Create an embroidered artwork on recycled fabric with Teaching Artist-in-Residence Jia Sung. Practice the basics of working with needle and thread to create an image, and playing with color choices that convey mood. This ancient and meditative craft offers a relaxing way to recover after the rush of the holidays, while the native plants and animals of the Hudson River provide a wonderful source of subject matter. Participants are encouraged to bring in their own scrap fabrics, and we’ll provide the rest!

Sunday, February 9, 1–4pm (Lunar New Year)
Year of the Rat: Garden of Beasts
More than a marker of calendar time, the animal signs assigned to each year help us deduce the age of a person based on their sign, and position ourselves in relation to each other. Participants will work with Teaching Artist-in-Residence Jia Sung to create a visual representation of their zodiac animal, which will be displayed all together in a mural to create a garden of beasts that represents a playful census of HRM visitors. A variety of media will be available, from acrylic paint to paper and cloth for collaging.