Ching Ho Cheng

Ching Ho Cheng (December 26, 1946 – May 25, 1989) was a Cuban-born American visual artist of Chinese descent whose work occupies a distinct place within the cultural and aesthetic landscape of postwar New York. Active from the late 1960s through the 1980s, Cheng developed a materially innovative and conceptually introspective practice that intersected with the downtown avant-garde, psychedelic art, and emergent Asian American artistic expression. His work is categorized into four distinct periods: Psychedelics, Gouache, Torn Works, and The Alchemical Series—each primarily executed on paper.

Early Life and Education

Cheng was born on December 26, 1946, in Havana, Cuba, to a family engaged in diplomatic and creative professions. His father, Paifong Robert Cheng, served as a representative of the Republic of China in Havana, while his mother, Rosita Yufan Cheng, worked as a fashion designer.

During the mid-1960s he studied painting at the Cooper Union School of Art in New York City where he received a BFA in 1968,

At a time when Asian-Americans were nearly absent from the contemporary art scene, Cheng was highly regarded by peers and by prominent art historians such as Gert Schiff and Henry Geldzahler, the first curator of twentieth-century art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Notable collectors of his work are Miles Davis, Louise Fletcher, Aldo Cipullo, Princess Caroline of Monaco, Alfonso Ossorio, Peggy Cooper Cafritz, Countess Claude de Lesse and others. Cheng exhibited his work extensively in New York and overseas.

Notable collectors Henry Geldzahler, Gert Schiff, Miles Davis, Louise Fletcher, Aldo Cipullo, Princess Caroline of Monaco, Alfonso Ossorio, Peggy Cooper Cafritz, Countess Claude de Lesse and others.

Archives

Ching Ho Cheng's personal letters, photos, drawings and artifacts are housed at the Smithsonian Archives of American Art in Washington, DC.

Selected collections

Whitney Museum of American Art Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden Cleveland Museum of Art The Phillips Collection Smithsonian American Art Museum Brooklyn Museum Montclair Art Museum Los Angeles County Museum of Art Detroit Institute of Arts Minneapolis Institute of Art Grey Art Museum Everson Museum of Art Smith College Museum of Art