Nina Kuo

Nina Kuo is an Asian American painter, photographer, sculptor, author, video artist and activist who lives and works in New York City. Her work examines the role of women, feminism and identity in Asian-American art. Kuo has worked in partnership with the artist Lorin Roser. Kuo has been described as being a pioneer of AAPI and Chinese American art and culture.

Kuo grew up in Buffalo, New York, the daughter of abstract painter James K.Y. Kuo. She received a Bachelor of Science degree from State University College At Buffalo.

After moving to New York City, Kuo became part of the CETA-funded Cultural Council Foundation Artists Project. She worked in activist art communities such as Basement Workshop and as the first resident artist at the Asian American Arts Centre building registries through interviews and curation. Kuo was part of the Godzilla Asian American Arts Network.

In 1991, Kuo's photographs of the Brooklyn West Indian Day parade were selected by Thelma Golden for a group show at the Wunsch Arts Center. Her photo work was included by Lucy Lippard in The Lure of the Local: Senses of Place in a Multicentered Society following a residency at Museum of Chinese in America. In 1999 Kuo exhibited her Chi Pao (Chinese Banner Dresses) at the Center for Photography at Woodstock that addressed gender stereotypes prevalent in Chinatown.

Work

In 2002 Lehman College Art Gallery presented If the Shoe Fits.... Holland Cotter noted that when the artist first met her grandmother in 1980 she proudly displayed the three-inch-long shoes she wore on her bound feet. In 2009, Kuo created a series of video, animation and installation art works called Mythical Montage, which examined "illusion, feminine irony and transformations of Asian influences" and her Tang Ladies were described as "statuesque, delicate and quiet on the canvas as they investigate anachronistic details" referencing the Chinese woman's desire to fit in, as well as the often negative connotation given to them by society, specifically in New York City. In 2013, Kuo commemorated Danny Chen, who committed suicide after harassment and hazing for being Asian-American. In 2014 she was featured in a solo show at Andre Zarre. Her animated experimental videos, “Ideas City,” was shown at the New Museum in 2015 and Mana Contemporary, Miami in 2019. Early cultural influences from her travels in China, Japan, Thailand, Southeast Asia and Hong Kong were documented in 2016 on WNYU radio. That same year, she submitted her Face Montage to the What is Feminist Art? collection at the Lawrence A. Fleischman Gallery, it consisted of various images of Chinatown bands and a portrait of Danny Chen. She has described her Art Deviation exhibition in 2020 as “work that has more surprise and mystery, that is more thought provoking, pleasing and enticing so that it's not just technique... You are trying to draw them into a conversation, to bring in something unusual, to make the viewer sense there is a tantalizing experience.” In 2022–2023, her hand printed photo works Contrapted Series Chinatown and Contrapted Series Quilt, Brooklyn (both 1983), which overlay photographs of New York neighbourhoods with colourful fragments, demonstrating how cultural memory is made from scattered debris, were shown at the Museum of Modern Art's Just Above Midtown (JAM) Gallery.

Kuo received scholarships and studied at International Center of Photography in New York City. Her work is in the collections of Brooklyn Museum of Art and New Museum in New York City.

In 2020, she created a series of sculptures, "Tomb Clay Figures," honoring those who died during the COVID-19 pandemic. She described it as: "This global pandemic pinpoints how death is mentally difficult. My goal is to create art that can reinvent these emotions, while honoring people we have all admired." and was added to their permanent collection.

Exhibitions

Solo

2007: "Chanel Chinoiserie," Cheryl McGinnis Gallery, New York, NY 2009: "Mythical Museum," with Lorin Roser, Gallery 456, New York, NY 2014: "New Works: Artquakes," Andre Zarre Gallery, New York, NY

Group

1978: Group show, Just Above Midtown Gallery, New York, NY 1984: "ID: An Exhibition of Third World Woman Photographers," MoMA PS1, New York, NY 1988: "TransAtlantic Traditions: Women Photographers from the USA and Puerto Rico,” Camerawork Gallery, London, curated by Kellie Jones 1990: "Communycations: Public Mirror: Artists Against Racial Prejudice," MoMA PS1 (New York, NY) 1991: "Visual Narratives," Wunsch Arts Center, Glen Cove, NY, curated by Thelma Golden 1994: "Bad Girls (Part II)," New Museum of Contemporary Art New York (New York, NY) 2002: "Constellation – Celebrating 25 Years," Center for Photography at Woodstock: CPW (Woodstock, NY) 2003: "It's A Small World," China 2000 Fine Art (New York, NY) 2005: "New York Eviction Blues," Asian American Arts Centre, New York, NY 2014: "Occupied Canvas," Andre Zarre Gallery 2019: "What is Feminist Art?," Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. 2022: "Just Above Midtown: Changing Spaces," Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY 2024: "GODZILLA: Echoes from the 1990s Asian American Arts Network." Eric Firestone Gallery, New York, NY

Collections

Kuo's work is in the collections of the Brooklyn Museum, Biblioteque Nationale, and New Museum.

Grants and residencies 1982: Asian American Arts Centre – Artist residency 1986: Artmatters – Grant 1990: Museum of Chinese in America – Artist residency 1993: Arts International – Travel grant to China1999: Light Work (Syracuse, NY) – Artist residency 1999: Center for Photography at Woodstock (CPW), now known as Catskill Center for Photography – Artist residency 2002: Travel Grant to Japan to study Zen Painting

Publications

Catalog of an exhibition held at the Robert B. Menschel Photography Gallery, Syracuse, NY Eleanor Hearney. "Nina Kuo's Mingled Realities." From catalog, Mythica Muses. 17 January - 17 February 2007. Jonathan Goodman. Art in America. May 2007. Marisa Crawford. "Revisiting the Question “What Is Feminist Art?” Hyperallergic. October 15, 2020. Anisa Tavangar. "The Big Review: Just Above Midtown at the Museum of Modern Art" The Art Newspaper 4 November 2022. https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2022/11/04/the-big-review-just-above-midtown