Jennifer Wen Ma

Portait courtesy of Loghaven by Shawn Poynter

Artist Website

@jenniferwenma

Jennifer Wen Ma (1973, Beijing, China) is a visual artist who moved to the United States in 1986 and received her MFA in 1999 from Pratt Institute, New York. Ma works and lives between New York and Beijing. Ma’s interdisciplinary practice bridges varied media such as installation, drawing, video, public art, oral history, design, performance, and theatre; often bringing together unlikely elements in a single piece, creating sensitive, poetic, and poignant works.

Recent projects have been installed at the National Art Center Tokyo, Expo Chicago, Fosun Foundation, Shanghai, and the New Britain Museum of American Art. Recent public art include installations with the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, MGM Cotai, Macau, and The National Aquatic Center, Beijing.

Ma has received grants from Anonymous Was a Woman and the National Endowment for the Arts. In 2015, she conceived, visually designed, and directed installation opera Paradise Interrupted, performed around the world, including Lincoln Center Festival, Spoleto Festival USA, Singapore International Festival of Arts, National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts, National Theatre and Concert Hall, Taipei, MGM Cotai Theatre, Macau, among others. Ma teaches in the MFA program at the School of Visual Arts, New York, and has guest-lectured at many institutions. More info: www.littlemeat.net

At Tusen Takk

I plan to create ink paintings on acrylic panels for a 128-foot continuous artwork commissioned by the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs. The piece will wrap around a five-story glass stair tower, with areas of varying opacity and translucency. The style will be gestural and abstract, rooted in ink painting traditions, with detailed figurative elements inspired by oral histories from the building’s tenants—community-focused cultural and social service organizations. I paint by applying ink and pigments to the back of clear acrylic, a technique I’ve refined over ten years. I’m excited to develop several panels for this meaningful project during the Tusen Takk Residency.

"BElonging," Handblown glass, laser-cut paper, directional dome speaker, audio recordings, interactive elements. Georgetown University De La Cruz Art Gallery, 2024 Photo courtesy of artist.

"Eight Views of Paradise Interrupted Ink," Paint, acrylic panels, hand-cut Japanese paper garden. Sandra Gering Inc., New York, NY, 2017. Photo courtesy of artist studio

"Eight Views of Paradise Interrupted," (detail) Ink, paint, acrylic panels, hand-cut Japanese paper garden. Sandra Gering Inc., New York, NY, 2017. Photo courtesy of artist studio

"Threading the Sky," Laser-cut flashspun non-woven HDPE and pigments. He Xiangning Art Museum, Shenzhen, China, 2022. Photo courtesy of artist studio.

"Turn of the Tide," Laser cut black paper, gold pigment, with movement intervention by Irene Hsiao. EXPO Chicago, Chicago, 2023. Photo courtesy of artist studio.

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