World of One OPENING RECEPTION

03/09/2019

Announcing the opening of World of One my first solo show at Pearl River Mart in New York, NY’s Tribeca neighborhood!!! The show will be running from March 23 – May 5, with the opening reception on March 23, 2019 from 5-7PM. Come out and play!!! World of One is a surreal and cinematic exploration of how identity is developed through self-portraiture. By juxtaposing opposing actions within the same frame, Tang welcomes us to question our thoughts, actions and emotions that truly define us. Is it our habits, the things we do subconsciously? Or is it our spectacular one offs, …

A group of Asian men in white walking under a bridge, towards an Asian man in a black suit.

World of One: Tao

12/19/2018

Tao 2018GicléeImage size (HxW): 24” x 46 5/16” | Paper Size (HxW): 30″ x 52 5/16″ | Edn 5 Tao in Chinese (or sometimes spelled Dao) is a word often used to “asian-ify” things. In the west, the word connotes images of oriental themed nightclubs, or chinese takeouts and sake bombs. But in Chinese it simply means “the way.” The way it’s used however, I think it should be translated to “the way things should be.” I’ve been going through a number of personal changes in my life, and these last three months have been filled with new experiences. These …

BGirl Monsters: Sunny

07/18/2018

BGirl Monsters: Sunny – Blind Style As of writing this, I’ve been watching Sunny dance (in awe) for about four years now. In that time I’ve seen her do things I’ve never seen any other dancer do – regardless of age or gender. Her style is powerful, technical, and very well executed. Don’t let her bubbly demeanor fool you, because she’ll smoke you on the dance floor and she’ll do it with a smile. It was a real honor getting the chance to shoot her for this project, even more so since she’s a fellow creative and an avid photographer …

Feeling Numb - A shirtless man standing in a snow storm surrounded by a group of men in black freezing their asses off.

World of One: Feeling Numb

05/15/2018

Feeling Numb 2018 Giclée Image size (HxW): 24” x 49 1/8” | Paper Size (HxW): 30” x 49 1/8” | Edn 5 I shot Feeling Numb on a suggestion from my old friend Lisa Diep. “I want one side that’s feeling! And the other side, that’s numbness!!!” She told me. Lisa’s and I have known each other since high school, so she occasionally likes to pretend she’s my art director. At first I thought this was another throw away idea. But the more I thought about it, the more appealing it seemed to me. The problem I told her, wasn’t …

Chasing Magritte - A man in white tossing a bowler hat into the air, a group of men in black jumping to grab the hat

World of One: Chasing Magritte

05/09/2018

Chasing Magritte 2018 Giclée Image size (HxW): 24″ x 47 5/8” | Paper Size (HxW): 30” x 53 5/8” | Edn 5 Chasing Magritte is about wanting to emulate your heroes, as well as my homage to the turn of the century Surrealist painter Rene Magritte. It’s probably no secret by now, but in case you didn’t know, that I’m a huge Magritte fan. Dali might be the poster boy for Surrealism, but there’s something about Magritte’s work that I’ve always been more drawn to. I don’t know if it’s his wit, or just because he’s more subtle. But there’s …

the Offering - a man in white seated at a park bench with an out stretched hand, a crowd of men in black walking by him refusing his hand.

World of One: the Offering

05/02/2018

the Offering 2018 Giclée Image size (HxW): 24” x 41 9/16” | Paper Size (HxW): 30” x 47 9/16” | Edn 5 The Offering is inspired and titled after a 2013 piece, by the Taiwanese American artist James Jean. Jean is one of the few Taiwanese American artists, visibly successful, working in the fine arts today. So he’s basically like my art hero, and his work just blows me away. I’ve often taken inspiration from his style of composition, use of color, and also the otherworldly themes present in his work. TheOffering is my homage to the man and his …

Beautiful Meditations

12/31/2017

Beautiful Meditations 2017 I’ve been trying to shoot a picture like this for years. In 2011, I tried to burn 1000 origami cranes in my parents’ backyard during a blizzard. Except they wouldn’t burn (they got too wet). Since then, my dreamed of making a picture containing these elements: fire, snow, and origami; have remained just that – a dream. Turns out I was missing a key ingredient – gasoline. Balancing Trauma and Catharsis This is my favorite kind of work to make, largely because I get to simultaneously create and destroy. I see this process as my way of …

Asian man in black standing on a stump in the middle of a pond, men in white reflected within the pond looking at him.

World of One: Narcissus II

10/24/2017

Narcissus II 2017 Giclée Image size (HxW): 24″ x 48 1/8” | Paper Size (HxW): 30″ x 54 1/8” | Edition of 5 I’ve just completed a beautiful new addition to my World of One series, welcome to the world Narcissus II!!! The picture in my Beautiful Failures post and Narcissus II were shot on the same day. In fact, Narcissus II is much closer to the shot that I had originally planned for the day, and was actually shot first!!! But it was while we were shooting this angle, that I realized the Beautiful Failures angle would be more …

guy in a dark suit standing on a stump in the middle of a big puddle.

Beautiful Failures

09/27/2017

This picture is a little painful for me to look at. It is just so close to being a fantastic new iteration in my WO1 series but it’s not. Instead I’m adding it to my pile of beautiful failures, images that almost succeed but stop just short of the finish line. I’ve been trying to do more WO1 images involving reflections (similar to what I did for Narcissus back in the day), and in particular, I’ve been trying to do a version of Narcissus that uses the reflections from puddles. So far however, I haven’t been lucky enough with things …

Cycle of Love

05/01/2017

Cycle of Love 2017 Just released! Cycle of Love!!! It’s been six years since I’ve done any work involving origami. This is in large part due to the fact that it took me a whole year to complete the last one, because it involved folding a thousand paper cranes in pursuit of making a wish (Senbazuru). But the thing is, although I always tell people the story of how I made my wish, I hardly ever discuss what I actually wished for. Traditionally a Senbazuru folder is suppose to make some sort of selfless wish, such as: wishing a couple …