Christine Wong Yap

born in 1977 in California, USA, lives and works in New York, USA

Christine Wong Yap is an interdisciplinary artist working in installations, sculptures, multiples, and works on paper to explore optimism and pessimism. Her work examines the paradox that mundane materials or situations can give rise to irrational expectations, emotions, and experiences. Major touchstones are language, light and dark, and psychology. She uses straightforward techniques, references to visual culture, and common materials. Influenced by conceptual strategies, phenomenology, and psychology, her output is experimental and idiosyncratic, yet shares economical means and candid appearances. Her work has recently been exhibited at Untitled Gallery (Manchester, UK) at Project Space Leeds (Leeds, UK); Steven Wolf Fine Arts (San Francisco, USA); and Jenkins Johnson Gallery (New York, USA). In 2011, she was the recipient of a Travel and Study Grant from the Jerome Foundation. Born in California, Yap holds a BFA and MFA from the California College of the Arts. A longtime resident of Oakland, CA, she relocated to New York, NY in 2010.

What do contemporary people need art for?
With viewers’ attention, art objects are vessels from which aesthetic experiences arise. As such, they can mediate relationships that transcend time and space. Moreover, looking at art objects builds and hones perceptual and intellectual skills, as well as offers an opportunity for flow experiences.

Why do YOU create art?
Satisfaction, flow, and social engagement are components of happiness and subjective wellbeing. I gain satisfaction from my art practice – it lends purpose and meaning to my life and activities. I find flow in the process of conceptualizing and making art. I engage with other people, ideas, materials, and forms via aesthetic experiences and dialogues.