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8 Questions for Jia Sung


Tell us about one of the first pieces you created.
As a child I loved making drawings of foxes and animals. We had this series of nonfiction books for kids, Eyewitness Books, and I would sit down and copy the art in them.

What artist(s) or works have influenced the way you work now?
Some of my favorite artists right now are Maria Berrio, Belkis Ayón, Catalina Ouyang. Many of my aesthetic references pull from Chinese ink painting and Japanese print traditions, medieval art, Himalayan religious art, Mughal miniatures… I love the use of flat space, the rich universe suggested in every composition.

What other professions have you worked in?
Publishing, education, artist assistant. Currently I am part of the team at the nonprofit artist book publisher Endless Editions, and art direct at Guernica Magazine.

What did you want to be when you were young?
An artist and writer, so I guess I managed that part at least! I briefly wanted to be an archaeologist before I realised how much sweating and digging it seemed to involve.

Do you have any rituals or traditions that you do in order to create?
I never work hungry! And I try to schedule in time to walk away and come back to each piece if possible.

Who typically gets the first look at your work?
My friends, who are pretty exclusively artists—in particular one of my closest friends Anny, an animator and video editor whose taste is impeccable and receives an SOS every project begging for critique.

If you could work in another form what would it be?
Sculpture and textiles are a couple of mediums I’ve always been curious about – I wonder how my sensibility would translate.

What are you working on currently?
Some large unstretched canvas pieces and scrolls reimagining Journey to the West  as a story of queer sisterhood.

JIA SUNGis an artist and educator, born in Minnesota, bred in Singapore, now based in Brooklyn. She is an art director at Guernica, a Smack Mellon Studio Artist, and recipient of the Van Lier Fellowship. Her work has been featured in Hyperallergic, Jacobin, the Poetry Foundation, TED Talks, Lenny Letter, Nautilus, and at La Mama Galleria, the Whitney Houston Biennial, and the RISD Museum.


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