Inside Fashion Designer Alexander Wang and His Mother’s New Art Center
The duo located their non-profit organization, The Wang Contemporary, inside a hundred-year-old Chinatown building to emphasize their ambition to connect with the city’s Asian population
Thousands of red and gold paper planes flew around the dome of a monumental Chinatown building last month. Hovering inside the historic venue’s soaring ceiling, they slowly descended onto the amazed crowd. The mellow voice and piano tunes of Korean musician Yeonjoon Yoon crescendoed the celebratory spirit. New York-based artist collective MSCHF’s activation, titled 20,000 Variations On A Paper Plane In Flight, launched the new art space The Wang Contemporary, founded by fashion designer Alexander Wang and his philanthropist mother Ying Wang.
The palatial grounds, which were built exactly one hundred years ago as a bank, is now Asian-owned for the first time, fittingly to house the mother and son’s ambition to present a diverse palette of art by Asian creatives. The decision sprang from a need in the community to experience a diverse range of arts under one roof. Wang appreciates the availability of New York institutions focused on Asian art, but he tells Galerie that the city still lacked a space that “treated Asian creativity as something expansive and interdisciplinary, where performance, dance, design, and contemporary art could all exist equally.”
Another impetus was to create a space that covers a generous span of the Asian experience geographically, including its diasporas. “Too often, representation centers one region or narrative,” says Wang. “Asia is vast and so is its diaspora—we felt there was a need for a space that celebrated that complexity rather than narrowing it,” he adds. Ying Wang agrees and notes their attention to “resist simplifying ‘Asian art’ into a single narrative, because the continent and its diaspora are incredibly diverse.” She bought the building a year ago after a six-year-long search—a major draw for them was the property’s proximity to the Manhattan Bridge.
The duo chose perhaps the most fitting time of the year to unveil their new venture and opened the art center during the Lunar New Year. They handed the opportunity to christen the dwarfing interiors to Galerie Creative Mind MSCHF. Playful and often controversial, the group pokes at pop culture, consumerism, and social constructs with tongue-in-cheek sculptures, activations, and product drops, which are religiously watched by a cult following. It was actually this “sharp and self-aware” aspect of their practice that piqued the fashion designer’s attention. When he reached out to them just to express his appreciation, he realized one of their two founders is half Korean, which somewhat inspired him to offer the collective the primary spot in their programming.
Wang says he is a fan of “how the collective challenges the system and how value is assigned.” The designer thinks their flirt with and occasional criticism of fashion is what imbues their practice a curious tension and an effective provocation. “They understand spectacle and they use it intentionally,” he says.
Wang’s brief to MSCHF for the first artwork to curate his space was “something rooted in Chinatown’s energy.” The idea to release thousands of paper planes in Chinese New Year colors, which symbolize prosperity and luck, Wang thinks, “embraced that challenge in a way that felt both thoughtful and bold.” A word from the English language is scribbled on each plane, overall orchestrating a written understanding of the world outside. Each available to be picked up by an audience member, the paper planes and their notes form a ritual that invites visitors to compare the words they picked with others and form endless variables on discussing unity and individuality.
Nearly 8,000 confirmations to the opening night proved the community was long awaiting a space that fills the demand for a multipurpose space to experience Asian art from all walks. The joyful activation, which took place every hour for three days, drew large crowds. The free admission also elevated the welcoming spirit on one of the busiest blocks in Manhattan. Wang thinks the work’s engaging nature attracted crowds that might not otherwise visit an art space and proved the programming’s inviting nature for the future. A martial arts festival for May’s Asian American and Pacific Islander month with an exciting medley of sports, stage art, ritual, and storytelling. Ying Wang adds that their strategy then on will be to coincide their programming with cultural moments related to the Asian community.
The Wang Contemporary is located on 58 Bowery in New York City.