Photographer and conceptual artist Tseng Kwong Chi was born in Hong Kong, educated in Canada and Paris, and settled in New York where he befriended artists in the vibrant downtown arts scene of the late 1970s and 1980s. He documented such luminaries as Keith Haring, Kenny Scharf, and Jean-Michel Basquiat, photographing these artists in intimate and revealing portraits. His best-known work, “East Meets West,” is a series of self-portraits taken at iconic sites around the world. Tseng, wearing a costume modeled after Chairman Mao, posed in front of Walter de Maria’s The Lightning Field, the World Trade Center Towers, the Golden Gate Bridge, and other famous locations.
Photographer and conceptual artist Tseng Kwong Chi was born in Hong Kong, educated in Canada and Paris, and settled in New York where he befriended artists in the vibrant downtown arts scene of the late 1970s and 1980s. He documented such luminaries as Keith Haring, Kenny Scharf, and Jean-Michel Basquiat, photographing these artists in intimate and revealing portraits. His best-known work, “East Meets West,” is a series of self-portraits taken at iconic sites around the world. Tseng, wearing a costume modeled after Chairman Mao, posed in front of Walter de Maria’s The Lightning Field, the World Trade Center Towers, the Golden Gate Bridge, and other famous locations.
