Andrea Chung
Andrea Chung (b. 1978) is a visual artist born in Newark and currently based in San Diego, California. She uses installation, video, and collages to address and explore how colonization has impacted landscape and people, particularly in the Caribbean.
Chung received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Parsons School of Design, New York, and a Master of Fine Arts from Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore. Her recent exhibitions include her first solo museum exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego in 2017, as well as Prospect 4, New Orleans and the Jamaican Biennale, Kingston, Jamaica, as well as the Chinese American Museum and California African American Museum in Los Angeles, and the San Diego Art Institute. Chung’s work is part of the collections of the Getty Museum, the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, Rhode Island School of Design Museum, and the NoVo Foundation among others. She has participated in national and international residencies including the Vermont Studio Center, McColl Center for Visual Arts, Headlands Center for the Arts, and Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture.
About her work in WOV II:
The two collages included in “A Womb of Violet: Volume II” are part of the series “Colostrum” (2020). The title refers to the first milk produced by a new mother, which contains nutrients and antibodies essential for newborns. With images of mothers and infant children, the artist highlights the exploitation of breast milk from Black women, who were used as wet nurses for white mothers and to supply milk banks. It is a historical exploitation that, as Chung states, continues today.
Black and white photos of mothers and children are superimposed with vibrant leaves and flowers. As with the series “Vex” (2020), the collage includes needles holding rhinestones. The needles are placed there to block access to the photograph of mother and child, symbolically protecting their image and balancing out the intrusion that is implied in the original photo, probably taken without their permission.
You can learn more about her at andreachungart.com