Ming Chen's Work

Ming Chen is a Chinese American artist based in Los Angeles who completed her MFA at Claremont Graduate University in Fall 2024. Known for her "Re-Entry" series, Ming’s work captures fleeting, often-overlooked fragments of daily life, transforming them into lasting memories. She draws inspiration from family experiences, everyday interactions, and changing landscapes encountered during her travels, blending contemporary and traditional Chinese techniques.

Working primarily with Chinese ink and watercolor on Xuan paper, canvas, and wood panels, Ming employs a unique process of layering and peeling Xuan paper to mirror cycles of presence and absence, reflecting the natural ebb and flow of time. Her creative practice disrupts linear perceptions of time, allowing the past, present, and future to intersect. Ming uses discarded materials, such as color-stained paper towel fragments, arranging them with handmade flour paste in spontaneous compositions to symbolize renewal and continuity. This meditative, intuitive process invites viewers to look beyond immediate simplicity and connect with the quiet, expansive beauty of each captured moment.

Ming's artworks have been featured in the 19th Annual Greater Los Angeles MFA Exhibition and exhibited in prominent galleries and museums across Southern California. Her paintings are held in private collections in China, the USA, and Australia.