IAP Alumni Spotlight: Tuo Wang

“The best thing I’ve gained from the IAP program is not only to get involved with this very active artist community, but also to put yourself onto a track of self-awareness of how to become an artist.”

To celebrate Tuo Wang (IAP ‘14) being selected to join 2015 Queens Museum Studio Residency Program, we took the opportunity to spotlight his activities and his experience with IAP Mentoring Program. 

NYFA: Where are you originally from?

I was born and raised in northeast part of China, a pretty cold city called Changchun. 

NYFA: What inspired you to become an artist?

TW: I used to be so close to art and so far from it at the same time. My father is a painter, so I had quite an experience of seeing arts around my daily life in my childhood. However, I had been much more into science for a long time, and thinking that science would be the thing of my career. During my college in Biology and two years working in a lab, the torturing and struggling moments of balancing your job that you have to be there and your uncontrollable inner curiosity had become dramatically visible. I then realized that there’s a choice I had to make is to take a U-turn before it’s too late. After years of working in Biology, I jumped into the art world. 

NYFA: What are you currently working on?

TW: I’m finishing a project called La bohème. It consists of a multi-narrative short film that combined interviews, reality shows, and the theatre of absurd by focusing on the relationship between the collective experience of typical American small town and contemporary world. Inspired by the structure of Puccini’s La bohème, this project is exploring ideas of internal relationship between dramatic improvisation and daily life, as well as develops a discourse of how current ideology forms within successive generations. 

NYFA: What if your favorite way to locate opportunities?

TW: NYFA Classifieds is a very good resource. I believe a lot of artist friends of mine are using this site to find residencies, exhibitions, and grants information.

NYFA: What you have learned from the IAP mentoring program?

TW: I moved to New York right after I graduated with my MFA last year from Boston. IAP program is the first thing I had in this city. I think this program is such a critical transaction for an emerging artist like me who wants to develop a serious professional career, especially for someone who first set foot on a new land like NYC. I think the best thing I’ve gained from the IAP program is not only to get involved with this very active artist community, but also to put yourself onto a track of self-awareness of how to become an artist.

For more information on the Queens Museum’s Artist Services, click here.

Image: Tuo Wang (IAP ’14), La bohème, 2015, two-channel HD video, 10’