Siyan Wong sees the power of portraiture to share the human experiences. A self-taught painter, an immigrant, and a workers’ rights lawyer, her everyday contact with working people informs her artistic vision. But her immigrant roots and her encounters as a Chinese American woman in America illuminate her visual interests. In two solo exhibitions, she shed light on people who scavenge cans and bottles – “Five Cents A Can: Making Visible the Invisible” (2019), and “Lives of Three Canners: New York’s Chinese Elderly Immigrants” (2023). During her residency at Saltonstall Foundation for the Arts, she will be working on paintings depicting the lives of Chinese immigrant women from 1965 (end of 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act) to the present, from their work life in factories, grocers, and streets, to their home life and political activities.
Siyan frequently participates in group shows and speaking engagements about art and social justice. Her art is fiscally sponsored by the New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA), and has received support by grants from the New York State Council for the Arts (NYSCA), the Asian Women Giving Circle (AWGC), Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (LMCC), and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs (DCLA).