Candy Chang's work encompasses public installation, painting, and video that reimagine the possibilities of contemplative ritual in public life. Her work has been exhibited in the Museum of Modern Art, Venice Architecture Biennale, Smithsonian American Art Museum, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Nelson-Atkins Museum, and the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum. She is the recipient of grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, Rockefeller Foundation, and Black Rock Arts Foundation, and she has received fellowships from the Asian Cultural Council, TED, Hemera Foundation, Center for Urban Pedagogy, and the World Economic Forum.
Trained in architecture and urban planning, she initially created street art while running a record label. She began merging these disciplines by making participatory street art on vacant buildings to reimagine civic space. Her public art project Before I Die has been created in over 5,000 cities across 75 countries and was called "one of the most creative community projects ever" by The Atlantic. After the End was a 2021 New York Times Critic's Pick.
She has created public art with organizations including Art Production Fund, Mural Arts Philadelphia, Rubin Museum of Art, Green-Wood Cemetery, American School in London, and the Annenberg Foundation. She often collaborates with James A. Reeves on large-scale installations that merge participatory installation with video and sound. She has given talks at institutions including TED, Walker Art Center, Global Health Summit, School of Visual Arts, and the American Planning Association.
Born and raised in the American Midwest, Candy has lived and worked in New York City, New Orleans, Helsinki, Philadelphia, and the Mojave Desert, before settling down in Columbus, Ohio, where she lives down the hall from her parents.
Artist Statement
When people I loved died, my interest in the role of ritual began. I craved shared spaces to commune over existential questions without the requirement of shared doctrine. My installations often invite anonymous, handwritten testimonies of desire, dread, sorrow, hope, and courage from the public, challenging modes of communion in an age of increasing isolation, division, and disembodiment from living behind screens.
Growing up in a Taiwanese household where Chinese calligraphy was revered, I imagine handwriting as spiritual artifact in an increasingly digital and disembodied age. As the steward of hundreds of thousands of handwritten reflections from the public, I use these fragments in paintings and videos that explore the nature of language, desire, and our relation to one another. These works are then imbedded in future installations as a cyclical process that reimagines evolving possibilities for civic life, sacred space, and a sense of belonging today.
Inspirations include the speculative worlds of Philip K. Dick and David Lynch, the humanistic visions of city life by Jane Jacobs and Juhani Pallasmaa, the philosophical inquiries of Gilles Deleuze and Byung-Chul Han, and the laid-back curiosity of the Zhuangzi.
Contact
Speaking inquiries: The Lavin Agency | Email
Art inquiries: Email
Stay in touch: Bluesky | Instagram | Email
Education
M.S. Urban Planning, Columbia University, New York, NY
B.S. Architecture and B.A. Design, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI