Cui Fei

Tracing the Origin V_III_001, 2008
Photo-lithograph on papyrus
13.25 x 8.5 inches
Not for sale

Artist Website

Artist Statement

In Cui’s ongoing series Tracing the Origin, she uses “Chinese characters” as the subject to explore the relationship between human beings and nature. Chinese writing originated from nature as ideograms, over time the characters were simplified, abstracted and separated from their original context, their origin is no longer recognizable. Her work takes a similar tack. She began working with grape tendrils—the found gestures look like Chinese calligraphy strokes written in grass style, then transformed them into two-dimensional works of different colors and scale or into three-dimensional works made with varied materials. As a result, the tendrils cannot be easily identified in the finished work. Different media used in this series, such as installation, printmaking, and photography are intended to symbolize how Chinese written characters have become detached from their origin; and by inference, how humans have also detached themselves from nature. Each medium used in this series is carefully chosen, while dealing with the same issue, she wants each process to bring in or highlight different perspectives. 

About The Artist

Cui Fei was born in China, and currently lives and works in New York. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally at venues such as the Warehouse Gallery at Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY;  Princeton University Art Museum, Princeton, NJ; the Museum of Arts and Design, New York, NY; Museum of Chinese in American, NY; Queens Museum, Queens, NY; Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, CT; New Britain Museum of American Art, New Britain, CT; Jeju Museum of Art, Jeju, Korea; Rietberg Museum Zurich, Switzerland; Museum of East Asian Art in Cologne, Germany, among others.  She is a recipient of the Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant, the Artist’s Fellowship from the New York Foundation for the Art, Artist Fellowship from Socrates Sculpture Park, SIP fellowship from the Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop, and Artist-in-Residence Workspace Grant from The Center for Book Arts. Her work has been reviewed in The New York Times, Art in America, among other publications. 

Learn more: www.cuifei.net