10 Questions with Jiaming You

Jiaming You is a painter and installation artist based in Chicago. They received their MFA degree in Painting and Drawing from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (2022). They also hold a BS in Art from the University of Wisconsin, Madison (2018) and a Post Baccalaureate Certificate in Painting and Drawing from SAIC (2019). Jiaming is the recipient of the SAIC International Graduate Student Scholarship (2021), Oxbow Merit Scholarship (2022), and Carrie Ellen Tuttle Fellowship (2022). They attended the Conversation in Practice Residency (2022) and Longform Residency (2022) at Ox-Bow, Michigan. Jiaming has shown their work in Madison, Chicago, Newhaven, Los Angeles, and New York City. Jiaming’s work was exhibited at Nanjing Art Fair International 2023. Publications about their work can be found in Soft Lightning Magazine, Emerge Magazine, CanvasRebel, Sina News, Artdaily, New City, Art Insider, and Chicago Reader. Their upcoming museum solo show at the Chinese Museum of Chicago will open in March 2025.

jiamingyou.net | @jiamingyou_studio

ARTIST STATEMENT

Chicago-based interdisciplinary artist Jiaming You utilizes found imagery and photos taken by themselves to construct scenes of bodies in non-existent scenarios as an attempt to critique the limiting nature of social norms in depicting individuality and uses their experience and positionality as a non-binary immigrant as a source of knowledge and site of exploration to the confines of social norms and the distribution of power. Their work questions how social roles and identities are assigned, practiced, and enforced in society’s social structure and interpersonal interactions. And how individuals are objectified as “consumer goods” according to their assigned gender and social class. Using compositional strategies such as cropping and covering-up, Jiaming obscures the facial features of androgynous figures to challenge the view’s stereotypes about a limited perspective on individual identities that consist only of gender, race, and social class. By showcasing bodies that defy binary classification, Jiaming highlights the fluidity of gender and the multifaceted nature of everybody. They believe that the social behaviors of any individual are context-based rather than fixed and pre-decided. When once asked, “If these indeed are portraits, who are they of?” Jiaming replied, “I intend to capture human beings under a specific circumstance. The context is specific, while the person can be anybody.”

INTERVIEW

Please introduce yourself to our public. Who are you, and how would you describe yourself as a person and an artist?

Hey everyone! I’m Jiaming You, a painter and installation artist currently based in Chicago. I was born in Shanghai, China, and finished my college and grad school in the States. I’m a full-time studio artist exhibiting internationally in exhibition spaces, galleries, and art fairs.

When did you first realize you wanted to be an artist?

My love for art museums blossomed during my childhood, captivating me with the beauty, grandeur, passion, drama, and profound nature of artistic expressions. This initial encounter left a lasting impression on me. In my spare time, from the age of 7 to 18, I immersed myself in the art of splash-ink painting under the tutelage of a skilled master of “water and ink.” During my college years, I explored subjects like biology and psychology, working in laboratories. However, these paths never felt quite right. It was only when I made the firm decision to declare an art major that everything started to fall into place. Graduating from college with a major in art, I pursued a post-baccalaureate program in painting and eventually earned an MFA in painting. 

What is your artistic background? And how did you develop into the artist you are today?

My mother tongue in visual language is painting. It is where I received my post-baccalaureate certificate and MFA degree. However, being an artist who traveled a lot during my growing up and being influenced by multiple cultural backgrounds, I can not accept my practice being limited within the traditional “painting on stretched canvas”. Therefore, I’m always actively investigating non-art materials and progressive compositional solutions that allow me to “collage” with various image sources and aesthetics. Gradually, I find myself capable of making both paintings and installation work. The format of a specific body of work also depends on the curator’s decision and the preference of the gallery I’m showing with. Because of my experience growing up, I am bilingual, and that gives me a great advantage when pursuing an international artistic career. I can easily communicate with gallerists from different countries. For example, in the past September, I was communicating with a gallery in Nanjing, China, for an art fair presentation while preparing with a curator for a show in Chicago that happened in the same month.       

You already have a significant career, with many publications and exhibitions. What is one thing you learned from these experiences? And what surprised you the most so far? 

One thing I learned from my art career is to always show up for your fellow artists/curators/gallerists, even if you are not part of the show. It’s important to let others in the community know that you care about what they are doing and you want to see everyone get an opportunity. Many of the exhibitions I got are from going to other artists’ shows and talking to them about their practice. Through those conversations, I get to make friends and find collaborators for projects. It is important not to only think about yourself. 
When I first entered the professional art world, I didn’t expect that resilience would be that crucial for having a sustainable career. So many factors can have an impact on the delivery of a show or a project. I remember being selected for a show at Ely Center of Contemporary Art in 2021, but the show didn’t happen until January 2023 because of some financial crisis at the art center. In the meantime, I learned to not overthink about it and move on with other projects, and in late December 2022, the curator eventually reached out to me about the execution of the show. Good things will happen if you stay in the industry and keep yourself active. 

You work primarily with painting and installation. How does your approach change based on the medium you use? 

Quite the opposite of what many audiences might think, my approach doesn’t really change between my painting and installation work. A sculptor friend of mine once pointed out that the bottom logic of how I handle material is “additive”, which means I add parts on top of each other, just like a painter stack paints in layers. For the general composition of any work, I’m always searching for the best way to assemble visual elements from different sources, whether it’s multiple virtual source images for my painting or different objects with various surfaces and physical qualities for my installation. So, I’m confident to say that the visual logic stays consistent across my work in different formats.   

Your statement mentions how your experience as a non-binary immigrant influences your work. Can you tell us more about it? How is this reflected in your work?

The microaggression towards people of color and queer is very commonly seen in the professional world. Scientific studies have shown that both groups of the population score higher on the scale of social camouflaging, a behavior pattern of mimicking others’ social behavior so as to fit in. While this is a survival strategy for many of us, scientific studies also show that those who score higher on social camouflaging are less happy because they are not able to “be themselves” when interacting with others. 
In my work, various compositional strategies are employed to avoid showing the face of the figure. The intention is to challenge audiences to get to know the person beyond the biological parameters (sex, age, race, etc). The “figure without a face” is also a metaphor for those who have to utilize social camouflage for an applicable social life.

In the same statement, you declare, “I intend to capture human beings under a specific circumstance. The context is specific, while the person can be anybody.” On this note, how do you choose your subjects? And how do you represent them? Are these portraits of real people, or do you put together fictional scenarios?

I keep a rich collection of images, a mix of photos I took myself and found images from the internet and social media. Unusually, I’m motivated to make a piece when something in my life or some public incident triggers a certain feeling. I search in my image bank to find several images that are relevant and together make an interesting aesthetic. And it goes from there. I would say the portraits capture a certain psychological moment that any viewers can find themselves echoing with, but it’s not meant to be identified as any specific person. 

On a general level, what would you like to communicate to the viewers with your work? 

I like to keep my work half open. The goal I set for my work is to reach a balance between norm-challenging concepts and intriguing, if not stunning, aesthetic. If an audience thinks similarly to the artist, that is always the ultimate reward. But with the intriguing visuals, at least my audience has a pleasant visual journey. 

Is there anything else you would like to experiment with? 

In previous installation pieces of mine, I used a lot of ready-made mades. In the upcoming year, I plan to experiment with 3D printing and furniture that requires assembling. And for sure, I will incorporate those 3D elements with the language of painting.

And lastly, what are you working on now? Do you have any new series or exhibitions coming up?

For 2024, I have already planned for two shows. One is with Mack Baker, a Chicago-based ceramic artist, on the concept of how the presentation of the body is contextualized. And another show with Atticus Gordon, a Canadian painter and installation artist, on the concept of fragmentation of images. My museum solo show will come up in March 2025.

Artist’s Talk

Al-Tiba9 Interviews is a promotional platform for artists to articulate their vision and engage them with our diverse readership through a published art dialogue. The artists are interviewed by Mohamed Benhadj, the founder & curator of Al-Tiba9, to highlight their artistic careers and introduce them to the international contemporary art scene across our vast network of museums, galleries, art professionals, art dealers, collectors, and art lovers across the globe.