Linye Jiang

Two more weeks to view Sweet, Juicy, and Rebellious at @dittmargallery . This is my first time presenting all handcrafted fruits, displayed in a linear arrangement to highlight every detail. I’m enjoying the clarity of this new approach. I’m also thrilled to introduce Marvin Veloso’s interactive performance lecture: Alimentary Affects Performance by Marvin Veloso @marvvvelo Thursday, October 10, 7:00 - 8:00pm Dittmar Memorial Gallery   In engaging with Linye Jiang’s photo-series “Sweet, Juicy, and Rebellious”,  Marvin Veloso foregrounds the feelings and personal reflections that emerge from an intimate exchange between the viewer, the artwork, and the space they share. Marvin’s performance titled Alimentary Affects, captures these sensational and embodied experiences that can animate the potential of community building through artistic practices. Here, he evokes practice as a participatory way of knowing that unsettles the normative conventions of academic settings. Alimentary Affects explores through a performance lecture on affect theory, critical and poetic forms that will invite audience members with writing prompts that flirt with themes of pleasure, reflexivity, and queerness. Using various works from “Sweet, Juicy, and Rebellious” as a turning point, this interactive mode asks us to consider alternative ways of interpretation, so that we might lean into creative expression, as critical to nourishing our relationships to the production and dissemination of knowledge.  Marvin Veloso is a Chicago-based artist and researcher pursuing graduate studies in the Department of Visual and Critical Studies at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Drawing upon themes across queerness and multimodal studies, his interdisciplinary approach to material cultures and social theory. As an artist–researcher within the Filipinx diaspora, his critical interrogations toward ongoing legacies of colonial and imperial expansion, informs his artistic practice with performance, poetry, and moving image. 1999 Campus Dr, Evanston, IL 60208 Northwestern University, Norris University Center, 1st Floor, inside Dittmar Gallery. Open Daily：10am-10pm @norriscenter

Two more weeks to see 𝙐𝙣𝙙𝙞𝙨𝙘𝙡𝙤𝙨𝙚𝙙 𝙇𝙤𝙘𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣 at the Chinese American Museum of Chicago! The exhibition is on view through February 23. Part of the Spotlight Series curated by Larry Lee. Read Natalie Jenkins’ full review in Chicago Reader—link in bio. I’m also sharing my thoughts on this project—swipe left to read more!

OH Art Foundation is celebrating 4th Annual Asian Pacific American Festival of the Arts which will feature over 100 works of art by 58 Asian Pacific American creative professionals with programs designed to engage more than 2,000 community members through exhibitions, performances, workshops, and cultural gatherings across over two months, May 1 – July 12, 2026 Still After: Threads of Remembrance Opencall group exhibition curated by Yi Cao Selected featuring artists : @linye.j @le_hien_minh @richard.gessert @siweixu_art Be a proud sponsor for 2027 OH Art Festivals Inquiries - [email protected] 2026 OH Art Festivals sponsored by @elevated_chi @thechicagocommunitytrust @illinoisartscouncil @ilhumanities MacArthur Foundation, American Metro Bank, and Zhou B Group #ohartfoundation #ohartfestivals #ohartevents #aapiartists #aapiheritagemonth

Showing 𝙎𝙘𝙖𝙫𝙚𝙣𝙜𝙚𝙧 𝙃𝙪𝙣𝙩 at @4thwardprojectspace last fall was one of those experiences I keep coming back to. I still remember the smell of the braised food I made that day, bees landing on sliced fruit arranged on enamel plates, everyone gathered in the yard talking about their families. So many queer stories. Childhood photos. Conversations about the first Sam’s Club and the first McDonald’s in China. I just love when art makes people gather. I’m grateful to have had a platform and space to finally tell my own story, one I had kept as a secret for twenty years. Art turned out to be the reason I got to collaborate with my dad again. It created a space to talk about things I thought were taboo. It gave me love, friendships, community. One dear friend of mine came into the art world through this project. Reo @reo.y.w is a queer Chinese immigrant, a competitive boxer, and a PhD candidate at UMN researching LGBTQ+ youth and queer people of color. She wrote a review of this exhibition that told its story completely and with so much grace. It’s bilingual, not a translation but written in two languages, two ways of thinking. Which means my parents and sister can read it too. This past Saturday, I went to watch Reo fight. It was Chicago Golden Gloves final. The most attended session of the day. 24 bouts, only four women’s bouts. Of those four, only one wasn’t a novice match. That was Reo’s. Read the full article link in bio

JUICY AFTER DARK 🍓🪩 The gallery is the club for one night only! The opening still felt like yesterday and Fruity Night is coming to an end! For our exhibition closing, we are transforming Heaven Gallery into an immersive nightlife sanctuary. Under the hypnotic gaze of the disco ball—that “shiny centerpiece” that defines our space—we invite you to become a dancing art piece of the night. Expect a masterclass in rhythmic endurance as Harry Brenn plays b2b with DJ without Organs, pushing hypnotic techno deep into the room. Dress up, go extra. Wear the outfit you’ve been saving for “someday.” ✨ Show up shiny, leave sweaty, and stay juicy! 🗓 Saturday, Jan 10th 🕗 8PM – 1AM 📍 Heaven Gallery | 1550 N Milwaukee Ave, FL #2 🍸 Drinks available for suggested donation 👕 Limited edition sweatshirts available for purchase! DANCE! FOR A FRUITY NIGHT. #JuicyAfterDark #HeavenGallery #ChicagoTechno #QueerArt FruityNight ChicagoNightlife

After a long evening of clubbing, the next day dawns hazy and struggling. Two artists, born in China and finding themselves amid the queer culture of Chicago, explore this tricky midland with delight and questions in “Fruity Night,” a two-person show at Heaven Gallery. Linye Jiang presents her ongoing photographs of fruit that has been pierced, bound, and bedazzled. Blown-up, framed with fluorescent acrylic sheeting, and cut out, the resulting photosculptures surprise with outrageous style and empathic personification. Yiwei Leo Wang plays the club kid somewhat self-mockingly in a quartet of artworks, among them a Jenga-tower of colorful resin bricks and a pile of yellow “caution: dance floor” signs whose falling stick figure hints at the perils of the nightclub. In place of a mirrored disco ball he hangs a dozen round fabric quilts, edged with shiny silver and tie-dyed in rainbow hues, perfect for providing comfort when the party ends. ✍️ Lori Waxman 📷 Courtesy of the artists

Linye and I have been close friends, and fellow artists for years. We’ve shown together, got drunk together, and brainstorm random late-night ideas together. But we’re finally doing our first duo show together! We were both born in China but arrived here on very different paths. Yet somehow we ended up in Chicago, once filled with a sense of novelty toward Western queer culture, and gradually learning what it means to exist as part of the Chinese diaspora—“the other.”   Fruity Night is a colorful, reflective response of that journey. My explorations of nightlife and party: spaces that promise freedom but may also come with their own unspoken rules, sits in conversation with Linye’s work on conformity fruit, which rethinks sweetness and shine stripped of flavor.   Together, our works celebrate queer joy and question what it costs. Beneath the surface, we hope this show opens a space for recognition, a place where play, loneliness, resistance, and identity meet under the sweety and sweaty.   We’d love to see you there! 🌈🪩✨ #chicago ##chicagoart #saicalumni #saicphoto #saicsculpture #chineseamericaart #chineseamericanqueer #queerart

Scavenger Hunt by Linye Jiang @linye.j

Linye Jiang’s Scavenger Hunt is on view through October 19th! 💥 1. My Father 2018 Archival inkjet print, mounted with magnetic tape on a metal board (30 × 40 in.)
Print size: 20 × 23.5 in. Includes the following 4 × 6 in. Family Archive Photographs (reprinted 2025):  My Father Wearing My Bangs, 1995  Photograph I Took of My Father, 1995  Reverse Side with My Father’s Handwritten Note, 1988 2. Shun and My Father 2019 Medium: Archival inkjet print, mounted with magnetic tape on a metal board (30 × 28 in.)
Print size: 20 × 23.5 in. Includes the following 4 × 6 in. Family Archive Photographs (reprinted 2025): Photographs depict me as a child 1988-1996 @linye.j #linyejiang

Mark your calendars! We are very excited to announce Linye Jiang’s upcoming show: 🗓️🖊️ Linye Jiang: Scavenger Hunt September 14 – October 19, 2025 Reception for the artist:
Sunday, September 14, 4:00 – 7:00 P.M. / This exhibition is supported, in part, by a Foundation for Contemporary Arts Emergency Grant. / @foundationforcontemporaryarts @linye.j #linyejiang

Lovingly making arts, foods, mess, encounters, tennis courts hunting here! Probably more in the following weeks in August. Day 6 @wassaicproject

If I were on a dating app, I’d end up picking these photos🤪lucky I’m out of the game.