‘What Is Chinatown?’ Artist Jiawei Zhao Looks At Chinatown Under Lockdown

Apr 21

by Nadja Sayej, Apr 21 2020, Forbes

Jiawei Zhao is a Chinese artist based in New York City. As the country is under lockdown, Zhao uses familiar Chinese symbolism in his artwork to create a feeling of familiarity and comfort in this time of crisis.

The Brooklyn-based artist looks to Manhattan’s Chinatown, and the various Chinatowns across the country, as a point of inspiration for his artworks, be it his series that looks at the closed Chinese-language movie theatres, to his Wallpaper series, which reexamines historic public monuments and their relevancy in our current pandemic—looking back to see a clearer future, so to speak. Read more…