Cui Fei

1970
Jinan Shandong China
Based in New York, Cui Fei is well known for her work that uses natural materials (thorns, grape vine tendrils) to emulate calligraphic writing. Cui’s work has been exhibited across the US, including Museum of Arts and Design, New York; Queens Museum, Queens, NY; Bronx Museum of Arts; Wave Hill, Bronx, NY; Princeton University Art Museum, Princeton, NJ;  Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington, DE; Art Complex Museum, Duxbury, MA; New Britain Museum of American Art, New Britain, CT, and internationally at venues such as Museum of East Asian Art, Cologne; Kunstgewerbe Museum, Dresden, Germany; Rietberg Museum, Zurich, Switzerland; among others. In 2025, her artwork featured in Walking Their Own Paths: Women Calligraphers in Contemporary Taiwan, Hengshan Calligraphy Art Centre, Taoyuan City in Taiwan. Presently, it is showcased at Metamorphosis: Chinese Imagination and Transformation at China Institute Gallery, New York, USA, running until January 2026.

Her work was collected by Rhode Island School of Design, Providence; Light Work, Syracuse University, New York; OMI International Art Centre, New York; Tang Centre for East Asian Art, Princeton University Art Museum, New Jersey, USA; China Academy of Art, Hangzhou, China.

Word Play: New York at Alisan Fine Arts New York in 2024 is the gallery's first time to work with the artist. 


BIOGRAPHY

1970   Born in Jinan, China
1998-2001   MFA painting, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Indiana, PA, USA
1989-1993   BFA painting, Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts (now China Academy of Art), Hangzhou, China
Present   Lives and works in New York, USA

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS

    2026
    2024
    • Vermicular Calligraphy, Garage Art Center, Queens, NY, USA
    2019
    • Cui Fei: Counter-Monument, Chu-Griffis Asian Art Reading Room, Charles E. Shain Library, Connecticut College, New London, CT, USA
    2016
    • Cui Fei: Tracing the Origin II, Chambers Fine Art, Beijing, China
    2015
    • Cui Fei: The Journey of Transformation, W10 Window Project, Art-in-Building Program, New York, NY, USA
    2013
    • Cui Fei: Tracing the Origin, Chambers Fine Art, New York, NY, USA
    2011
    • Re-interpreting Nature: Recent Work by Cui Fei, Rosenberg Gallery, Hofstra University, Hempstead, NY, USA
    2010
    • Cui Fei, Warehouse gallery, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY, USA
    • Manuscript of Nature V, The New York Public Library, New York, NY, USA 
    2007
    • Manuscript of Nature, Cheryl McGinnis Gallery, New York, NY, USA
    2003
    • The Voice of the Voiceless, Gallery 456, New York, NY, USA
    2000
    • Beyond East and West: Seeking the Truth in Nature, Kipp Gallery, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Indiana, PA, USA

    SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

    2025-2026

    • Metamorphosis: Chinese Imagination and Transformation, China Institute Gallery, New York, USA (until Jan 11, 2026)
    2025
    • Walking Their Own Paths: Women Calligraphers in Contemporary Taiwan, Hengshan Calligraphy Art Centre, Taoyuan City, Taiwan
    • The Reality Principle, Monira Foundation, Jersey City, NY, USA
    • 39 Footnotes, Accent Sisters, New York, NY, USA
    • Dancing with the Qi: TransMediating Chinese Calligraphy, The College of New Jersey Art Gallery, Ewing, NJ, USA
    2024
    • Word Play: New York, Alisan Fine Arts, New York, NY, USA
    • Into the Spines and on the Stacks, Sachem Public Library, Holbrook, NY, USA
    • Making a Good Impression: Art on Paper from Japan, China, and Korea, Hammond Museum & Japanese Stroll Garden, North Salem, NY, USA
    • Calligraphy, Arts of China gallery, Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY, USA
    • Theater of Energies, Arsenal Contemporary, New York, NY, USA
    • Femina Creativa: Celebrating Women in New York, Rosenthal Library, Queens College Art Center, Queens, NY, USA
    2023-2024
    • Into the Spines and on the Stacks, Museum of Contemporary Art Long Island, Patchogue, NY; Patchogue-Medford Library, Patchogue, NY; Sachem Public Library, Holbrook, NY, USA 
    2023
    • Manu-Scripts, MoCA L.I., Patchogue, NY, USA
    • We Used to Kneel in the Dirt: An Exploration into Ritual, SVA Curatorial Practice, Pfizer Building, Brooklyn, NY, USA
    • Between Light and Shadow, AoA:87, Bamberg, Germany 
    • In the Mood for Love, VillageOne Art, New York, NY, USA
    • Summoning Memories: Art Beyond Chinese Traditions, Asia Society Texas, Houston, TX, USA
    • Fifteen in NYC, All Things Project, New York, NY, USA
    2022
    • Hill of the Madman, Power Station of Art, Chanel Culture Fund, Shanghai, China
    • Steeped in Spilt Milk pt.2, Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts, New York, NY, USA
    • Reconcile: Begin Anew, Flushing Town Hall, Flushing, NY, USA
    2021
    • Communicating Beyond Words, Flushing Town Hall, Flushing, NY, USA
    • The Burning Kite, Kristen Lorello Gallery, New York, NY, USA
    2019
    • Quietude, Hammond Museum & Japanese Scroll Garden, North Salem, NY, USA
    • Haft Paykar | Seven Beauties, Mohsen Gallery, Tehran, Iran
    • Chinese Landscape Rethought, Lyman Allyn Art Museum, New London, CT, USA
    2018
    • Chinese Medicine in America: Converging Ideas, People and Practices, Museum of Chinese in America, New York, NY, USA
    • Blurred Boundaries, New York School of Interior Design Gallery, New York, NY, USA 
    2017
    • Workspace Artists-In-Residence Exhibition, The Center for Book Arts, New York, NY
    • Words in Characters, Books as Vehicle, Oklahoma State University Museum of Art, Stillwater, OK; East Asian Library, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA
    2016
    • A Space-Time of Transitional Desires, The Clemente, New York, NY, USA
    • Feminine Power: New Perspective, Daqian Contemporary Art Center, Beijing, China
    • SIP Fellowship Show I, 20/20 Gallery, Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop Program, Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts, New York, NY, USA
    • The Magic Power of Characters: 3000 Years of Chinese Writing and Calligraphy, Museum of East Asian Art, Cologne, Germany 
    • Gifts from the Tang Center, Princeton University Art Museum, Princeton, NJ, USA
    2015
    • The Magic power of Characters: 3000 Years of Chinese Calligraphy, Museum Rietberg, Zürich, Switzerland 
    • A Tradition Re-Interpreted: New Work by Chinese Artist, The Galleries at Cleveland State University, Cleveland OH, USA
    • ARS CONTINUUM: Amelie A. Wallace Gallery 1978 to the Present, Amelie A. Wallace Gallery, Old Westbury, NY, USA
    • New Ways of Seeing: Beyond Culture, Dorsky Gallery Curatorial Programs, Long Island City, NY, USA
    • Remembering Things Past, Islip Art Museum, Islip, NY, USA
    • Mot Juste, Mandeville Gallery, Union College, Schenectady, NY, USA
    2014
    • Remembering Things Past, Patchogue Arts Council, Patchogue, NY, USA
    • The Intuitionists, The Drawing Center, New York, NY, USA
    • Wonder Cabinets/The Art of Collecting, Children's Museum of the Arts, New York, NY, USA
    2012
    • Origins: Cui Fei & Taca Sui, Chambers Fine Art, New York, NY, USA
    2011
    • RE-NATURED: Cui Fei and Roy Nicholson, University Art Gallery, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, USA

    SELECTED GRANTS & AWARDS

    2022   Artist Banners, Finalist, Noguchi Museum, Long island City, New York, USA
    2016   Artist-in-Residence Workspace Grant, The Center for Book Arts, New York, NY, USA
    2015   NYFA Fellowship (The Lily Auchincloss Foundation Fellow), Printmaking/Drawing/Book Arts, New York Foundation for the Arts, , USA
    SIP Fellowship, Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop Program, New York, NY 2013 Peer Leadership Circles, Queens Council on the Arts, Astoria, NY, USA
    2012   Emerging Artist Fellowship, Socrates Sculpture Park, Long Island City, NY, USA
    2011   Art Omi International Artists Residency, Ghent, NY, USA
    Artist-in-Residence, Light Work, Syracuse University, NY, USA
    2009   The Pollack-Krasner Foundation Grant, New York, NY, USA
    2007   NYFA Fellowship, New York Foundation for the Arts, New York, NY, USA
    2005   Emerge program, Aljira & Creative Capital, Newark, NJ, nominated by Jessica Hough 2004 Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts Studio Center Award, New York, NY, USA
    2004   Viewing Program Slide Registry, The Drawing Center, New York, NY, USA
    2002   Irving Sandler Artists File, Artists Space, New York, NY, USA
    2001-2002   Artist in the Marketplace (AIM) program, Bronx Museum of the Arts, Bronx, NY, USA
    2001   Excellence in Arts Award, Bronx Council on the Arts, Bronx, NY, USA

    2000   Travel Grant, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Indiana, PA, USA

    SELECTED COLLECTIONS

    Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, USA
    Light Work, Syracuse University, New York, USA
    OMI International Art Center, New York, USA
    Tang Centre for East Asian Art, Princeton University Art Museum, New Jersey, USA
    China Academy of Art, Hangzhou, China

    SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

    2024   A New Transcendentalist Movement in the New Age: On Theater of Energies, by Feng-Yi Chu, Whitehot Magazine, August 4, 2024
    3 A.M. Provocations: In Lieu of A Curatorial Statement, by gaoyuan, Arsenal Contemporary, New York, NY, USA
    Cui Fei: Vermicular Calligraphy, Artist Spotlight and Exhibition Showcase, Arte Realizzata, May 21, 2024
    2023   AAPI Artist Spotlight: Cui Fei, video by Xuan Films, Noguchi Museum, 5/6/2023
    Summoning Memories: Beyond Chinese Traditions, by Susan L. Beningson, Arts of Asia, summer 2023
    Between Light and Shadow, catalog, essay by Bodo Korsig, AOA;87, Bamberg, Germany 
    2022   Steeped in Spilled Milk pt.2, by Dana Notine, ArtSeen, Brooklyn Rail, Brooklyn, NY 2022 Defamiliarizations in Chinese Visual Culture and Aesthetics, Part II, The New Social Environment #590, featuring Cui Fei and Paul Gladston, Brooklyn Rail, 6/27/22
    Spine/Thorns, by Arianna Santambrogio, INVENTARIO Everything is a Project, Milan: Carraini, Italy. No.16, p125
    2021   A Dynamic Conversation with Cui Fei, by Uzomah Ugwu, Arte Realizzata Magazine, 10/23/2021
    De/Sign and Writing: Toward an Aesthetic of the Asemic, by Lihong Liu, Introduction to Session V De/sign and Writing. In Motion: Transformation. 35th Congress of the International Committee of the History of Arts Florence, 1-6 Sept. 2019. Vol. 1. Bologna: Bononia University Press, Italy, 2021. pp. 221-231
    2020   The Seeds of Creation: Artists during the 2020 pandemic, by Cosmina Ene, Max Laniado Fine Arts LLC, New York, NY, USA
    The Asemic Effect: What - and how - does meaningless writing mean? by David Ebony, Art in America, May 2020
    2019   Asemic: The Art of Writing, by Peter Schwenger, University of Minnesota Press, 2019
    Cui Fei: Counter-Monument, by Yibing Huang, Chu-Griffis Asian Art Collection, Connecticut College, New London, CT, USA
    Chinese Landscape Rethought in New London, by Megan Gummer, The College Voice, Connecticut College, New London, CT, USA
    2018   Natural Principle of the Characters, by Pan Xing lei, Fashion Color, 04, 2018
    Chinese Medicine in America exhibition at the Museum of Chinese in America, by Zhang Zhen, Voice of America, 5/12/2018
    Chinese Medicine and Art, by Qianfan, EsquireChina, 2018/08/No/156
    2017   
    Cui Fei, monograph, Chambers Fine Art, New York and Beijing
    2017 Patterns And Pathways: the Artistry of Cui Fei, by Jerome Silbergeld, Chinese text translated by Ying Zhou, Shishuhua Journal, No.3 2017, Beijing, China
    BNO Design Gives an Upper East Side A Chic Canvas for Art, by Deborah L. Martin, New York Spaces, Volume 14, Number 5, September 2017
    In Perspective, by Louis Soulard, ArtAsiaPacific, 1/2017
    Artistic Perspective: Similarity and Dissimilarity? NewYork Lounge, Sinovision, 1/26/2017 
    2016   Perspectives on Art and Nature, by Robert C. Morgan, Asian Art News,Vol. 26 No. 4, 2016 
    One Exhibition, Two Songs, by Wang Jiabei, Phoenix Art, 11/28/2016
    Conversation with Liang Shuang, Tencent, Beijing, China, 10/3/2016
    Aesthetics also for illiterates, Köln Nachrichten, Colgone, Germany, 4/24/2016
    New exhibition in the East Asian Museum, Solinger Tageblat, 4/12/2016
    Magie der Zeichen. 3000 Jahre chinesische Schriftkunst, artCore, Switzerland, 3/15/2016 
    Kunstvolle Schrift entsteht mit Pinsel, Tusche, Papier, by Elke Baumann, Lokalinfo, Zurich, 1/21/2016
    Get to Know: Cui Fei, by Time Equities Art-in-Buildings Project, 1/20/16
    2015   Ein Fantasietext aus 400 Rebzweiglein: Cui Fei macht Kunst aus Natur - und beantwortet immer ein und dieselbe Frage, by Ev Manz, Tages Anzeiger, Zurich, Switzerland, 11/18/2015
    The Dorsky Gallery, New Ways of Seeing: Beyond Culture, by Michael Wood, Queensbuzz.com, 5/11/2015
     Artists give visual form to our use of language in exhibit, by Karen Bjornland, The Daily Gazette, Schenectady, NY, 1/22/2015


    More on the Artist