Artist Talk with Mai Der Vang & Tiffany Chung

Arion Press & Graywolf Press are joining forces to present a public conversation inspired by the cultural & artistic collaboration between Mai Der Vang and Tiffany Chung.

This event will celebrate the launch of a limited-edition Arion Press broadside featuring poetry by Mai Der Vang and original artwork by Tiffany Chung. The poem "if this is the egg of our resurgence" comes from Vang's recently published collection Primordial, which is devoted to the plight of the saola—an extremely rare and endangered mammal that hasn't been captured on camera since 2013—and its relationship to Hmong refugee identity. It is paired with new artwork by Chung, inspired by Vang's words as well as her personal relationship to the saola's homeland.

The evening will feature a fascinating conversation between the artists and Graywolf Press's Director & Publisher Carmen Giménez on the intersections between war, displacement, memory, and art.

The talk will be 45 minutes followed by a 15-minute Q&A. A reception will follow in the Arion Press Gallery with the broadside on display and available for sale.

Tiffany Chung is an interdisciplinary artist globally noted for her research-driven practice exploring the intersections of history, culture, and geography on local and global scales. Working across media such as cartography, embroidery, painting, photography, sculpture, video, and music, her projects trace shifts in cultural, geopolitical, and natural landscapes driven by the upheavals of war, displacement, disaster, and global trade.

Chung’s artworks have been featured at international biennials and museums, including the 56th Venice Biennale, Sharjah Biennale, Sydney Biennale, Gwangju Biennale, Cuenca Biennial (Ecuador), EVA International–Ireland’s Biennial, Museum of Modern Art (NY), Smithsonian American Art Museum (DC), National Mall (DC), British Museum (London), Schirn Kunsthalle (Frankfurt), Nobel Peace Center (Oslo), Louisiana MoMA (Humlebaek), CCCB (Barcelona), M+ Museum (Hong Kong), Hammer Museum (LA), SF MoMA (SF), among others.

Chung received her MFA in Art Studio at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She is currently a KAVAH Fermata Fellow at the University of Chicago. She was a Mellon Arts & Practitioner Fellow at RITM, Yale University (2021).

Mai Der Vang is the author of Yellow Rain, winner of the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize from the Academy of American Poets, an American Book Award, and a Northern California Book Award. Yellow Rain was also a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry, the PEN/Voelcker Award, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and the California Book Award. Her first book, Afterland, received the First Book Award from the Academy of American Poets, was longlisted for the National Book Award, and was a finalist for the Kate Tufts Discovery Award. The recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and a Lannan Literary Fellowship, she teaches in the MFA program in creative writing at Fresno State.

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