I am Annysa Ng, an artist from Hong Kong. My Chinese name is 吳欣慈. 欣 means joy. 慈 means kind, and also means mother. My mother wished I would make her happy. I was born and brought up in Hong Kong. I liked painting since I was a little girl. Since Hong Kong is a financial city, there had been little attention paid to art. It was hard to make a career as an artist, so I kept a day job and did my art during my leisure time, like my father did. My father was a self-taught photographer. He shot pictures for his own enjoyment.
The first time that I came to America was at 21 when I started working for an airline as a flight attendant. The job gave me chances to go to different places, see different cultures and of course, visit museums and galleries. Back home, on my days off, I studied painting. My teacher, Maytin Kan, a very famous watercolorist, allowed me to attend his classes on a flexible schedule. After learning from him for 6 years, I had my first solo show. In 2000, I started to feel there was not enough “me” in my painting. I would have liked to put more of my thoughts, my style in it, but I didn’t know how. The idea of going back to school stroke struck me, and New York, the contemporary art mecca, came to my mind.
I left Hong Kong, and all pieces I previously had made, and arrived at the School of Visual Art, in New York, ready to start anew. Here, in New York, I discovered an affinity with the work of German artists, like Anselm Kiefer, Joseph Beuys, which prompted me to go to study in Germany. In Germany, I was very fortunate to study under Prof. Marianne Eigenheer at the Kunste Akademie in Stuttgart. Besides painting, I started to make installations. I started to see “my babies” look more like their mom.
In 2005, after I finished my study in Germany and I returned to New York. The first thing I did after arrival was to borrow two books from the public library about art marketing. I didn’t know many people here and had no idea of how to get a show. On a non-profit art platform, Artist Space’s website, I uploaded my works to their Artist File. Soon, a curator from Miami Art Center contacted me. They asked me to send my work for to their show in September. In early October, I received a call from a New York gallery director, who saw my work in Miami. In the evening of Halloween, after I made my way through the parade, I met them the second time at their gallery in Chelsea. They gave me my first solo show in America in December. That’s how I started art life here.
My first show had drawn some attention; in the New York Times, Ken Johnson wrote “ the works of postmodernist faux-antiquity by a Chinese artist who has studied in Hong Kong, New York and Germany have an erotically stirring poetic delicacy. ” But sales-wise, it was not very satisfactory. In 2007, my work started to penetrate some private and public collection entities, like Deutsche Bank. However, the financial turmoil in the end of 2008 put everything on hold. In the following two years, I showed more overseas, in London and Germany. In 2011, I had a show in Hong Kong after years of absence. I was advised to go back to Asia, as the art market is there. At this moment, I still find that New York suits me better. There are many aspects that I like about living in New York City, the energy, the pace, and the art scene, where I can see many different art and meet artists from all over the world.
我叫吳欣慈. 我是一名从香港来的艺术家．我的中文名字叫吳欣慈. 欣是开心的意思． 慈代表善良也代表母亲． 我妈妈希望我能让她开心．我从小在香港长大．从小就喜欢画画．因为香港是一个金融城市，香港对画的注意较少而且人很难把画家当成职业，所以跟我爸爸一样，我白天有一个工作并在闲暇之余画画．我爸爸自己教自己摄影．并以摄影为嗜好
我二十一岁的时候到了美国并在一家航空公司当空中小姐．这个工作给予我去不同地方，看不同文化和参观博物馆和画廊的机会． 当我放假在家时， 我学习画画．我的老师, 靳微天老師, 是一位很有名的水彩画家. 他让我弹性上他的课. 在跟他学习六年后, 我有了我的一个个人画展. 在2000年时, 我开始感觉我的画里没有足够的“我”. 我希望有更多我的想法和风格，但我不知道怎么做. 我突然想到回去上学的这个想法。 而纽约，当代艺术的聚集地, 出现在我脑中。
我离开香港和我之前所画的作品, 到了纽约的视觉艺术学校准备从新开始。在纽约我对德国艺术家, 像是Anselm Kiefer和 Joseph Beuy的作品产生好感. 这让我想去德国读书. 在德国, 我跟幸运能跟在德國斯圖加特國家美術學院跟Marianne Eigenheer教授学习. 除了画画之外, 我开始做装置艺术. 我的“小孩”越来越像他们的妈妈了.
在2005年, 我在德国上完课后回到了纽约. 回来的第一件事就是从图书馆借了两本关于艺术行销的书. 我不认识这边的人也不知道如何得到展出机会. 有一个非盈利的艺术平台, Artist Space’s website,让我上传我的作品到他们的艺术家档案. 很快的, 迈阿密艺术中心的馆长联络了我并要求我寄作品给他们九月的展览. 十月初我接到纽约画廊的执行长的电话, 他看到我在迈阿密的画. 在万圣节的那天晚上, 走完游行之后我第二次在雀儿喜的画廊见到他们. 他们让我办我第一个个人画展. 这就是我如何在这里开始我的艺术生涯.
我的一个展览得到了一些注意; 在纽约时报中, Ken Johnson写道“这位在香港, 纽约和德国读过书的中文画家的后现代仿效古物激起了一股诗意的细致.” 但在销售方面并没有达到预期．在２００７年，我的作品进入到私人和公众收藏中，像是德意志银行．但是２００８年底的金融风暴让一切暂停． 在接下来的两年，我在海外有更多展览，像是在伦敦和德国．２０１１年，在很多年没在香港出现之后，我在香港有了一个展览．有人建议我回到亚洲，因为艺术市场现在在那边．但在这一刻，我还是觉得纽约比较适合我．住在纽约的很多方面是我喜欢的，活力，速度和艺术．这里我能看到不同艺术和遇见世界各地的艺术家．