Phoebe Man

Phoebe Man (Man, Ching Ying) (Chinese:文晶瑩) is a contemporary Chinese artist and conceptual, media sculptor born in Hong Kong in 1969. Her work has been featured in many exhibits both abroad and at home, including Venice Biennale, Shanghai Biennale, Gwangju Biennale, European Media Art Festival and more.^[2] She is consistently inspired by feminist artists and although much of her work can be perceived as feminist, she contends that her work “is never an illustration of feminist theory.”^[3][4]

Early life and education

Man was born in Hong Kong in 1969. She attended the Chinese University of Hong Kong from 1987-1991 and received a bachelor's degree. She then attended the San Francisco Art Institute from 1998-2000 to receive a Master of Fine Arts, New Genres Major, or MFA. In addition, she holds a DFA from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, which she received in 2012.^[1]

Professional

Man was a founder and member of the Board of Directors at the Para/Site Art Space curating shows and writing reviews to promote Hong Kong art from 1996-2009. She is now an assistant professor in the School of Creative Media at City University of Hong Kong.^[5][6] In addition, she spends time creating works and preparing for exhibitions.

Works

Man has been a part of many exhibitions, both solo and with other artists. One of her most famous solo exhibitions was Beautiful Flowers, done in Hong Kong in 1995-1997. This exhibition showed a social and cultural perception of women in menstruation. Other solo exhibitions include the Web Art Project,^[7] in 2000, “Design HKU Map by Votes – Public Art by Phoebe Man”, at the Graduate House at University of Hong Kong, China in 2006, and "Hair Cut Hong Kong" on Queen's Pier in 2007.

Awards and Accomplishments

One of her video pieces, "Rati", won the Hong Kong Independent Short Film & Video Award in 2000. "Rati (version3.2)" was also invited to play in various film and video festivals in Brazil, France, Norway, Netherlands and Germany. She received a fellowship from the Asian Cultural Council and the Urban Council Fine Arts Award from the Hong Kong Museum of Art in 1998. She was also chosen as one of the ten "Smart Women of the 21st Century" by Marie Claire in the same year.^[5]

References