New Museum of Art gallery honors Chinese-American artist

BYUs Museum of Art features a variety of religious and cultural works, and its newest exhibit highlights the life and art of Chinese-American artist Mimi Chen Ting.

Ting immigrated from Hong Kong to San Francisco in 1965 at age 18. She studied painting and dance, often blending the two disciplines in her performance art.

Make Movement Visible, Tings exhibit at the Museum of Art, was created in collaboration with her family, who helped provide artwork and personal stories for the collection. Many of Tings pieces combine abstraction and contemporary art.

So often with abstract art especially, the artist is inviting you to work a little bit harder instead of being spoon-fed what a painting means, they want you to come to it and take away your own meaning, Liz Brailsford, lead educator of Make Movement Visible, said.

According to Tings family, she freehanded all of her forms, sketching them in pencil before painting over them. In many of her works, pencil marks can still be seen beneath the paint .

Miri Kim, curator of the exhibit, worked closely with Tings family to better understand the stories behind each piece. Last Songs was the final painting Ting completed before dying of cancer in 2022.

People have been incredibly moved by this piece, Ive been moved by this piece," Kim said. "Its the first time this painting has been seen by the public."

According to Tings son, Clarence Ting, Mimi had returned to an early childhood memory of going to the beaches in Hong Kong. She recalled memories of beaches with rocky stones, eventually inspiring the piece, Last Songs.

When stones are not uniform, when theyre naturally washed in by the sea, brought in by the sea, they have more stories to tell," Ting said. "They tell me where theyve been, what theyve witnessed."

As a student, immigrant, artist and mother, Tings life was shaped by movement. Many pieces in the exhibit explore her relationship with her mother as well as her experience balancing motherhood with art.

The exhibit also features a video of Tender Ties, a 2005 performance piece in which Ting manipulates a long drape of fabric. The work can be interpreted in a variety of ways.

What I want to help audiences understand is that regardless of your background, whether you have multiple degrees in art history or if this is your first time in a museum, theres something here for you, Brailsford said.

Make Movement Visible will remain on display at the MOA through Oct. 10, 2026.