Born in Shenzhen, China in 1997, Yongqi Tang currently lives and works in Seattle, Washington. Having studied and worked in both China and the United States, Tang’s artistic practice has been influenced by two vastly different cultural and ideological contexts. Her curiosity for exploring the ways in which sense of place and self interact leads her to investigate the social and spatial construction of identity. With a particular emphasis on the fluidity of our self-image, her works deals with ambiguity, gender and nationality. Tang’s current work portrays liminal spaces between public and private, investigating how Chinese immigrants conceive themselves through surrounding environments and external self-concepts. Identity is treated as a doubling phenomenon where people are both themselves and a project they make of themselves. Using the dining experience as an entry point, Tang’s representation often turns to moments of union and shared space. In this way, she is able to approach the issues of displacement and settlement simultaneously, as her figures rather than the environments create a sense of place, which are often interior spaces with a table at the center. The dining table is a poetic anchor for origin as a thing that is present in all homes and can be found anywhere, but with the specificity of whomever sits at the table. Working in a variety of mediums, oil, watercolor, acrylic and charcoal, Tang often creates multiple studies of the same composition, with each version bringing forth new elements and moods. Tang’s fluid movement through mediums is also a reflection of her approach to self-image and the broader human experience.