We present the intricate yet monumental work of Chinese artist Song Xin, who transforms folk art paper cutting techniques into contemporary manuscripts that carry the history and lives of post-Cultural Revolution China into the present day information age in New York City

Educated at the Beijing Central Academy of Fine Arts, Song spent time creating paper cuts in the countryside of China with women farmers for whom this tradition was part of everyday life. As a third-generation feminist, Song celebrates women’s stories and their ceaseless use of hands for housework, childcare, and for ever-expanding global technology. Transplanted from Beijing to Bensonhurst, Brooklyn in 2000, Song became influenced by the area’s diverse tapestry of cultures from Eastern Europe, Italy, and Mexico, in addition to her own Chinese roots. “As new people move in, the neighborhood grows, blossoms and intertwines like the leaves, flowers and branches of a powerful tree, and my cut floral patterns often reference symbols of friendship and peace found in many traditions.” Contrasting these organic, natural forms, her choice of imagery ranges from the high-tech fast pace of instant messaging, to pop culture, politics, economics, environment, health, beauty, science, sex and taboo. Collecting text and visual material carefully chosen from magazines, Song layers her paper cuts on vellum like ancient palimpsests, her luminous use of light and color resulting in painterly filigrees that are at once personal and universal.

Song Xin’s work has been exhibited and collected nationally and internationally. Awarded the 2010 MTA Permanent Arts for Transit for the Bay Parkway Landmark Station in Brooklyn, NY, a 2010 Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts Studio Center Grant, a 2010 New York Foundation for the Arts Mentoring Program for Immigrant Artists, 2007-2008, a Fellowship at the Provincetown Art Museum, and a 2007 Puffin Foundation Grant, Song was also invited in 1995 by the Chinese Ministry of Culture to participate in The China Art Exposition.

We proudly announce that Song Xin was recently awarded the 2010 MTA Permanent Arts for Transit for the Bay Parkway Landmark Station in Brooklyn, NY,