Cecile Chong

EXHIBITIONS

THOSE WHO CARRY - Bodies, Words, and Memories in Motion, 2026
LAS QUE LLEVAN - Cuerpos, Palabras y Memorias en Movimiento
Curated by Carla Sofía Puente
Spacio Cultural Quito - Mujeres Atrevidas Artist Residency

To carry is to transport, but also to support, care for, bear, and pass on. It can be a gesture of affection and belonging, but also a responsibility and a burden. THOSE WHO CARRY is a solo exhibition by Ecuadorian artist Cecile Chong, based in New York. Through ceramics, photography, and collective participation, she approaches migration through what women carry with them: children, objects, languages, work, and memories.

“In her sculptures, Chong incorporates volcanic ash from Ecuador into clay. These forms engage with references to Valdivia culture and with her guagua figures, connected to acts of carrying, caring, and passing things on between generations. The photographs of Ecuadorian women selling sweets in the New York City subway make often overlooked labor visible and honor these women’s dignity, perseverance, and ability to sustain daily life amid migration. In these images, motherhood, work, mobility, and care are part of the same experience.”

In Accent Studio, visitors contribute words and translations to build an evolving multilingual archive. Accent emerges as a trace of the places one has passed through. Ceramics, images, and words thus become different ways of carrying place, bodies, and memory. The exhibition asks not only what we carry when we migrate, but who bears that weight and how it changes along the way.

Old Stone House
Albums of Inclusion: Jamaica, Ecuador, China.
BROKEN CHINA (Tao Leigh Goffe × Cecile Chong)
Curated by Katherine Gressel
May 8 - June 14, 2026

Through archival methods and layered visual language, Broken China traces the material lives and afterlives of blue-and white porcelain. Their artwork forms a commentary on how the currency of “china” has been coveted, traded, collected, and counterfeited for centuries. The pair explores intergenerational memory to connect across diasporas of the overseas Chinese, and especially their family origins in Jamaica (Tao Leigh Goffe) and Ecuador (Cecile Chong). They do not seek to repair or excavate what is broken or what has been lost to history. Rather their art investigates aesthetic forms of collage, ceramic traditions, and music that have been reinvented and remixed in global port cities. Against notions of racial purity and ethnonationalism, Goffe and Chong challenge orientalist narratives, fetishes, and stereotypes of “the exotic” by invoking the memory of historical subjects such as Afong Moy and Sara Baartman, whose consent was stolen, to imagine new futures of liberation.

Photos: Etienne Frossard

Q Galería, Universidad San Francisco de Quito
Rumor de la Tierra: Ecuador | Jamaica | China
BROKEN CHINA / PORCELANA TROZADA (Tao Leigh Goffe × Cecile Chong)
Curated by Sara Reisman
January 21 – February 12, 2026
Quito, Ecuador

Rumor de la Tierra: Ecuador | Jamaica | China was the first exhibition dedicated to Broken China / Porcelana Trozada, a collaborative project formed by Cecile Chong and Tao Leigh Goffe. Bringing together installation, ceramics, video, photography, archival materials, sound, and found objects, the exhibition explored fragmentation, resilience, migration, kinship, and the myth of cultural purity across Ecuadorian, Jamaican, and Chinese histories.
https://qgaleria.com/rumor-de-la-tierra/

KODA House on Governors Island
Cecile Chong: Blue and White Tides
October 4 - November 2, 2025

Blue and White Tides explores maritime trade, porcelain circulation, and ecological memory through immersive installations combining ceramic fragments, light, and video.

Photos by Argenis Apolinario

PRISMA
Curated by Elisa Gutiérrez Eriksen
With the works of Tiger Strikes Asteroid New York members - Aisha Tandiwe Bell, Cecile Chong, Dominic Terlizzi, Ethan Greenbaum, Fred Blauth, Mike Olin, Mónica Palma, Rachael Gorchov, Sun You, Vincent Como, and William Kim

Wailing Cacti, 2025
Ceramic and volcanic ash on blue wall
9’ x 4’ 8”

A wall installation of ceramic cactus pads dispersed across a deep blue field. Inspired by visiting the cactus-covered landscapes of Santa Cruz Island in the Galápagos, the forms appear to fall like tears or rain. The work reflects the paradox of desert plants that store and protect water, symbols of resilience within fragile ecosystems, suspended between endurance and mourning.

Photos by Pratya Jankong

Kates-Ferri Projects
SPHERE NOT
The Global Immersive Sensory Experience (solo exhibition)
Curated by Tessa Ferreyros
June 19 - July 16, 2025

Photos by Argenis Apolinario

island Gallery
leftovers
Kerri Ammirata | Cecile Chong | Saba Farhoudnia | Sihan Guo | Erick Hernandez | Anna-Ting Moller | Tin Nguyen | Pacifico Silano | Motohiro Takeda | Thiang Uk
Feb 22 - March 23, 2024

Hewitt Gallery - Marymount Manhattan College
Making Visible
Curated by Hallie Cohen, Alex Alvarez & Kallie Cassidy
April 3 - May 2, 2023

SPRING / BREAK Art Show NYC 2022 - NAKED LUNCH, Booth #1153
Dandelion Fork curated by Olivia Swider.
Featuring Artists Delphine Hennelly + Cecile Chong + Nicholas Cueva
September 7 - 12, 2022

Image courtesy of Selenas Mountain

Rockefeller Capital Management
In a Different Light
November 2021 - September 2022

Image courtesy of NYFA

Kates-Ferri Projects
LORE: Cecile Chong (solo exhibition)
April 4 - May 7, 2022

Image courtesy of Kates-Ferri Projects

Chautauqua Institution, Strohl Art Center
Coexistence
June 27 - July 21, 2021

Selenas Mountain
Breath of Blue (solo exhibition)
December 13, 2020 - January 17, 2021

Image courtesy of Selenas Mountain

Materials for the Arts
Contemporary Excavation, 2020

Kenise Barnes Fine Art Project Space
​Cecile Chong - New Encaustic Paintings (solo exhibition)
January 25 - February 23, 2019

Pelham Arts Center
Waxing Poetic, 2018

Old Stone House - Multilocational, 2017
Two-person exhibition with Natalia Nakazawa
Curated by Katherine Gressel

Image Courtesy of Old Stone House. Photo: Etienne Frossard

Selena Gallery - Lemon Tongues, 2017 (solo exhibition)

Image courtesy of Selena Gallery

Honey Ramka
Locus, 2014

​Voces y Visiones - Highlight from the Collection of El Museo del Barrio, New York (group exhibition)
Tell Me About the War, 2008
Encaustic and mixed media on wood
36 x 62 inches - diptych

Wave Hill - Bronx Calling, 2011 (group exhibition)
Play Cycle, 2011
Encaustic and mixed media on wood
62 x 60 inches (10 panels)

El Museo del Barrio - The (S) Files 007 (group exhibition)
Place To Be, 2007
Encaustic and mixed media on wood
24 x 62 in (4 panels)