Born in Shanghai and raised in Canada and the United States, Vivian Wang was a successful fashion designer in New York before emerging as a sculptor in 2010. She began her education at the University of Michigan, focusing on architecture, before moving on to study fashion design at Parsons School of Design in New York. She studied sculpture at the New York Academy of Art in Manhattan and at the Armory Art Center in West Palm Beach, Florida where she developed her passion for glass.
Her work, a unique combination of cast glass and stoneware, is figurative, inspired by both the antique Asian figures of her native culture and by her experience with clothing design and textile patterning. Her pieces explore the aesthetics of Chinese and Japanese Royalty, focusing on courtiers and children. With Asian features and formal poses, her figures are elaborately clothed in garments with Eastern patterns and motifs. Their style, color and textile-like surfaces have been influenced by her previous career as a fashion designer.
Vivian is represented by Habatat Detroit Fine Art, Blue Rain Gallery in Santa Fe, New Mexico and The Shaw Gallery in Naples, Florida. Her work now appears in many private collections and museums, including The Smithsonian’s Renwick Gallery.