Beryl X Salon de Kunst

Curatorial Reflection

: Don't Look at Me! _ Bad Drawings and Non-Neutral Self Expression by Beryl Chung

*Opening celebration - 18 October 2025 18:00

When I first received portfolios for Salon de Kunst’s 2025 program late last year, I would say I hadn’t yet looked at her work deeply. Only fragments began to surface: comics, graphic textures, gestures recalling Buddhist paintings, and traces of a Chinese origin that felt both familiar and distant to me. Yet there was something beneath them—and quietly demanding attention connecting places I might want to see where to reach.

Her drawings seemed to grow from that in-between space, at once comforting and unsettling. As a third-generation Chinese American who didn't speak Chinese, she draws through a journey of distance and return, where identity, language, and belonging remain in motion. There is unease in that process, but also a quiet curiosity that invites us to stay,…