Bio

Danqi Cai [dan-CHI Tsai] is an interdisciplinary artist, curator, and Assistant Professor of Foundations at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, AR. As a bilingual artist who emigrated from China to the U.S. as a young adult, she uses papermaking, print media, and animation to explore how language shapes cultural inheritance, adaptation, and transformation. She remixes ancient Chinese characters and found instructional imagery to reimagine systems of knowledge transmission.

Danqi earned her MFA in Studio Art (Printmaking) from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and her BFA in Printmaking and Humanistic Studies from the Maryland Institute College of Art. She has exhibited internationally at International Print Center New York, Art Centre Silkeborg Bad (Denmark), Stove Works, Tiger Strikes Asteroid Philadelphia, and the Bradbury Art Museum. Her work has been supported by residencies at the Banff Centre (Canada), Hambidge Center, Morgan Conservatory, and Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts. Her curatorial project has been presented at the Charlotte Street Foundation. She is a recipient of the 2024 Practicing Artist Grant through Mid-America Arts Alliance’s Artists 360 program.

Artist Statement

I emigrated from China to the U.S. as a young adult and came of age under a dual frame of reference. My multicultural experience and bilingual proficiency led me to re-examine the values I received as a child. I employ papermaking, printed matter, and animation to explore how language shapes cultural inheritance, adaptation, and transformation.

My work remixes found instructional materials and ancient Chinese characters to explore how language shapes thought. I use textbook illustrations as embeddings or collages in handmade papers. In so doing, I reference the visual language of instruction to question our inherited values’ authority. The appropriated images also introduce an element of humor and whimsy that draws the viewer in.

Chinese words are made of component characters with their own semantic value. I deconstruct and reconstruct ancient Chinese words to reveal hidden meanings and envision alternatives. I do so by using mylar stencils to create handmade paper multiples, thus referencing how language evolves through repetition and variation. For example, my 2023 installation includes three pieces focusing on four ancient Chinese words—all sharing the same component, “child” (zi 子). I use the same process for Chinese radicals—visually prominent components of written Chinese—to make infinitely variable abstractions.

My work also embodies my multi-dimensional immigrant perspective through layering and reversal. I create multi-laminated handmade papers, sometimes with animations projection-mapped on top. Handmade papers’ semi-translucency and animation’s light reveal hidden images as the viewer moves from the front to the back. Additionally, the perceived information reverses, echoing art historian Jennifer Roberts’ concept of reversal as critique. Ultimately, this multi-dimensionality provides many perspectives and allows the audience to choose.

If you’d like to get in touch, please email me at danqistudios (at) gmail (dot) com or fill out the contact form below