Graffiti Sneaker 23 Collage

Raised in Harlem, NY, and later Brooklyn, NY Keng’s artwork is heavily influenced by the inner city urban hip hop and street culture. Many of his iconic images were imagined and inspired by the struggle of not having the means to fit in. As a Chinese American transplant, living in poverty in the early 1980s, Keng was constantly ridiculed, racially discriminated against and bullied for living in a community of minorities. Keng was given the slave name: “Chicken Wing” and the cultural mind set was, if one did not have brand name clothing, one was an outcast. His peers created a hierarchy based on having the best “threads” and “kicks” and only then one was respected. Keng’s ever-wanting to be “fresh” back in the days, required the popular yet expensive street attire, to be socially accepted. Unfortunately, he would never achieve this so-called “acceptance”, not with four dollar skips and clothing either donated or made by his mother. As a direct result of this, Keng was called: the “Ching Chong Wong” with “Hong Kong Pants” by his peers. It was not until he was able to work and earn his own money that he finally was able to afford what he wanted, but then he realized it was all a gimmick. He did not need any longer the respect to fit in with his peers in the inner city. These people back then were cruel and were of a predatory mind set. He realized this as he moved out of Harlem, where he did not fit in. As Keng reflects back to his childhood, all of these experiences have influenced his art a great deal. The hard work ethics of his parents juxtaposed with the dreams of an underprivileged child shine through in all of Keng's work. Keng found a way to survive and adapt through hard work and artistic creations and he labels his work as Iconicism; showing both a celebration and extreme criticism of American cultures as it pertains to his life, and relevant effects of popularity, and how unattainable it was to a child of poverty.