Every month New York Art Life recognizes and selects from a broad range of creative applicants, an expert artist and creative professional to talk about her successes in the field.
NY Art Life interviews artists who have achievements deserving to be known by a large scale audience. This month, we are particularly interested in Yu Rong’s work and niche designs. Her exquisite work is unique. What makes Yu Rong special is her uncanny expertise to speak to a large audience through her niche designs and artwork.
Yu Rong has made groundbreaking changes in both the visual arts world. She has taken individualism and universalism to another level by showing how much target audience consideration matters. Her unique artistry has also captured the attention of art lovers and the users of her products alike. It is crucial to showcase the work of such successful and trailblazing artists in New York. In this article we speak with Yu Rong about her work and ideas on painting, the visual arts, and design.
NY Art Life:
Thank you for spending time with us, we’d love to know more about you and your work. You have an impressive career and an intimate connection to specific designs. How do you find the power to be so individualist yet universal simultaneously?
Yu Rong:
Thank you for having me! It’s always exciting being able to share my work with others, especially as this is a platform for art, art patrons, and art lovers. There were many things I learned and many experiences I had which shaped the path of my career, starting with my time at the Lighthouse International Project. I was selected to design toys for children with vision problems. Toy design is purely based on aesthetics and as a visual artist, this was my opportunity to marry aesthetics and functionality. While this is common for products for adults, the idea of beauty and functionality is unexplored for children. To create my work, I analyzed the artistry of the toys through the lens of a child. That’s where I began thinking of how crucial it is to design products that fulfill the needs of a specific group, like the children. I believe that’s the most complex conundrum about visual arts and product design. The final product of my work was very individualistic in design but universal because it fulfills the need of a group of people looking for a specific aesthetic.
NY Art Life:
That’s incredible, what a great way to put it. Can you tell us what made you want to design your widely known wine goblets?
Yu Rong:
I wanted to fill a hole that was in in the art market and create something new. I wanted something that conveyed emotion as well as functionality; concept is just as important in design. For example, in my goblet designs, I express kissing on my goblet with a bottom lip on it. I have a goblet with many layers resembling obesity; one with a stretched handle called “stretching.” These goblets are all part of a collection called “After 5 PM.” In my opinion, goblets are like the working day, the office hours. All structured formally, very rigid, and professional. I designed these goblets to overcome that feeling and structure. I wanted to see contrast in my work to those fixed designs goblets usually have. I also believe that wine goblets are an art object by themselves, without their functional aspect being used all the time.
I exhibited these works internationally in London and Milan.
NY Art Life:
How does your expansive knowledge on eastern and western history and fluency in multiple languages inform and influence your designs?
Yu Rong:
I believe that being open to multitudes will open many doors. In my experience, being among communities and groups of people that have other experiences and other needs makes me think of more concepts that will influence my designs. It gives me the ability to get into concepts I did not even think of before, because I wasn’t thinking about possibilities for specific groups of people, like the children for whom I designed toys. There’s also an advantage to learning about history as well; an artist can always go back to traditional designs and artworks and think of ways those designs could exist in the modern world. History and language really do influence our modern world, and we can use it to our advantage by utilizing successful methods of the past to inform our future, with current needs in mind.
NY Art Life:
What would you tell artists as an advice, particularly for those who hope to attain a signature style in designs like yourself?
Yu Rong:
This is a great question. My advice to artists is to enjoy creating, and create a body of work which they feel happy with. It takes a lot of time to refine one’s skills in creating art. However, everyone can create art. Everyone can express themselves in their own ways. Have some patience in yourself and do what you can do at this moment.
NY Art Life:
Thank you for sharing your artistic vision with our readers. We will continue to follow you.
