Rena Rong is a New England based Chinese-American sculptor and photographer from Missouri. She is excited by natural forms, objects, and imagery with a story behind them. Having worked in a variety of different fields including film production, freelance graphic design, and illustration, she likes crossing these boundaries to add complexity in her work.
Her practice in documentary photography spotlights narratives around the Asian-American immigrant experience and various communities in the Providence area, while her three-dimensional work combines a multidisciplinary background into two main threads of investigation: functional objects infused with an element of play and small-scale sculptures. Her hand-forged work is an expression of her interest in how form dictates the functionality, ritual, and etiquette around eating with utensils, informing her interventions to heighten the experience of using otherwise ubiquitous tools.
Rena has spoken about her forged work in conjunction with The RISD Museum’s Gorham Silver Exhibition and was a part of the 2020-2021 resident artist cohort at The Steel Yard. Her current roles include an artist residency working with grades 1-9 at The Gordon School and teaching at The Steel Yard and The Rhode Island School of Design.
*Currently accepting digital collaborations and ceramic commissions
Please send all inquiries to: renaxrong@gmail.com