Kev Liang

Artist Biography

Kev Liang is a multidisciplinary visual artist based in Edmonton, AB, Treaty 6 territory, and is originally from secluded rural Alberta. After graduating in June 2021 with his Bachelor of Fine Arts with Distinction in Intermedia and Printmaking at the University of Alberta, Kev tackles his queer, 2nd-generation Chinese-Canadian identity and its existential anxieties related to blood lineage and prosperity through documented photo, video, and performative processes that are encapsulated into print and mixed media. Through group exhibitions, Kev’s work has been shown at U of A’s FAB Gallery, SNAP Gallery, the “DYSCORPIA: Future Intersections of the Body and Technology” project, the Art Gallery of Alberta Sidewalk Cinema, Mile Zero Dance’s “RV There Yet?: The Horizon of being” curated by Cindy Baker and Roseanna Nay, City Centre’s About Light Gallery, and Latitude 53 for “Schmoozy 2021.” He was recently awarded with the 2021 BMO 1st! Art award for Alberta and he will be making new work in 2022 through SNAP Gallery’s Emerging Artist in Residence Program. Outside of his art practice, Kev also worked as a Production Assistant for The Works International Visual Arts Society.

Artist Statement

Using photographic and videographic means, I hope to create narratives in the form of print media and digital film, put into a contextual space that all encapsulates my feelings and grasp of my queer, diasporic, 2nd-generation Chinese-Canadian identity. I’ve been interested in tackling existential anxieties of feeling minuscule, insignificant, and/or lonely. These feelings are heightened and fuelled by being present within modular and systematic urban spaces and having an anthropocentric outlook on contemporary life. Drifting through fast-paced urban time and space after growing up in a very secluded and rural environment, I attempt to dissect the different cultural and philosophical aspects of my gay, 2nd-gen Chinese-Canadian identity as a means to try and understand why I have these existential fears. I hope to showcase my perspective and what I am feeling, as well as what I am doing in the present as a way of coping. By taking into consideration the traditional, cultural, and philosophical Chinese expectation of continuing your blood lineage and my inability to do so as a queer body, as well as the idea of Chinese-Canadian immigrants relying on labor and prosperity as a means of survival and presence, I ask myself and others: How much is at stake in terms of ensuring a long term presence or settled lineage for queer and diasporic identities like myself? How can I, or will I ever, find my own sense of kinship or family? Where do individuals like myself lie within an incredibly labor and wealth focused society?