2026 ART NYC Venice Residency
Siyang Lim
November 8-30, 2026
EDUCATION:
2026 MFA Illustration as Visual Essay, School of Visual Ar ts, New York, NY
2016 M.S. Financial Engineering, New York University Tandon School of Engineering, Brooklyn, NY
2014 B.S. Pure Mat hematics, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA
2023 School of Visual Ar ts, New York, NY (Picture Book courses)
2011 University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA (Ar t Studio courses)
EXHIBITIONS:
2026 SVA Fine Ar ts Residency Open Studios Exhibition, SVA Flatiron Galler y, New York, NY
2026 MFA Illustration as Visual Essay Spring 2026 Thesis Exhibition, SVA Chelsea Galler y, New York, NY (curated by David Sandlin)
2025 The Book Show, SVA Gramercy Galler y, New York, NY (curated by Anna Raff)
2025 Comics in t he City: Sequential Ar t Is…, Flushing Town Hall, Queens, NY (curated by Regine L. Sawyer)
2025 The Visit to t he Museum, SVA Chelsea Galler y, New York, NY (curated by Viktor Koen)
2023 SVA Illustration Residency Open Studio Exhibition, SVA Flatiron Galler y, New York, NY
AWARDS, SCHOL ARSHIPS, AND RESIDENCIES:
2026 Residency, School of Visual Ar ts Fine Ar ts Residency Program, New York, NY
2026 SVA Alumni Scholarship Awards, School of Visual Ar ts, New York, NY
2025 SVA MFA Illustration Depar tment Merit Scholarship, School of Visual Ar ts, New York, NY
2024 Winner, We Need Diverse Books Illustration Mentorship
2023 Residency, School of Visual Ar ts Illustration Residency Program, New York, NY
2023 SCBWI Summer Conference General ScholarshipINTERVIEWS AND TALKS:
2025 “Breaking Genre: When Ar tists Don’ t Stay in Their Lane”, presented by t he Asian American Writers’ Workshop at t he Brooklyn Book Festival,
Brooklyn, NY, September 21.
2024 “Meet Siyang Lim”, CanvasRebel Stories & Insights, April 29.
ARTIST STATEMENT
At t he center of my practice is an interest in transformation: t he moments when inherited identities, social expectations, and accepted narratives begin to fracture, making space for somet hing unfamiliar to emerge. I am drawn to female figures whose existence expands boundaries in challenging and meaningful ways: civilized and primal, vulnerable and ferocious, maternal and monstrous. These contradictions contain a complexity t hat is often absent from conventional representations of women.
Drawing from personal experience, generational histor y, folklore, and feminist discussions, I use raw and visceral imager y to investigate questions of power, desire, freedom, and womanhood. Rat her t han treating rage, hunger, and desire as destructive forces, I approach t hem as forces capable of reshaping identity and generating new ways of being. My current body of work, I Want to Be a Female Monster, explores t hese concerns t hrough a poetic visual language centered on transformation and becoming. The project reimagines t he female monster as a figure of contradiction: vulnerable yet brutal, deeply human yet impossible to contain.
Working primarily t hrough ink drawing, monoprint, and mixed-media painting, I embrace materials t hat are tactile, unpredictable, and physically demanding. Their fluid and dynamic nature mirrors t he emotional and psychological processes t hat are deeply rooted in t he work. I am not seeking resolution, but rat her creating a space where complexity, contradiction, and transformation can fully breat he and exist.