Ming Fay, 1943–2025
By Annette Meier
Portrait of MING FAY. Courtesy the Brooklyn Museum, New York.
On February 23, celebrated sculptor, installation artist, and educator Ming Fay died at his home in New York, aged 82. He is best known for creating immersive sculptural gardens and public installations that examine the symbiotic relationship between humans and the natural world.
Born in 1943 in Shanghai to artist parents, Fay grew up in Hong Kong before moving to the US when he was 18. He initially studied at the Columbus College of Art and Design in Ohio before earning his BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute and an MFA from the University of California, Santa Barbara. Despite financial struggles and being among the first students from Hong Kong in his programs, Fay excelled academically, receiving full scholarships throughout his US higher education.
During his university years, Fay primarily worked on large-scale abstract geometric sculptures made of metal. It wasn’t until 1973—when he moved to a studio on New York’s Canal Street—that he developed what would later become his signature use of papier-mâché over steel wire-armature, combined with gauze and rhoplex, and painted with acrylic.
Fay was particularly interested in Chinese and American horticulture and mythology, which formed the nucleus of his creative practice. With an observational, research-based approach that involved collecting various organic materials such as seeds, seashells, fruits, and bones, and he transformed these items into fantastical sculptures of “hybrid” botanical species. The motif of the garden, which Fay considered a symbol of abundance and utopia, is especially prevalent in his immersive installations that invite viewers to wander through lush foliage.
In his permanent public art projects installed throughout the US, Fay explored our connection to the Earth’s vast ecosystem. His 2004 fish-themed glass mosaic mural, titled Shad Crossing, Delancey Orchard, installed in New York’s Delancey-Essex Street subway station, likens commuters to schools of fish migrating in a river. Describing his practice, Fay once said: “In modern urban environments, the need for a reminder of the natural world is particularly significant and necessary. I strive to demonstrate the wonder of even the humblest natural forms, lending the viewer a new appreciation of the ordinary.”
Fay lived and worked in New York for more than half a century, actively contributing to the city’s art scene. In 1982, he cofounded the Epoxy Art Group, which operated for a decade and offered community support to Chinese American artists based in New York. Beyond his artistic endeavors, Fay was also a professor of sculpture at William Paterson University in Wayne, New Jersey, and at the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore.
His work is held in the collections of major institutions across the globe, including the Brooklyn Museum and New Museum in New York, the Taipei Fine Art Museum, and Hong Kong’s M+ museum.
A trailblazing figure of Asian American art, Fay left a legacy that is carried on by his son, Parker Tao Fay.
Annette Meier is an editorial assistant at ArtAsiaPacific.
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