13 Facts About Fay Chong

Fay Chong was a Chinese-American artist and educator, well known for his printmaking and watercolor painting.

Fay Chong was known for his activities as an arts organizer, arts educator and WPA-era artist.

Fay Chong was born in Canton, China in 1912, and moved to Seattle with his family in 1920.

Fay Chong attended public school, and studied art with Hannah Jones at Broadway High School, along with classmates Morris Graves and George Tsutakawa.

Fay Chong studied traditional calligraphy techniques during return visits to China in 1929 and 1935.

In 1938, during the Great Depression, Morris Graves helped Fay Chong find work as an artist with the Federal Art Project of the Works Project Administration.

Fay Chong worked with the WPA, off and on, until 1942, mainly making linocut prints for various federal buildings and public places.

Fay Chong became interested in watercolor painting at this time.

Fay Chong taught art at Cornish College of the Arts, Seattle Central College, Washington Senior High School, and Ingraham High School.

Fay Chong's artwork fused traditional Chinese styles with American Regionalism and other modern developments.

Fay Chong's art has been exhibited at the Seattle Art Museum, the Frye Art Museum, the Zoe Dusanne Gallery, and the Francine Seders Gallery in Seattle; the Tacoma Art Museum, the Bellevue Arts Museum, Reed College in Portland, Oregon, the Santa Barbara Museum of Art in California, the Riverside Gallery in New York City, and in many other museums and galleries.

Fay Chong was a member of the arts organizations Northwest Printmakers, the Northwest Watercolor Society, the Puget Sound Group of Painters, and the Washington Art Association.

Fay Chong's work is in many public museum art collections, including the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the National Gallery of Art, the Tacoma Art Museum, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Seattle Arts Museum, among other venues.