artist bio

Elim is a Chinese Canadian American artist living and working in New York City. Her art career has spanned from comic book and storyboard illustrator to graphic designer, and her fine art paintings have been exhibited in select exhibitions around the metropolitan area. Her pathway to becoming an artist was shaped by her unconventional upbringing and rebellious formative years in the US and Canada as a born-again Christian fundamentalist preacher’s daughter, and she sought refuge as an outsider in socially conscious and avant-garde artistic circles throughout her life. Over the past decade, Elim has been working as an art therapist in the field of healthcare which subsequently informed, deepened, and enrichened her artwork: focusing on the exploration of the inner life, and tapping into one’s emotions as a catalyst for intuitive art-making. 

For inspiration, Elim refers to her Chinese heritage, traditional Asian art, design, and folklore, Buddhist philosophy, and 17th & 18th century European art and fashion. In addition to her classical training in Western painting and drawing, Elim studied traditional Tibetan art under the tutelage of Pema Rinzin, contemporary master Tibetan painter. This specialized discipline enhanced and honed her meditative brushwork style, where each line becomes its own cosmos.

Elim describes her philosophy towards art quite simply: Art is her ministry, her meditation, and her refuge. In the end, Art is a feeling that she wishes to share with others.

CURRICULUM VITAE

EDUCATION
Studied with Pema Rinzin, New York Tibetan Art Studio, Brooklyn, NY, 2010–2017.
Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY. M.P.S, Art Therapy & Creativity Development, Graduated with Distinction, 2010.
Concordia University, Montreal, PQ. B.F.A., Studio Arts, 1992.

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
*asterisk indicates solo exhibition
2023     Addition/Subtraction, Openings Collective, New York, NY.
2023     MOONSquare 2023 Exhibit, Think!Chinatown Art Space, New York, NY.
2023     Metal and Plastics, Willamsburg Art & Historical Center, Brooklyn, NY.
2023     Divina Diosa, Womenswork Gallery, Poughkeepsie, NY.
2021     Moonsquare 2021 Exhibit, Think!Chinatown Art Space, New York, NY.
2021     Souls of NYC Chinatown: Passion, Hope, Resilience, New York Arts Center, New York, NY.
2020    Collective Pause, Openings Collective, New York, NY.
2018     Gift of the Exiles, School of Visual Arts Gallery, New York, NY.
2017     Positive, Negative, & the Space Between, Leslie-Lohman Museum, New York, NY.
2016     The Weight of Culture, School of Visual Arts Gallery, New York, NY.
2014     New York Tibetan Art Studio: New Voices, The Active Space Gallery, Brooklyn, NY.
2014     My Sister’s Doll, Figureworks Gallery, Brooklyn, NY.
2014    Art and Social Practice, Queens Museum of Art, Flushing, NY.
2013     Faces of Figureworks, Figureworks Gallery, Brooklyn, NY.
2010     Vital Signs, Pratt Manhattan Gallery, New York, NY.
2009     The Future Figure, Figureworks Gallery, Brooklyn, NY.
2005     Night of 1,000 Drawings, Artists Space, New York, NY.
2004     Legal Action Comics Vol. 2, CBGB’s Gallery, New York, NY.
2004     *The Sensual and the Sublime, Figureworks Gallery, Brooklyn, NY.
2004     Talking Hands, AIR Gallery, New York, NY.
2003     Characterism, Williamsburg Art & Historical Center, Brooklyn, NY.

RESIDENCY AWARDS
2019     Studio Residency, Openings Collective, Lake George, NY.

CURATORIAL EXPERIENCE
2017     Positive, Negative, & the Space Between, Leslie-Lohman Museum & Housing Works, New York, NY.
2013–2016       Annual National Creative Arts Therapies Week Client Exhibition, Flushing Hospital, Flushing, NY.

ILLUSTRATOR EXPERIENCE
1992–2008       Publicis USA, DC/Milestone Comics, Valiant Comics, Broadway Comics

TEACHING ARTIST EXPERIENCE
2008     Comix! Workshop for Kids & Teens, Museum of the Chinese in America, New York, NY.

PUBLIC SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS
2018     The Art of Mindful Doodling, Housing Works, Brooklyn, NY.
2015     Therapeutic Use of the Creative Process, Flushing Hospital, Flushing, NY.
2015     Art as Mindful Containment, New York Coalition for Asian American Mental Health, NYU, New York, NY.
2014     Art Therapy & Psychosis, Flushing Hospital, Flushing, NY.
2014     Art Therapy Interventions for Addiction Disorders, Flushing Hospital, Flushing, NY.