Candy Chang's work includes public installation, painting, and video, all exploring the future of ritual in public space. Her work has been exhibited in the Museum of Modern Art, Venice Architecture Biennale, Smithsonian American Art Museum, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Nelson-Atkins Museum, and the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum. She is the recipient of grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, Rockefeller Foundation, and Black Rock Arts Foundation, and she has received fellowships from the Asian Cultural Council, TED, Hemera Foundation, Center for Urban Pedagogy, and the World Economic Forum.
Trained in architecture and urban planning, she made participatory street art on vacant buildings to reimagine the civic process. I Wish This Was evolved into a tool used by over three million people and over 200 organizations. After the death of a loved one, she made participatory installation Before I Die, which has since been created in over 5,000 cities across 75 countries and was called "one of the most creative community projects ever" by The Atlantic. Since then, her interests lie in the blur between civic and sacred space. After the End, an installation on loss and ritual, was a 2021 New York Times Critic's Pick. The Nightly News, a participatory video installation on dreams, won a 2026 award. She most recently co-created a dream app.
She has created participatory public art with organizations including Art Production Fund, Mural Arts Philadelphia, Rubin Museum of Art, Green-Wood Cemetery, American School in London, and the Annenberg Foundation. She often collaborates with James A. Reeves on large-scale installations that merge installation with video and sound. She has given talks at institutions including TED, Walker Art Center, Global Health Summit, School of Visual Arts, and the American Planning Association.
Born and raised in the American Midwest, Candy has lived and worked in New York City, New Orleans, Helsinki, Philadelphia, and the Mojave Desert, before settling down in Columbus, Ohio, where she lives down the hall from her parents and upholds Dream Club.
Artist Statement
I grew up secular and when people I loved died, my interest in the role of ritual in public space began. I craved shared spaces to reflect on the human condition without the requirement of shared doctrine. My public installations often invite anonymous, handwritten testimonies of desire, dread, sorrow, hope, and courage from the public. What emerges—when people share without fear of judgment or desire for recognition—looks very different from online forums: “Before I die I want to… get my wife back, overcome addiction, be accepted by my parents, forgive him.” These spaces made me feel less alone, gave me courage to face my own struggles, and helped me see my neighbors in a new light. How do we create emotional infrastructure for the 21st century that speaks to the pains of our age: increasing isolation, division, and disembodiment from living behind screens?
Growing up in a Taiwanese household where Chinese calligraphy was revered, I imagine handwriting as spiritual artifact in an increasingly digital and disembodied age. As the steward of hundreds of thousands of handwritten reflections from the public, I use these fragments in paintings and videos that explore the nature of language, desire, and our relation to one another. These works are then imbedded in future installations as a cyclical process that reimagines evolving possibilities for civic life, sacred space, and a sense of belonging today.
Inspirations include the speculative worlds of Philip K. Dick and David Lynch, the humanistic visions of city life by Jane Jacobs and Juhani Pallasmaa, the philosophical inquiries of Gilles Deleuze and Byung-Chul Han, and the laid-back curiosity of the Zhuangzi.
Contact
Speaking inquiries: The Lavin Agency | Email
Art inquiries: Email
Stay in touch: Bluesky | Instagram | Email
Education
M.S. Urban Planning, Columbia University, New York, NY
B.S. Architecture and B.A. Design, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI