Candy Chang

Candy Chang
Candy Chang
Born	Pittsburg
Nationality	American
Citizenship	United States
Education	M.S. Urban Planning; B.F.A. Graphic Design; B.S. Architecture;
Alma mater	Columbia University; University of Michigan;
Occupation	Artist
Known for	Before I Die Project
Website	candychang.com beforeidieproject.com

Candy Chang (born in Pittsburg) is an American contemporary artist.^[1] Chang specializes in participatory art and is the creator of the Before I Die public art project that has been highly acclaimed around the world.^[2]

Chang is also a TED Speaker and World Economic Forum Young Global Leader known for her art installations that highlight the importance of public places and their role in uplifting the community both mentally and spiritually.^[3]^[4]

Chang is a TED Senior Fellow, an Urban Innovation Fellow, and was featured in The Oprah Magazine as a “Live Your Best Life” Local Hero.^[5] She was also listed as one of the Top 100 Leaders in Public Interest Design by Impact Design Hub and is the recipient of the Tony Goldman Visionary Artist Award and University of Michigan Bicentennial Alumni Award.

Early life and education[edit]

Chang was born in Pittsburg. Her parents immigrated to the United States from Taiwan. She attended Phillips Exeter Academy. Later, Chang enrolled at the University of Michigan, where she pursued a bachelor’s degree in Architecture and a bachelor’s degree in Graphic Design. She also has a master’s degree in Urban Planning from Columbia University.

Career[edit]

Chang started her career making street art in 2006, and since then has created numerous public art projects that have been featured in museums around the world. Chang has created participatory art with organizations and people such as the Philadelphia Mural Arts Program, Art Production Fund, Rubin Museum of Art, Annenberg Foundation, Mint Museum, Ogden Museum of Southern Art, James A. Reeves, and others.^[6] Her work has been exhibited in the Venice Architecture Biennale, Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

The highly acclaimed project by Chang - Before I Die - was initiated in 2011 after the death of a dear one, in order to cope with the loss and depression.^[7] This is when she created Before I Die on the walls of an abandoned building in her neighborhood in New Orleans. The participatory public artwork was created by Chang as a tribute to Joan and as a coping mechanism to bring perspective to her life. Within days, the Before I Die wall was full of hundreds of handwritten wishes by strangers.^[8] Chang’s public forum has been recreated in over 75 countries across the world. This project has also been compiled into a book that was published in 2013.^[9]

Chang is an influential keynote speaker and has spoken at various events and platforms including TED, of which she is also a senior fellow. Her TED talk has been viewed over 5 million times and is one of the most translated TED talks, translated into over 40 languages.^[10] She has lectured at numerous places, including Center for Architecture, New York; Creativity World Forum, Rio de Janeiro; Google, Macau; Metropolitan Planning Council, Chicago; Savannah College of Art and Design, Atlanta; Summer Public Art School, Turku; Women’s Leadership Conference, Las Vegas, and others.

Chang has also been featured in numerous publications such as The Atlantic, Time Magazine, Public Art Journal, Women’s Health Magazine, Forbes Magazine, Pelican Bomb, CNN, NBC, The Oprah Magazine, and others.

Artworks[edit]

S.No.	Name	Location	Year
1	Sidewalk Psychiatry	New York	2006
2	A Nice Place For A Tree	New York	2007
3	Community Chalkboards	Johannesburg, South Africa	2007-2008
4	Post It Notes For Neighbours	Brooklyn, New York	2008
5	The Pedestrian Timeline	New York	2008
6	Tenants’ Rights Flashcards	New York	2008
7	Human Rights	-	2008-2010
8	Street Vendor Guide	New York	2009
9	Neighbour Doorknob Hanger	USA	2010
10	You Make Me Feel So Mahatva	Helsinki, Finland	2010
11	I Wish This Was	New Orleans, Louisiana	2010
12	Before I Die	New Orleans & Worldwide	2011- present
13	Career Path	Turku, Finland	2011
14	Neighborland	New Orleans & Worldwide	2011 - present
15	Looking For Love Again	Fairbanks, Alaska	2011
16	Confessions	Las Vegas, London, Athens, Yerevan, and other locations	2012 - present
17	Kissing Crying and Making Out In Public	Hong Kong	2013
18	School of the Future	Alabama	2013
19	Love Destroys Time	New Orleans, Louisiana	2014
20	She Dreamed of a Place Called Fat City	New Orleans, Louisiana	2015
21	School of the Future	Athenes, Greece	2016
22	The Atlas of Tomorrow	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania	2016 - present
23	Grief is a Beast That Will Never Be Tamed	Heraklion, Greece	2017
24	A Monument for the Anxious and Hopeful	New York	2018
25	Light The Barricades	Los Angeles, California; Charlotte, North Carolina	2019 - 2021

Selected exhibitions[edit]

WALLS: Defend, Divide, and the Divine, Annenberg Space for Photography, Los Angeles, California, September 5 – December 29, 2019.
Art of the City: Postmodern to Post-Katrina, The Helis Foundation and Historic New Orleans Collection, April 6 – October 6, 2019
No Spectators: The Art of Burning Man, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C., March 30, 2018 – January 21, 2019
Three Experiments in the City by Candy Chang, Onassis Cultural Centre, Athens, Greece, 2016
By the People: Designing a Better America, Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum, New York, New York, 2016.
Public Works: Artists’ Interventions 1970s-Now, Mills College Art Museum, Oakland, California, September 16 – December 13, 2015
Until We Meet Again, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, California, 2013
Past Futures, Present, Futures, Storefront for Art and Architecture, New York, New York, 2012
National Design Triennial, Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, New York, New York, 2011.