Despite his agnostic urban life style, the Nick Dong recently experienced a vivid moment of divine intervention during a meditation session. Inspired by this very real yet surreal experience, he began to create Cosmic Dance, a series of “unexplainable objects” meant to convey the mysterious relationships between perception and reality. His objects engage one via curiosity and disbelief, as well as through passive intake of sheer beauty and form.
The series is designed as a dance recital. The “levitating dancers” dwell in their own immaculately designed physical worlds accompanied by sound, subtle movement, and light. Each piece in the series interprets a story of the wondrous cosmic phenomena of astronomy as well as the human conditions we take up space with.
Nick Dong calls himself a conceptual metalsmith, mixed-media sculptor, and socio-commodity engineer with the intention of creating works that ignite an experiential moment. The multi-disciplinary artist employs an array of techniques and materials in his mission to develop an experiential and even a spiritual bond with his audience. He completed a BFA from Tung-Hai University in Taichung, Taiwan, in 1996. In 2002, he received an MFA in metalsmithing and jewelry from the University of Oregon. Dong has taught at California College of the Arts and The Crucible in Oakland, at Chu-Jai-Jao Specialty School in Shanghai, and at the University of Oregon in Eugene. His artwork has been exhibited and published extensively in the United States and internationally. In 2008, Dong’s Fabled Adornment series was acquired by the National Museum of Norway. In 2012, Dong, with his immersive installation “En-Lightening”, was named one of the 40 under 40 artists by Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum.