Vivian Tong is a Chinese American artist and archivist building homes within in-between spaces. Her eerie and melancholy motifs and tones are borne from feminist surrealism, the Golden Age of Illustration, and East Asian psychological horror media. Her work is motivated by the desire to understand and explore the shared spaces of universal humanity found in physical and psychological spaces of uncertainty, primal fears, and marginality. Her figures in liminal spaces, “marginalia,” live out their own urban legends, and exist in surreal dreamscapes that have neither beginning nor end. Throughout these scenes, unusual yet familiar patterns and objects are scattered- limbo spaces each of us inevitably find ourselves in and the feelings of simultaneous anxiety, awe, curiosity, and dread they can provoke.

Born and raised in San Francisco, Vivian works as an archivist/arts manager by day and practicing artist by night. Her work has been exhibited in galleries and museums in San Francisco, CA; Los Angeles, CA; Provo, UT; and New York City, NY. Additionally, she has exhibited at pop culture events and fairs across the United States. She has an MA in Museum Studies and a BFA and has previously worked with the Chinese Historical Society of America museum, SFO Aviation museum and library, and the Yerba Buena Center for the arts. She has also served as a juror for ApexArt, a visiting artist lecturer at San Francisco State University, board member with Western Neighborhoods Project/Open SF History, and archivist with the Chinese Culture Center of San Francisco.

 

CV

EXHIBITIONS

2025
- Calm Amidst Chaos, Lumen Labs, Berkeley, CA
- Pancakes & Booze, Public Works, San Francisco, CA
- Drawn to Drawing, Hosfelt Gallery, San Francisco, CA
- IlluxCon Showcase, Goggleworks Center for the Arts, Reading, PA
- Art For Los Angeles, Gallery Nucleus, Alhambra, CA 

2024
- Bay Area Rising: Listening Party and Exhibition, Institute of Contemporary Arts San Francisco, San Francisco, CA (1/20)
- Made in California, Brea Gallery, Brea, CA (4/27-4/23)
- Heron 100, ArtSpan Benefit Auction, Heron Arts, San Francisco, CA (5/16-5/17)
- Bay Area Rising: Your Life Your Runway, Palace Hotel, San Francisco, CA 

2023
- Pet Portraits Day, SFMOMA White Box and Cafe, San Francisco, CA (2/4-10/31)
- San Francisco Artspan Juried Benefit Auction Show, 111 Minna Gallery, San Francisco, CA (3/30-4/15)
- Pedagogy as Self, Housing Gallery, New York City, NY (4/9-5/9)
- Let's Get Goated, Tattooed Goat Society's Irreverent Gallery, Daly City, CA (5/7-7/7)
- Black, White, and Shades Between, San Francisco Women Artists Gallery, San Francisco, CA (5/30 - 6/23)
- Pyramid Scheme, Bass and Reiner Gallery, San Francisco, CA (3/25-6/1)
- Business Card Show, JKR Gallery, Provo, UT (9/1-9/29)

2022
- Power in Numbers 7, Gallery Nucleus, Alhambra, CA (9/3-4)
- Voyage, ARC Gallery, San Francisco, CA (11/19-12/17)

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

2024
- Museum Moments Speaker, Bay Area Emerging Museum Professionals Event

2021
- Visiting Artist Lecture, SFSU Art 619 - Exhibit Design

2019
- Juror, ApexArt NYC Open Call

CLIENTS
- Copic Marker / Too. Corporation
- Hot Topic
- Judge and Jury Records

WORK EXPERIENCE
- Arts Manager and Archivist, Ruth Asawa Lanier, Inc.; 2021 - Present    
- Archivist, Chinese Culture Center of San Francisco; 2024 - Present        
- Independent Illustrator & Small Business Owner, Self Employed; 2013 - Present 

PUBLICATIONS/PRESS

2026
- Tomorrow’s Talent 5, Booooooom

2025
- Tiger Tea Volume 2, Tiger Tea
- Beautiful Bizarre Art Prize Featured Emerging Artist Entry, Beautiful Bizarre Magazine

2024
- Lemonade. Always. Spring Catalog, I Like Your Work Podcast
- Made in California 39 Catalog, Brea Gallery

2023
- KQED Arts Feature: SFMOMA Became a Pet Portrait Studio for a Day

2022
- Arc Gallery Voyage Exhibition catalog

2014
- Sachet Mixte Women Vol. 1- Arts Journal: First Edition. July 

EVENTS

2025
- IlluxCon Showcase, Reading, PA
- Anime Expo, Los Angeles, CA
- FanExpo San Francisco, San Francisco, CA

2024
- Cherry Blossom Festival, San Francisco, CA
- Animazement, Raleigh, NC

2023
- Cherry Blossom Festival, San Francisco, CA
- Anime Expo, Los Angeles, CA

2022
- Artist Bazaar, Headprint Studio, San Francisco, CA

EDUCATION
- 2020    MA; Museum Studies - SFSU
- 2016    BA; Drawing and Printmaking - UCLA