Brenda Chi, she/her is a Queer Asian American artist from the SGV, with a decade career in TV, film, comics, apparel design and editorial illustration. After years of freelancing, she found inspiration in making art about the Asian American experience through images of memory, nostalgia, and storytelling. You may have also seen her “MSG Girl” and “Yeet Hay All Day” shirts IRL around the U.S.!
She is currently the Communications Designer and In-House Artist at 18MR, a national Asian American non-profit focusing on educating Asian Americans to organize online and offline.
In 2022, Brenda had her second solo show, called “Missing You In Chinatown”, at leiminspace in LA Chinatown. “Missing You in Chinatown” is a celebration of Chinatown and its immigrant businesses and a commentary on the gentrification in this working class ethnic enclave. Her means to make a show about Chinatown was to use the idea of art in a gallery as an “elevated” form of expression, but what was communicated was Chinatown--a show about the neighborhood that it is in.
She also runs a community drawing workshop called “The Drawing Club” at Gallery Nucleus, where she has diverse models with grand cosplays or costumes to make the academic arts space more safe and accessible for BIPOC and queer artists. Art students to working professionals in animation join TDC!
👩💻 Previous Clients:
UCLA Labor Center, Los Angeles Public Library, Melanie Martinez, Netflix, Atlantic Records, Pizza Shark, Mad Engine, Chinatown Public Library, Admerasia, Chinese American Museum, Chinatown Cultural Design Store in SF, Yes! Magazine, Jimmy O' Yang, Joysauce.
📄 Published in:
LAPL - Summer Reading Challenge Program 2023. Art on the totebag was viral on Tiktok, 80k totes AND sign ups!
UCLA Labor Center 60th Anniversary
IDW's Beast Wars (Transformers) Covers #11, #14, TMNT Cover, Godzilla Rivals II Cover.
“New Frontiers: The Many Worlds of George Takei” with writers Jeff Yang & Keith Chow, a comic anthology of Asian American life--credited as comic artist and writer. Published with Japanese American National Museum.
"History Is Colorful: A Coloring Book of Asian American Pioneers" with Admerasia, Immigrant History Initiative, and #IAmNotAVirus-- credited as Illustrator.
#HateIsAVirus art book fundraiser as Illustrator. Guide for AsAm art, distributed to college campuses nationwide.
Chinese American Museum: "Asians in Hiphop" Zine as Illustrator + ABC Rug and coloring pages Illustrator.
"Missing You in Chinatown", leiminspace - Installation of the Dynasty Center and painting, "Mom's Clothes". Photo by Daniel Nguyen.
Featured in:
NBC News Asian America, LA Zine Fest, LB Zine Fest, Asian American Comic Con, Giant Robot, The Many Voices of Mark Hamill DesignerCon, The Auction of Many Things: A D&D Themed Art Show - Titmouse Studios, Pussy Strikes Back - Titmouse Studios, WonderCon, 626 Night Market, Canto Cutie, CatCon, UCSD, CutFruit Collective, Homeroom (University of Washington), #HateIsAVirus, Skylight Books, East West Shop, Chunky Paper, Telemundo, SingTao Newspaper.
LAPL Interviews Brenda at her Studio
NBC NEWS ASIAN AMERICA
LAPL Interviews Brenda at her Studio
NBC NEWS ASIAN AMERICA