


Diya Wang
2021, Mass-produced lambskin gloves, gold plated on mass-produced bangles and brass chains, 99″ x 6″ x 2.75″, photo credit to Rob Chron
“My current work explores the overlap between fashion and Jewelry, both of which reflect the complexity of identity. As an artist and a designer, my background and training prepared me to dissect and rebuild the relationship between and potential of jewelry and garments. The potential of hybridity serves as a methodology to combine and conflate the two disciplines. My current work represents a synthesis of the study of form and a critical approach towards contemporary jewelry and fashion aesthetics. My work magnifies the intimate relationship between clothing, jewelry, and the body through strategies of juxtaposition, shifts in scale, and surrealism. Hybrid Garment counters the problem of some clothing and art jewelry never meeting the body. Most jewelry artists and fashion designers spend time on the ideas behind their work and how to express the relationship between the work and the body. Their works are presented through the act of looking in art galleries, museums, or distant drawers, while Hybrid Garment insists on being worn on the street, bus station, and in the supermarket. This is amplified by the interactive and seductive quality of the street space, reshaping and revealing the identity of the wearer — allowing people to re-examine the intimate relationship between clothing, jewelry, and body. The essence of the work embraces people with different genders and strives to express the wearer’s individuality.”

Diya Wang is an artist, a designer and a maker. She was born in central China. Wang received her Bachelor of Art degree in Fashion Design at Wuhan International Trade University from China in 2011. In 2018, She received her Bachelor of Fine Art in Jewelry and Metalsmithing at University of Oregon in Eugene. In 2021, she received her Master of Fine Art in Jewelry and Metalsmithing at Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) in Providence. Wang was a recipient of a graduate fellowship, the Tiffany & Co. Foundation Scholarship at Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) in 2019 and 2020, a David McCosh Memorial Scholarship in Fine Arts from the University of Oregon in 2018. Wang represents Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) as a nominee for the New Talent 2021 Award in 2021 by Klimt02. Wang’s works have been exhibited internationally and nationally.