Inside the Wang Contemporary, Alexander Wang’s New Cross-Disciplinary Arts Platform

New York’s Chinatown will gain a new art space and cultural organization this Lunar New Year with the opening of The Wang Contemporary in a newly restored historic bank at 58 Bowery. Fashion designer and cultural tastemaker Alexander Wang and his mother, businesswoman and philanthropist Ying Wang, purchased the building in 2025—the first time the property has been Chinese American-owned in its 100-year history. They were driven to acquire the bank by a shared desire to create a cross-disciplinary platform championing Asian and Asian-American creativity across art, design, music and performance. We spoke with the duo ahead of the opening about their vision for the Wang Contemporary, which is poised to become a cornerstone of New York’s arts ecosystem and could offer a model for the kind of fluid, cross-industry thinking the cultural sector increasingly needs to sustain itself at a global scale.

“From the start, we’ve been intentional about building The Wang Contemporary as a space that reflects the full breadth of Asian and Asian-American creativity, not privileging one discipline over another but creating meaningful room for all of them,” they told Observer, emphasizing that this meant thinking beyond traditional exhibitions and embracing festivals and performances as equally central to their mission. “This year, we’re selectively and thoughtfully activating the space around cultural moments that are significant to our community.” The Wang Contemporary will open on February 20 with a three-day performative exhibition by MSCHF timed to the Lunar New Year, and in May, it will host a martial arts festival for AAPI Month—both experiences designed to convene audiences in ways that feel celebratory, communal and culturally resonant.

Asia is, of course, a vast and complex region, stretching from Turkey across Central, East and Southeast Asia, and Ying and Alexander intend to embrace and amplify the diversity of voices that the continent and its diasporas encompass. “It isn’t a monolith. We’re interested in showcasing both emerging and established voices from across the continent and throughout its global diaspora, particularly those exploring the nuances of cultural hybridity in their work,” they explained. “At the same time, we’re deeply proud to be rooted somewhere as culturally diverse as New York City. That local context matters to us.” The space’s location in Chinatown and the building itself carry their own symbolic resonance. “While our lens is global, we want to remain in conversation with the neighborhood and amplify the voices that are part of its living history whenever possible.”

The building was on Ying Wang’s radar for six or seven years, and about five years ago, she and Alexander began seriously considering how they might acquire or otherwise activate it. “It was a long process, but we felt strongly that there was nothing else like it—this historic bank building anchoring the corner of Chinatown and downtown Manhattan,” they said. “It sits directly across from the Manhattan Bridge, and we love the idea of it serving as a bridge between cultures.” They also noted how meaningful it is for the community that the building is now Asian American-owned and will serve as a gathering place in a neighborhood with such a rich cultural legacy.

When asked whether the Wang Contemporary would eventually adopt a more narrow geographic or cultural focus, they reiterated their commitment to engaging with the region’s complexity and plurality. “We really embrace the diversity of Asia; it isn’t a monolith,” they said. “We’re interested in showcasing both emerging and established voices from across the continent and throughout its global diaspora, particularly those exploring the nuances of cultural hybridity in their work.”

Alexander Wang, for his part, is no stranger to the art world. “I’ve always drawn inspiration from artists and from conversations happening across contemporary culture,” he said, acknowledging how engaging with different visual languages, media and ways of thinking has deeply influenced his creative approach. He referenced artists such as Shi Jinsong, who explores tensions between ancient and modern China, contemporary sculptor Can Sun and Japanese sculptor Taiki Yocote, whose work transforms everyday objects into meditations on impermanence and wabi-sabi. “What really excites me about the Wang Contemporary is the opportunity to collaborate with artists outside of fashion and to continue learning from creatives working in entirely different forms—it feels like the beginning of a new dialogue,” he added. “I’ve always admired artists who work across disciplines and challenge traditional boundaries.”

The opening comes at a moment when the boundaries between creative industries are becoming increasingly porous, as evidenced by recent New York Fashion Week presentations that featured artists collaborating across media and influencing entire collections. That same cross-disciplinary thinking will be foundational to the art space’s programming.

“What distinguishes it is our focus on contemporary culture more broadly, not just contemporary art in a traditional institutional sense. We’re equally interested in performance, film, music and practices that don’t necessarily fit neatly within existing frameworks,” Ying and Alexander said, noting that this interdisciplinary approach will be central to the organization from the outset. The martial arts festival, for example, will bring together athleticism, theater, ritual and cultural storytelling. “That kind of intersection is exactly what excites us. We want to offer artists long-term creative support rather than limiting them to a single format or moment.”

About three years ago, Wang reached out to MSCHF on Instagram simply to express his admiration for their work. He later discovered that two of the founders are half-Korean, and he connected deeply with their approach to reshaping conversations around art and culture. “I always knew they would be the right partners to help launch the Wang Contemporary,” he said. “I gave them a simple directive to create something rooted in the energy of Chinatown, and they responded with an installation featuring a cascade of paper airplanes reimagined from traditional Chinese red envelopes. It feels playful, symbolic and deeply connected to the spirit of both the neighborhood and our opening moment.”

In recent years, there has been growing recognition of the contributions of Asian communities in the U.S., particularly within the art world and institutional contexts. Still, much remains to be done. The Wang Contemporary also aims to foster a broader and more nuanced appreciation of Asian contemporary culture, grounded in a deeper understanding of its histories and rich cultural heritage. “That’s really our mission. As opposed to being a conventional gallery with paintings on the wall, we’re a living, breathing cultural space—a gathering place for the local community and international audiences alike,” Ying and Alexander said. “By presenting a breadth of diverse programming, we’re aiming to honor the Asian community’s rich cultural history and celebrate its future.”

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