AAPI Asian Artist

My name is Victor Ving and I am an AAPI / Asian American (Chinese) artist living in the United States that specializes in large scale mural work. I am a full time traveling artist originally from New York City but now based in Southern California in the Los Angeles area. A lot of of my work is inspired by my roots growing up as an Asian American in Queens, New York. I was immersed in culture riding the 7 train from Flushing to Manhattan on my daily commute. It inspired me to travel and really look at the concept of a “community” from a different perspective. I struggled with a sense of identity which led me to creating a persona through a graffiti name for several years. After living a nomadic life traveling full time, the definition of being a local artist took on a new meaning all together. Today, my artwork focuses primarily on the nostalgia of travel and incorporating the immediate environment (natural and man-made elements.)

Asian Artist - Background Bio

I am a first generation Asian American that was born (1983) to immigrant parents from China & Hong Kong. I grew up in Bayside, Queens (NY) and I was always into drawing cartoons like the Ninja turtles as a youth. Basketball eventually took over as my main hobby until I broke my arm in junior high school. During my hiatus from sports, I got back into drawing and specifically doing graffiti letters on my cast. I picked up a fascination for this subculture as a lot of kids in my school had tags or nicknames. We would draw on friends’ Jansport bookbags and in the streets it became a competitive game of who could get their names up the most (without getting caught.) Most of my peers grew out of it but I found a select few that stuck with it through high school, college and into my corporate job days. Graffiti brought me to all kinds of different neighborhoods, cities and even countries. I personally loved the element of travel and meeting culturally diverse graffiti writers from all over the world.

I never had any formal art school training as I attended a business school (Baruch CUNY) and I basically taught myself everything by trial and error. My medium of choice has always been a can of spray paint. I started doing characters and imagery as a supporting element to my graffiti letters. As a result, this forced me to experiment with all kinds of styles. I’ve learned a lot over time about color, shading, process and various tools. To be honest, I don’t think that I could have learned anything about using spray paint in formal art education at the time. In 2013, I decided to quit corporate marketing job of 8 years to pursue an art career full time.

Traveling Asian Mural Artist

I used my talents and experience painting commission murals and started a nationwide project with my wife called the Greetings Tour. Together, we traveled all over America full time in a RV to create timeless landmarks through public art. The concept is based on the large letter postcards of the mid-century. However, we create them large scale using spray paint so they can be interactive for photos. We have been honored to work with so many diverse communities to create a destination for visitors and locals alike. The project actually all started with a Greetings from Chinatown mural in New York City.

In the Chinatown mural, we focused a lot on Asian culture including: Maneki Neko Cat, lanterns, bamboo and koi fish. In addition, we worked with several local Chinese owned businesses including Nom Wah Tea Parlor, Chinatown Ice Cream Factory and Tsing Tao Beer. Growing up my parents used to read the Sing Tao Daily newspaper and it was awesome to be featured on the front page of the Chinese newspaper.

AAPI MURAL COMPANY

As an Asian American artist, I started an art gallery in 2011 in the Chinatown neighborhood of New York City. It was called Klughaus Gallery and it evolved into a mural agency now called Mural Art & Consulting. Over the years, I have managed an extensive network of Asian artists across America. In addition, we have had many prominent clients that were Asian owned businesses & brands. A selection of past clients include: Nongshim, Twin Marquis and 99 Ranch Supermarket. You can see some examples of our past Asian art focused mural projects below. These projects were all designed with client branded direction and not necessarily my personal style.

For AAPI Asian Artist project inquiries, please contact me and mention you got the contact from the Greetings Tour website. Due to all the spam recently, I may not pick up some unknown numbers. However, please do leave a voicemail and I will be sure to respond within 24 business hours.