Ming Fay Papers

Born in Shanghai, sculptor Ming Fay (1943-2025) grew up in Hong Kong and moved to the United States in 1961 to attend the Columbus College of Art and Design. He received a BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute and an MFA at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Based in New York City, Fay exhibited extensively in the US and abroad, and received numerous commissions for public art projects worldwide.

Fay’s work primarily commented on the symbiotic relationship between humans and nature. Drawing on an extensive knowledge of both Eastern and Western horticulture and mythologies, along with his close observation of fruits, seeds, and bones, Fay often reworked nature’s forms in order to fabricate imaginary species.

This resulted in works that ranged from oversized plant forms to theatrical garden-like displays and overgrown sci-fi-inspired environments. He focused particularly on the concept of the garden as a symbol of abundance or a utopia—a metaphorical location for humankind’s desirable state of being.

The Ming Fay Papers span over five decades from the 1960s to 2014 and include binders and scrapbooks compiled by Fay documenting his artistic projects and research; correspondence and proposals regarding his realized and unrealized public artworks; exhibition announcements, catalogs, and ephemera; publications; sketches on paper and rice paper; photographs, and clippings.

To learn more about the contents of the Ming Fay Papers, located at the NYU Fales Library and Special Collections, view the collection’s finding aid.

Inaugural Ming Fay Research Fellowship 2027

The Inaugural Ming Fay Research Fellowship supports the production of original, archives-based scholarship on Ming Fay (1943–2025), whose multidisciplinary practice bridged sculpture, drawing, installation, ecology, and transnational cultural histories.

Learn more about the fellowship and apply by Sunday, November 15, 2026.

 

Image: Ming Fay in his studio, 2004-2005; Ming Fay Papers; MSS 599; Box: 25; Folder: 38; Fales Library and Special Collections, New York University.