Meiying Thai is a Vietnamese-American artist, dancer and educator. Born and raised in NYC, Meiying is currently based in Brooklyn, where her multidisciplinary practice explores drawing, painting, photography, writing and performance.

 

Meiying's visual practice is primarily rooted in drawing and painting. Through romantic and humorous visuals that pull from narratives of her own life, Meiying’s work celebrates themes of love, female connection, emotional healing, dual-identity, movement, the body and fantasy. Her work is process-based and deeply diaristic, she views each new piece like a page in an ever-unfolding sketchbook. 

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Meiying's work also examines how artistic collaboration can cultivate human connection and inspire community building. She is passionate about building joyful spaces for making, moving, learning, and gathering. She is a co-founder and co-artistic director of The Ballet Salon, a semi-professional ballet company and community for dancers returning to ballet. The Ballet Salon recently concluded its debut season and was featured in The New York Times. Meiying is also the director of Cafe Telephone, a global community art project she founded in 2015. Active from 2015-2021, Cafe Telephone brought international dancers and visual artists together to create collaborative projects that ranged from pop-up happenings to public film screenings. Meiying's community building draws from both her curatorial and teaching backgrounds. She has worked in some of New York’s leading art galleries and has both taught and developed educational programming and arts curriculum.

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Meiying earned a BFA in Fine Arts from the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA). Her performance background includes almost a decade of classical ballet training at the School of American Ballet where she spent seven years performing numerous children's roles with the New York City Ballet and was featured in media and publications including The New York Times. 

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As a photographer, Meiying’s natural portraiture aims to celebrate and uplift her subject’s stories. Her photography has been published by Whitewall Art Magazine, BOMB Magazine, The Brooklyn Rail, and the Denver Art Museum. Her writing has been published by FAR-NEAR.

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Instagram @meiying_thai