A celebration was held to mark the grand opening of the New York City location of the Marlene Yu Museum on Saturday, Oct. 11, at 36-58 37th St. in Long Island City.
The museum features works of art from Yu, who is recognized for her mural-sized, nature-inspired, abstract expressionist paintings. The main mission of this museum is to preserve and present her art and legacy, which spans more than 60 years, as well as to foster an environment for others to share in her vision and attract a diverse audience.
“We are celebrating both the art and the life of Marlene Yu. She’s been a professional artist since the late 1950s. She has 6,000 pieces of art. She was a pioneer in environmental art and bringing the themes of the Green Movement, even before it was cool and so much of the art that you see here is nature-themed,” Marlene Yu Museum Executive Director and Marlene’s son Dan Yu said. “There’s all different types of contemporary abstract art here. She has paintings ranging from 20 inches all the way to 54 feet wide. You can go upstairs and see some much larger pieces of art on the third floor. On the third floor is actually her working studio, and, at 88 years old, she is still a professional working artist. We also have another show on the second floor that’s called ‘Nature Through the Lens.’ It’s a nature-themed photography show.”
Yu’s art is intended to encourage awareness and appreciation of nature from its viewers through multi-dualistic visual language. She has been able to bridge Chinese landscape traditions with American abstract expressionism while also blending physical and emotional subjects and inviting different viewpoints. Negative space, yin-yang balance, painterly skill and sweeping brushstrokes in bold colors and monumental canvases are all embraced in her ancient-to-modern synthesis.
“This museum is more than a museum. It is a movement,” Museum Director and Marlene’s daughter Stephanie Lusk said. “It is built upon love. Love for nature and each other, expressed through art. It is about increasing awareness and appreciation for our interconnectedness with others and our planet, using art as our universal language. We welcome everyone to come together and experience nature through the power of art.”
Over 300 publications spanning nine different languages have featured artworks from Yu. She has also presented more than 80 solo exhibitions across the United States, Europe and Asia, in addition to taking part in numerous international group shows.
Born in 1937 as Nakagawa Fuminko, Yu moved from Taiwan to the United States in 1963. She would go on to spend 38 years working in SoHo before eventually opening her own studio in 2008 in Long Island City.
Before coming to America, Yu earned her BFA from National Taiwan Normal University in 1960. In 1967, she received her MFA from the University of Colorado Boulder, where she would later serve on the school’s Fine Arts Advisory Committee nearly 30 years later, in 1994. Immediately after getting her MFA, Yu spent time teaching in Taiwan and at the University of Denver in 1967 and 1968.
In 2001, she established the Rainforest Art Foundation in an effort to cultivate a deep love for nature across the international art community, as well as to grow the environmental green movement in art. Sister foundations have since been established in Zurich, Frankfurt, Brussels and Vienna, echoing her call for a collective environmental awakening through the arts.
Marlene’s husband James Yu and daughter Stephanie Lusk first established the Marlene Yu Museum in Shreveport, Louisiana, in 2013. The museum, which honored her life’s work, emerged as a vibrant hub for art, community and environmental consciousness. However, the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic led to the closure of the museum in 2020. But the Long Island City location will act as its successor.
