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Photographer Wing Young Huie has received international acclaim for his many projects that document the changing cultural landscape of his home state Minnesota. His most famous work is the Lake Street USA exhibition, which transformed six miles of a well-known Minneapolis thoroughfare into a remarkable public art project in 2000. An epic gallery of 675 images ranging in size from 8"x10" to 8'x12', Wing's photographs were installed in store windows, bus stops, billboards, sides of buses, and on the sides of buildings. This monumental yet accessible exhibition reflected the dizzying mixture of socioeconomic, ethnic, and cultural realities that encompass the dozen disparate neighborhoods connected by a singular street.
Another important work was Frogtown, a portrait of an inner city St. Paul neighborhood known in the local press for its struggle with drugs, prostitution, and violence. In an effort to shed light on the realities behind the media stories, Wing spent two years photographing this neighborhood, which is home to one of the largest Hmong communities in the country. Wing's photographs from this project were installed on a vacant grass lot in Frogtown that was open 24 hours a day.
For another project, Wing spent three-months with Schalemar Flying Horse, a 15-year-old girl in Minneapolis. The resulting exhibition combined Wing's photographs of her interactions with family, friends, schoolmates and neighbors, and Schalemar's, personal items, poems, and an hour-length video documenting Schalemar's daily life from her vantage point.
Wing's work has been featured in numerous solo and group exhibitions and is in the collections of Walker Art Center, Minnesota Historical Society, Minneapolis Institute of Arts, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas. He has published two books: Lake Street USA (Ruminator Books, 2001) and Frogtown: Photographs and Conversations in an Urban Neighborhood (Minnesota Historical Society, 1996). He has received numerous awards and fellowships, including "Artist of the Year" by the Star Tribune (2000), a McKnight Photography Fellowship (1999, 1994), a Forecast Exhibition Grant (1999, 1994), a Minnesota State Arts Board Cultural Collaborations Grant (1998, 1994), a Minnesota 2000 Photo Documentary Project (1997), and a Bush Artist Fellowship (1996). Wing received a B.A. in Journalism, News/Editorial sequence from the University of Minnesota. |
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