Curated by Juf at 99CANAL, Works Abundancies is a series of events that consider abundance – and the margins in which to find it–, poetry and works of art, as well as the staging and display elements that support, undermine and disseminate the latter.
February 18, 7:00 pm (doors open at 6:30 pm)
99 Canal Street, New York, NY 10002
Works Abundancies III brings together an artwork by Ching Ho Cheng, and the work of poets and writers Wayne Koestenbaum, "CJ" Craig Jun Li, Nora Treatbaby, and Ramona Ngin
This event is free and open to the public. Seating is available on a first-come, first-served basis. Drinks will be available.
ACCESS INFORMATION: 99 canal is located at 99 Canal street, floor 6, in Chinatown; between Forsyth St and Eldridge St. The closest trains are B/D (Grand St) and East Broadway (F); the closest wheelchair accessible stop is the 6 (Canal). The space, 6 floor, is wheelchair accessible via elevator. Please note that there are no grab bars close to the toilet. Service animals are welcome.
Born in Havana in 1946, Ching Ho Cheng was the son of Chiang Kai-shek’s last ambassador to Cuba. He graduated from Cooper Union in 1968, one of the few Chinese students at the time. By the 1970s and 80s, Cheng had become a fixture in New York’s downtown art scene, respected for his talent and distinct personality. He lived at the Chelsea Hotel from 1976 until his untimely passing in 1989. Cheng’s work is part of the permanent collections of major institutions including the Whitney Museum of American Art, LACMA, the Cleveland Museum of Art, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum. His visionary pieces are also held in private collections by cultural icons such as Miles Davis, Princess Caroline of Monaco, and Alfonso Ossorio.
Wayne Koestenbaum—poet, critic, novelist, artist, filmmaker, performer—has published 23 books, including Stubble Archipelago, Ultramarine, The Cheerful Scapegoat, Figure It Out, Camp Marmalade, My 1980s & Other Essays, The Anatomy of Harpo Marx, Humiliation, Hotel Theory, Circus, Andy Warhol, Jackie Under My Skin, and The Queen’s Throat (nominated for a National Book Critics Circle Award). His next book, a novel, My Lover, the Rabbi, will be published by FSG in March 2026. He has received a Guggenheim Fellowship in poetry, an American Academy of Arts and Letters Award in Literature, and a Whiting Award. He is a Distinguished Professor of English, French, and Comparative Literature at the City University of New York Graduate Center.
Nora Treatbaby is an artist based in New York City. Our Air (Nightboat, 2024) is her first book. She has published two chapbooks, I <3 2 Swim (Spiral Editions, 2022) and Hope Is Weird (OW 002, 2020). She does not spend her time.
"CJ" Craig Jun Li (born 1998, China) is an arts worker and artist based in New York City. Li's work has been shown in solo and group exhibitions, including Emmelines, New York; Galeria Filomena Soares, Lisbon; lower_cavity, Holyoke; KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin; Kurtkubin, CDMX; SYSTEMA, Marseille; François Ghebaly, LA & New York; Taon, Ivry-sur-Seine; ROMANCE, Pittsburgh; Chris Andrews, Montréal; RAINRAIN, New York; September Sessions, Stockholm; hatred 2, New York; Prairie, Chicago; and Canal Projects, New York, among others. Li operates a nomadic curatorial project, “Benny’s Video,” currently hosted in a studio sublet in Bushwick. Li's solo exhibition "I Want to Love with No Fear" is on view at Chapter NY at 60 Walker St. until the end of February.
Ramona Ngin is an art worker and writer based in Providence. Her most recent essay, “Love Letter Incinerators,” was published by Momus. With Natalie Bell, she is currently preparing the exhibition Performing Conditions: Artistic Labor and Dependency as Form at the MIT List Visual Arts Center.
