Food, Nostalgia and Connection in Mercedes Nokyi Ng’s Art

When you hear the word food, what do you usually think of? Do you think of community gatherings with overflowing containers of shareable cuisines? Or maybe you think of five-star restaurants with shouting chefs, bustling tables and food straight out of a magazine? Or maybe, just maybe, you think of a meal that feels like home with every bite.

For Hong-Kong- and Utah-based artist Mercedes Nokyi Ng, food is all of these factors captured in her oil-painted canvases. Her art features paintings of food, her home in Hong Kong and “the randomness of life,” as stated on her website. She works primarily in oil paint because she fell in love with it in college due to its “versatility and forgiveness. It takes a while to dry, and it makes me slow down a bit,” Nokyi states.

When asked how food inspires her art, Nokyi responds, “I love the presentation of food and how it makes people want to eat it. Personally, I’ve always loved the idea of food, but have I always had a healthy relationship with food? No. I love the idea and presentation of food, but eating it was hard. Now, I’m at a much better place where I can look at food and also consume it as something that’s joyful. That aspect of food makes me want to paint it as a way to celebrate life and a celebration of being a human being.”

“I believe things happen for a reason that connects me to other people. They’re also precious moments that I want to immortalize on my canvas.”

Her art also features so many of these wonderfully random snapshots of life, such as grocery shopping at local markets, fish, traffic in the city, etc. Nokyi is drawn to these seemingly random moments because, “As a person of color, sometimes I may have a hard time fitting in and finding my place here, but just being observant in my daily life has helped me to find a sense of joy. And I also say these things are random, but I believe things happen for a reason that connects me to other people. They’re also precious moments that I want to immortalize on my canvas.” Especially since moving to Utah, and having to assimilate to the culture here, she’s found herself observing these quiet moments where she can feel like she belongs.

As a Hong Kong-based artist, Nokyi draws inspiration from the sights and sounds of Hong Kong. “Hong Kong is part of my identity, and I feel like art is a way to show how I feel and what makes you you. It makes up a huge part of who I am and how I think. I feel like my art connects me to people with similar backgrounds so that I don’t feel so alone or have to explain where I’m from. Having pictures makes it so much easier to visualize where I grew up and how fascinating it is to see where other immigrants grew up and their home, not just Hong Kong. Art is a powerful thing to me,” Nokyi states.

“I feel like my art connects me to people with similar backgrounds so that I don’t feel so alone or have to explain where I’m from.”

The majority of Nokyi’s paintings carry a sense of nostalgia because she doesn’t usually get the chance to travel home often. So, in order to feel connected to her home, she paints scenes and memories from her childhood there. “I want to preserve my history and my roots. For me, I’ve tried to recollect my identity after being away from Hong Kong for so long. I don’t want to lose myself, and art gives me the chance to have both identities at the same time,” Nokyi says.

Nokyi is currently being featured in a group exhibition at the Fice Gallery titled “I Must Be Dreaming” and has an individual exhibit coming up in the basement of the Anderson-Foothill Branch of the library. Stop by and see her art that encapsulates the beauty of food, nostalgia and the mundane qualities of life.

Read more about inspiring local artists:
Communal Grief and Joy In Trying Times: Molly Heller’s Story of Curation
SLUG Style: Veronica Clark