NEW YORK, NY.- Art For Change, a leading art platform for the socially conscious collector, announced the launch of Chinatown Block Watch, a unique limited-edition print by Susan Chen. The print is part of a small edition of 20 prints inspired by the resilience and local character of New York City’s Chinatown, a neighborhood teeming with history yet undergoing significant change. The print is available July 6th while supplies last.

“I wanted to thank Chinatown Block Watch for collaborating and sharing their stories to help bring this artwork to life. The organization has provided so much support to the Chinatown community throughout the pandemic,” said Susan Chen. “As for Silver Arts Projects, having personally experienced how this residency changed my life, I hope to be able to make a small difference in the lives of other artists in need as well.”

Maintaining a deeply personal and engaging practice, Susan Chen has recently focused on large-scale group portraits of communities at work, with a particular concentration on Chinatown. Through collaborations with volunteers from local groups like Chinatown Block Watch and Apex for Youth, Chen unpacks Asian American identities and communities as part of a search for understanding her own identity as a first-generation immigrant. For Chinatown Block Watch, Chen used India Ink and art markers to construct layers of bricks surrounding the image, as well as handwritten Chinatown street names, to ensure that each print in the collection is a unique work.

“I’m thrilled that ART FOR CHANGE has the opportunity to promote this special limited-edition,” says ART FOR CHANGE Founder, Jeanne Masel. “Susan Chen’s artwork is as beautiful as it is thought-provoking, and you can feel the pride she has for her heritage. I’m incredibly excited to share these prints with our ART FOR CHANGE audience, as well as support two important organizations.”

Chinatown Block Watch represents Chen’s signature vibrant and painterly style, with exaggerated proportions and a dense composition that unveils her preoccupation with her subjects and community. Exploding with iconography such as popular shops and restaurants, Chinatown Block Watch marries a dreamy realism with an emphatic, social urgency that captures the concerns and priorities of the moment. The limited edition’s title highlights the advocacy group that was formed in February 2020 and provides assistance and protection to the area by surveying the streets and offering ad-hoc care.