Bryan Beyung & James Lee Chiahan

About Bryan Beyung & James Lee Chiahan

Based out of: Canada
Beyung is a visual artist, born in Montreal to a Chinese-Cambodian family. His work mainly addresses the themes of travel, immigration and its migratory flows. Inspired by his past as a graffiti artist and graphic designer, he develops an intuitive pictorial approach where raw lines, flat colors and realistic shapes are deconstructed to give a second approach to an image, an idea, a memory. His work can be seen in the United States, Canada, Haiti, France, Morocco and Cambodia. James Lee Chiahan 李佳翰 (b. 1990) was born in Tainan, Taiwan and is currently working as a visual artist in Montréal, Canada. Interested in capturing moments representative of everyday life that explore the relationship between memory and experience, closeness and distance, he works to create images that are emotionally affecting but difficult to place into words. He has contributed his artwork to organizations such as The Atlantic, The New York Times, Emergence Magazine, and the Washington Post.

Artist Statement

In 1987, the Kien family stood on a red dirt road in a refugee camp called Site 2 somewhere along the border of Cambodia and Thailand. With their loved ones scattered, their home displaced, and their country suffused in violence, they place their hopes on a vague future. Absurd events become strangely, sadly common. Fate, or luck, or kindness brings them safe passage across the sea to Boston, MA; Montréal, QC; and finally, Bradenton, FL, a few minutes away from where this wall stands.

The youngest of the four depicted is our friend Anhdi. Today, he lives in Bradenton with his wife and three kids, who we invited to help paint and add to their family’s story directly. It’s a story with many secret turns and memories that shape their specific experience, but it’s also one that’s universal to so many who have had to flee their homes amidst conflict in the search of a new beginning. It’s a story of survival and the human spirit, and we feel so lucky to have been able to try and express it.

About the Mural

Title: When the Sun is Up, the Moon is Absent!

Address: 2875 7th Ave S

Building: Stewart Moving & Storage

Installation Date: 2023

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