David Ma
Name: Chinese American Bodhisattva
Medium: Fired Ceramic, Glaze, Decals, Oxides, Jeans, Ceramic Stars, Fortune Cookie Wrapper
Year: 2026
Dimension: 50 x 26 x 22 inches (H x W x D)
I recreated a Bodhisattva, a figure of compassion central to Mahayana Buddhist veneration, and distorted my own face onto it.
The work began with an encounter in Old Town, San Diego. In a store designed as a recreation of a nineteenth-century Chinese supply shop, I saw a Bodhisattva statue sitting on a barrel near the exit, waving goodbye. It was being sold as a decorative prop, stripped of spiritual significance, reduced to an oriental object for consumption. I was unsettled, not only by how the statue gave authenticity to the kitsch new-age spiritualism trinkets that surrounded it, but by the familiar feeling of confusion I carry whenever I walk through spaces decorated with random Asian artifacts.
That moment reignited a meditation on the extraction and recontextualization of Asian objects in the West. Walking through museums, I see severed Buddha heads, looted temple fragments, imperial wares, objects that function as aesthetic masterpieces and as material evidence of colonial looting. Their presence raises questions about ownership, authority, and the ethics of display.
Sometimes, wandering these exhibitions, I feel like a tourist in a dream, separated from these objects, uncertain of my connection to them. By putting my face on this Bodhisattva, I’m deconstructing my double consciousness. Both of our identities have transformed due to space, displacement, and commodification. In this form, I’m occupying the present, dressed in jeans, an “I ❤️ NY” shirt, and a Jesus tattoo on its back, layering American identity onto Buddhist form. This is not an act of deifying myself, but a lighthouse to subjectivity in a sea of fragments. I’m interested in asking, Where do the marginalized exist within the architectures of their colonizers, when we start to disrupt the role that’s expected of us?
The Bodhisattva, traditionally a being who postpones enlightenment to aid others, here becomes a vehicle for a different kind of compassion, one of self acceptance that is rediscovered through cultural hybridization.
David Ma
Name: Godzilllaaaaaa
Medium: Fired Ceramic, Glaze, Decals, Oxides
Year: 2026
Dimension: 14 x 11 x 8 inches (H x W x D)
Here, the Destroyer is repurposed as a cradle
Name: All American Dragon/ Power of Community
Medium: Oil, Acrylic, Sumi Ink, and Basketball Hoop on Canvas
Year: 2024
Dimensions: 48 x 48 inches (H x W)
Art, for me, is an act of excavation, a way to uncover and confront the layers of the self.
As I reflect on my childhood watching English subbed over Cantonese Bruce Lee movies, eating tomato egg over rice after going of my father’s Sunday church choir n sermons. These fragments of experience became the foundation of my understanding of identity. I felt the most American consuming Kung Fu movies, eating my parent’s food, watching Jake Long and Danny Phantom, reading American Born Chinese comic books. That’s all I knew, in a place my parents never would imagine growing old in. All for the American Dream.
What does it mean to be “All-American”? It’s a question that intertwines cultural heritage with the performative demands of assimilation in the American landscape. For me, this tension is embodied in childhood icons who represent dual identities, balancing the pursuit of individual aspirations with the weight of collective cultural legacies. Bruce Lee, Jeremy Lin, and the vast number of the Asian Diaspora looking to establish themselves within the context of the American Dream. From being excluded and barred from entry to making it impossible to take your eyes off of them. They choose to stand up and stand out.
Within this struggle lies their resilience. There is strength and solidarity in shared cultural bonds, a reminder that identity is not just about navigating differences but also about celebrating the connections that sustain us.
David Ma
Name: Selfless Family/Selfish Boy
Medium: Oil, Acrylic and Sumi Ink on Canvas
Year: 2019 - 2024
Dimensions: 120 x 192 inches (H x W)
Thinking about what makes me Asian American in the United States and what were the threads of my experiences that connected me with my family abroad. A combination of Eastern collectivism and Western individualism, as the viewer stands before the painting, the viewer begins to dissolve into the family portrait, embodying the shared yet fragmented sense of belonging that permeates my exploration of identity.
David Ma
Name: Childhood Star (Ceramic Chair) (Fragmented Bowl)
Medium: Fired Ceramic, Underglaze, Glass, Beads, Metallic Glaze, and Oxides
Year: 2021-2022
Dimension: 45 x 25 x 25 inches (H x W x D)
My ceramic masks are about the faces or social roles in an Asian household. I created pieces that represent a son, a mother, and a father. This is one of the set of three, the Son, a dreamer and consumer of food and knowledge. These are made to be interactive, the viewer is able to put on the mask and sit on the chair, thus becoming part of the lineage. Becoming rooted and connected to a greater family system based on filial piety. The mask is heavy and the chair is uncomfortable but the mask hides any sign of discomfort as the viewer becomes forced to support themselves.
David Ma
Name: Land of Me (American Bones)
Medium: Laser Etch on Cattle Bone
Year: 2022-2023
Dimensions: 10 × 7 inches (H x W)
Reflecting the origins of Chinese Americans in the West. I used cattle bones as a central motif to draw parallels between the exploitation of Chinese coolies in the Americas and the historical use of oracle bones in China, which served as early tools for language and record-keeping. New World Artifacts.
When are we free from being perpetual foreigners? Is it when our bones burn and bleed?
Land of the Free
Land of My Mother
Land of My Father
Land of My Sisters
Land of Me
Bones have been monumental in the conception of my ceramic chairs series. It's oftentimes the earliest remnants of Asian Americans, in their resistance against violent racist mobs.
David Ma
Name: Mask Jar for (Pickling/Wine)
Medium: Fired Ceramic, Metallic Glaze, and Oxides
Year: 2021-2022
Dimensions: 36 × 24 x 24 inches (H x W x D)
Based on Past artifacts (Korean Onggi Jar and Chinese Rice Wine Jar)
An encapsulation and documentation of the Present (Covid)
In the preparation for the Future (Fermentation)
David Ma
Name: Father Mask
Medium: Fired Ceramic, Metallic Glaze, and Oxides
Year: 2021-2022
Dimension: 30 × 20 x 5 inches (H x W x D)
The Father counterpart to the Mother Mask (Bone Marrow Dreams).
He sits on top of the Wine Jar guarding it. There is an opening between his teeth for a cigarette.
David Ma
Name: We Need Room for Love (Installation)
Medium: Installation (3-D Scan)
Year: 2021-2022
Dimensions: 8ft X 4 ft x 8ft (H x W x D)
Shrine created in memorial of the victims of the 2021 Atlanta Spa Shooting:
Physical installation (shrine) that was then scanned so that it can exist indefinitely virtually.
Delaina Ashley Yaun,33
Paul Andre Michels,54
Xiaojie Tan,49
Daoyou Feng,44
Hyun Jung Grant,51
Suncha Kim,69
Soon Chung Park,74
Yong Ae Yue,63
David Ma
Name: “Bone Marrow Dreams” (Ceramic Chairs)
Medium: Fired Ceramic, Decals, Underglaze, Glass, Metallic Glaze, Oxides, and Fabric
Year: 2021-2023
Dimensions: 47 x 25 x 25 inches (H x W x D)
The Mother counterpart to the Prodigal Son, is part of the family structure. Seeking financial freedom and stability for the family unit, works overtime 12 hours 7 days a week. Is exhausted but still wakes up early in the morning to make sure her son wakes up for elementary school.