Ming Fay: Edge of the Garden
A retrospective exhibition spanning the Chinese-American artist’s 60+ year career, exploring the question, “What is a Garden?”
For eight months, I collaborated closely with the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (ISGM) and partners to transform the ISGM’s Hostetter Gallery into a garden—complete with a secret tunnel. I designed all wall, vinyl, case, and floor plaque signage as well as the title wall and exhibition logo lockup. Additionally, I worked on a partner exhibition at Pao Art Center that also featured Fay’s work, Where We Meet: Imagining Gardens and Futures.
Clients
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
Design Services
Exhibition Design and Signage, Logo
Title Wall Process
The title wall’s design would influence the rest of the exhibition’s graphic identity. Thus, it went through many iterations including early concepts that prominently feature hot pink.
The exhibition’s final logo featured customized, stacked typography. The interlocking serif letters and dramatic line contrasts mimic plant roots.
Signage and Labels
The title colors of each section draw directly from the artwork it features. Due to its organic layout, a visual key of the artwork was needed for each garden plot. Floor plaques that drew inspiration from plant labels were utilized.
Anteroom
The entry room of the exhibit featured sketches made by and artifacts owned by Fay that fueled his creative process. Two scroll paintings from the Ming Dynasty were also displayed, giving visitors historical context into common Chinese art motifs and what inspired Fay’s contemporary work. The branding carried through to this exhibit section, with a darker and calming palette.
Ming Fay: Edge of the Garden was on exhibition in the Hostetter Gallery at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, MA from June 26–September 21, 2025. Learn more here.
Curator
Gabrielle Niu, PhD
Exhibition Design
AMCP Studio
Photography
The exhibition "Ming Fay: Edge of the Garden," in the Hostetter Gallery, 26 June - 21 September 2025. Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston.
