Artist fractures finger at NARS residency amid yearlong O-1 visa wait

Ping Wang, a multidisciplinary artist who grew up in China and moved to New York, fractured a finger on a disc sander while rushing to finish work near the end of a three-month residency at the NARS Foundation.

Wang said the accident happened while experimenting with metal fabrication ahead of an exhibition. She fractured the bone, crushed the nail and needed stitches.

"I definitely learned a lesson about working with unfamiliar material under pressure, although the lesson was a little more expensive than I expected," Wang told Urgent Matter.

Wang's work appeared in "Subject to…," the NARS Season III residency exhibition, which ran August 28 to September 15.

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The injury brought an unexpected medical bill when Wang was financially stretched. It also came as she waited about a year on an O-1 artist visa petition while going through a separate immigration process.

Last month, Iza Mendoza's first New York solo show opened at Ridgewood's cia gallery without her after the U.S. denied the printmaker a visa to attend.

"When your legal ability to live and work somewhere depends on government processing, immigration stops being an abstract political subject," Wang said. "It shapes what jobs you can accept, how far ahead you can plan, your finances, travel, and even how you imagine your future."