Royee Weng is a New York City-based interdisciplinary artist whose practice is rooted in her upbringing as a first-generation Chinese-American in the ecologically diverse San Francisco Bay Area. Influenced by Taoist and Buddhist teachings from her family, she holds a profound reverence for nature and views Mother Earth as the ultimate divine feminine – a sacred symbol embodied by goddesses, a theme frequently depicted in her work. Growing up as the daughter of immigrants, Weng often found herself balancing dual identities, sparking a lifelong exploration of human relationships and womanhood. This personal journey informs her artistic practice.

Most recently, she shot and edited a 30-minute film, to pierce the wound, softly, portraying the wounded divine feminine’s burden alongside the joy of her healing and embodied self. The film weaves expressions of pain and matrilineal generational trauma with reflections on the divine feminine. Weng’s work centers on symbiotic ways of coexisting with our planet and one another, often addressing the societal impacts of extractive systems and ideologies. She looks to nature as a guide, channeling its wisdom into her film and photography. Alongside her lens-based work, Weng’s digital illustration practice offers her a meditative flow state, allowing each piece to emerge as a distinct life force. This approach deepens her sense of interconnectedness with her spirituality, enriching her visual storytelling with a contemplative focus on nature’s subtler expressions.

Weng graduated from Parsons School of Design with a BFA in Integrated Design, where she combined studies in moving image arts and visual design through the lens of innovation and social change. Recently, she earned her MFA in Photography, Video & Related Media from the School of Visual Arts, deepening her practice in image making. Centering collaboration in her work, Weng sees her creative approach as an alchemical process, transforming challenging emotions into aesthetic beauty while seeking personal and collective healing. With this perspective, she co-founded Mother of Pearl Collective, an artist collective and creative incubator dedicated to fostering collaboration, building community, and nurturing emerging artists.