The graduates in illustration MFA Program at Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) will be presenting their works in Gallery FIT located in the Museum at FIT on Seventh Avenue at 27^th Street in New York City. The exhibition runs from June 13th to the end of the month. The Museum is open from Tuesday to Friday, 12pm to 8pm, and Saturday, 10am to 5pm.The exhibition is titled “Thirteen Stories”, as there are thirteen students in this class. Fashion artist Yueming Qu will be showing her artworks from her book, titled:” Young and Beautiful – Something About New York”.

“Young and Beautiful – Something About New York” is a guide book of New York City using illustrations from some young girls’ perspectives. They are seventeen girls who live in New York City, whose age range from twenty to early thirties. The girls came from different countries, working in different fields, and looking extremely different, but now, all of them are living in the same city – New York. Yueming gathered these seventeen girls by friends’ introducing, Craigslist, Instagram, and even in the subway. All the girls are young, and beautiful no matter outside and inside. Yueming found the attractive points of these girls and interviewed with them. She asked questions about these girls’ lives in New York, and let them to introduce some good spots in the city, such as their favorite restaurants and the best nightlife places. Then Yueming would go to the spots to check out and illustrate them. At the exhibition, Yueming makes her work an interactive work. She printed her illustrations on nice paper and handcrafted them into magnets which the people attending the exhibit can interact with.

“New York is the most international city in the world. People here are comimg to chase their dreams from every corner of the earth, of course including these young girls. They are young, ambitious, hard working, but sometimes they feel tired of busy New York lives. I interviewed with them and get to know the real lives in this city, what they answered is what I drew on the paper. It is all real.” Yueming stated, “I know there are already thousands of guide books about this city, but the one I make is just from these young female New Yorkers’ perspectives.” Yueming loves doing live location sketches in the city because she thinks New York is the city that keeps changing but at the same time has a timeless beauty. Watercolor, gouache, ink and pen, she uses these materials to illustrate these fashionable girls with their suggestions about the city.

The two things make Yueming’s art style impressive are she originally came from China and majored in Chinese painting. She graduated from the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing and got a Master of Art degree. Three years ago, she came to New York to be a fashion illustrator. Her artwork has been exhibited in museums and galleries internationally and published in many magazines such as Interiors + Sources magazine and Woman’s Day magazine. She was invited to draw live sketches in New York Fashion Week every season.

Yueming still keeps using traditional Asian brushes to draw the color, and she uses pen to make fine lines. She says fashion illustration is not only about pretty girls, and it can go deeper than surface appearance. For more information contact Yueming Qu at quyueminglulu@gmail.com.