Jeffrey Cheung is a Chinese-American artist, skateboarder, musician, and community organizer born in 1989 and raised in the Bay Area, who lives and works in Oakland, California. A graduate of the University of California, Santa Cruz, he came to painting and printmaking as a way to explore his sexuality and identity, developing a vibrant visual language built on richly colored, androgynous figures whose bodies twist and embrace in joyful, fluid compositions that celebrate queer life. Rooting his practice deeply in community, Cheung in 2012 co-founded Unity — alongside fellow artist Gabriel Ramirez — which has grown from a monthly skate meetup into a multifaceted collective encompassing a printing press, skateboard company, and art studio dedicated to supporting queer people, trans people, and people of color. Since 2017, he has hand-painted more than a thousand custom skateboard decks, gifting them to young skaters at community gatherings. His work spans paintings, prints, zines, murals, and skateboards, and has been exhibited internationally at institutions including Hashimoto Contemporary in New York, Jeffrey Deitch Projects in Los Angeles, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, where he and Ramirez curated the 2024 exhibition Unity Through Skateboarding. Beyond visual art, Cheung is an active musician and community organizer, reflecting his lifelong commitment to carving out inclusive spaces in communities that have historically excluded people like him.
Jeffrey Cheung is a Chinese-American artist, skateboarder, musician, and community organizer born in 1989 and raised in the Bay Area, who lives and works in Oakland, California. A graduate of the University of California, Santa Cruz, he came to painting and printmaking as a way to explore his sexuality and identity, developing a vibrant visual language built on richly colored, androgynous figures whose bodies twist and embrace in joyful, fluid compositions that celebrate queer life. Rooting his practice deeply in community, Cheung in 2012 co-founded Unity — alongside fellow artist Gabriel Ramirez — which has grown from a monthly skate meetup into a multifaceted collective encompassing a printing press, skateboard company, and art studio dedicated to supporting queer people, trans people, and people of color. Since 2017, he has hand-painted more than a thousand custom skateboard decks, gifting them to young skaters at community gatherings. His work spans paintings, prints, zines, murals, and skateboards, and has been exhibited internationally at institutions including Hashimoto Contemporary in New York, Jeffrey Deitch Projects in Los Angeles, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, where he and Ramirez curated the 2024 exhibition Unity Through Skateboarding. Beyond visual art, Cheung is an active musician and community organizer, reflecting his lifelong commitment to carving out inclusive spaces in communities that have historically excluded people like him.
