This salon brings two parallel practices into conversation, all text in nyc by Yufeng Zhao and Written Names Fanzine by Alex Lukas, through a shared inquiry into public text, observation, and place.

Rather than a traditional artist talk, we’ll gather for a collective act of interpretation and analysis. With both artists present, the evening invites participants to explore how inscriptions in public space—whether gathered via Google Street View or documented by hand—shape our experience of site, memory, and meaning. The salon format encourages open dialogue, curiosity, and audience insight, centering shared reflection over formal presentation.

Yufeng Zhao’s all text in nyc (2024) is a search engine built from Google Street View data that enables users to locate any word or phrase as it appears in the city—from shop signs and advertisements to graffiti and protest banners. Zhao’s work spans web experiences, video, and installation to probe the unexpected connections between data, language, and human-machine interaction.

Alex Lukas’s Written Names Fanzine (2016–2025) is an ongoing print project that documents unsanctioned name-writing across the U.S.—from aspen carvings by sheepherders to rail yard inscriptions and abandoned transit ephemera. Lukas’s interdisciplinary practice uses fieldwork, print, and sculpture to archive the incidental and reframe the everyday.

Though gathered through vastly different means, both works function as catalogs of street text. One is digital, algorithmic, and searchable. The other is physical, tactile, and distributed through zines. Both raise enduring questions around authorship, visibility, archiving, and the significance of words placed in public view.

Join us for an evening of collective thinking, looking, and questioning: What do these texts reveal about how we write ourselves into the world?

​7–7:15 PM
Arrival & Opening Reception
Doors open with time to settle in, mingle, and grab a drink from the cash bar.

​7:15–8 PM
Artist Dialogue
A facilitated conversation between Yufeng Zhao and Alex Lukas, introducing their respective works and unpacking their motivations, processes, and methods.

8–8:15 PM
Collective Inquiry & Q&A
An open-ended discussion exploring how each project engages with place, text, urbanism, culture, and history, inviting guests to help shape the conversation through questions and observations.

8:15–8:30 PM
Closing

Lylia Li is an artist, thinker, and event organizer based in New York. Her work centers on how we read, interpret, and inhabit culture. She organizes salons that bring artists and audiences together for open-ended inquiry driven by depth and curiosity. In addition to hosting events, she writes press play, an investigation of pop culture and creative identity, on Substack and helps run Dog Trot Writers and Artists Residency in North Carolina.

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