O-1 Visas
Can a person love hot dogs and also real dogs? Muchen Wang, a big-hearted artist from Zhengzhou, a small city in central China, most certainly does. While based in Chicago for the past decade, she has produced charming oil paintings that share her affection for hamburgers (stacked tall, mysteriously blue), fried eggs (runny yolk, crispy edges), and hot cocoa (lots of mini marshmallows). Her comics explore daily life and relationships with humor and empathy, and they too have a gustatory twist. Titles include “Yakult” and “Raw Wonton,” plus “Pita the Puppy,” which about says it all. Wang’s generosity toward popular snacks and pets even extends to humans. For “Selfie Portrait,” which lasted from 2015-18, thousands of people submitted photographs of themselves to the artist, who turned them into adorable hand-drawn portraits. In “Ugly Sketch,” a reboot, Wang doodles tiny cartoons of folks she meets at zine fests, gifting them in under a minute, free, on bits of paper saved from printing projects. Delicious.
—Lori Waxman 2025-04-14 12:16 PM