In the course of his productive but prematurely curtailed career, Cuban-born Chinese American artist Ching Ho Cheng (1946–1989) produced a diverse body of work that was both profoundly personal and engaged universal human concerns. His practice encompassed maximalist paintings reflecting the countercultural aesthetics of the late 1960s; delicately airbrushed studies of ephemeral light; collaged compositions of torn paper evoking outer space; and rust-encrusted works that simulate grottos and ancient, chemically degraded monuments. Despite their striking formal differences, these series reveal a consistent philosophical thread—an artist continually seeking ways to explore his cosmic and spiritual preoccupations through material experimentation. Fusing imagery and process with metaphysical inquiry, Cheng articulated a macrocosmic vision in which all things exist in a system of balance and interconnectedness. In our forthcoming feature, Christina Shen revisits his evocative works that transcend the temporal and spatial magnitude of human experience, ultimately drawing us back to an acute awareness of our own time, place, and presence in the world.