HSIN-HSI CHEN

About the Artist

Hsin-Hsi Chen was born in Taipei, Taiwan and came to USA in 1994 to pursue graduate study in Fine Arts. Chen received her MFA from University of Maryland at College Park in USA, 1996 and BFA from Tunghai University in Taiwan, 1992. Chen was granted U.S. Permanent Residency based on “Extraordinary Ability in Art” in 2002, the grantee of 2013 Maryland State Arts Council Grant/Individual Artist Award and 2007 Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant. She was selected in The Drawing Center Viewing Program in New York, 1995, 2006~2010; WPA Art Auction at Corcoran Gallery of Art, The Katzen Arts Center Museum, in Washington, DC and Artisphere in Virginia, etc, 1998~2022. Chen’s artwork has been collected and exhibited nationally and internationally, and were included in the permanent art collection at Art Bank/DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities (DCCAH), Washington, DC, 2015; Brooklyn Art Library, Brooklyn, New York, 2011; National Institutes of Health (NIH), Bethesda, MD, 2006. Chen was invited as the Art Critic/Judge for George Mason University, The Regional Scholastic Art Competition (two times), Northern Virginia Community College in Fairfax/Annandale, VA, 2007 and 2021. She was selected in 99’ Critics’ Residency Program/Maryland Art Place and Artsites’ 98/Arlington Art Center and awarded the 1999 cover of Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society in Chicago/Seattle, etc. Chen also taught at GMU, UMCP, Montgomery College and VisArts. Chen’s artwork has been reviewed by major newspapers and journals, including: The New York Times, The Boston Globe, The Washington Post, The Baltimore Sun, Philadelphia Weekly, The Washington Times, Washington Review, Art & Antiques, Articulate, Home & Design.

Artist's Statement

Hsin-Hsi Chen is known for her exquisite, illusionary pencil drawings on unique complex constructed 3D forms of paper and wood. Chen’s initial mission was to use only these basic materials and see how far they would take her. Her recent work has evolved beyond 3D drawings to include a variety of scales, two/three-dimensional work, large-scale/full-room installation, and collaborations using 3D modeling/printing and interactive digital projection. Chen assembles new work that considers the space as a site where light, shadow, space, drawing, and discovery merge. Chen disorients viewers with actual and imaginary planes of drawing, light, shadow, illumination in illogical sequences of complex 3D structure, installation and interactive dimension - to present her interest and vision in riddled paths of existences, the unknown of the universe, surreal, geometric and architectural constructions. The untouchable and invisible time overlaps the unpredictable occurrences and growth in space as the light illuminates those mysterious elements and source of life. The shadow within reflects its subject as the soul to the human being.