Artist

SYDNEY SHEN

Biography / Selected Works / Exhibitions / Related News
​

Sydney Shen, born in 1989 in Woodbridge, now lives and works in New York. She completed her BFA at The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, New York in 2011. Shen uses sculptures and installations to create an atmosphere of wretched apprehension, examining the limitation of mentality through the extremity of the physical body. Exploring through various sources from historical and contemporary art history, including but not limited to medieval excruciation, supernatural horror fiction, and Internet subcultures, Shen frankensteins organic and fabricated materials such as Chinese and Western medical apparatus and instruments, graphic designed ornaments, and biological specimens. With the enticing but horrifying duality in her work, Shen manages to drag the audiences into the bizarre yet motley world she creates, directs and performs in. Her solo exhibitions and projects include: First Chair, Gallery Vacancy at Art Basel Hong Kong 2023; Cupio Dissolvi, Gallery Vacancy at Liste Art Fair Basel, 2021; Strange But True, Queens Museum, New York, 2021; Misery Whip, Gallery Vacancy, Shanghai, 2021; Every Good Boy Does Fine, Sophie Tappeiner, Vienna, 2019; and Onion Master, New Museum, New York, 2019. Her works have been featured in exhibitions at G Museum, Nanjing, 2023; Simone Subal Gallery, New York, 2022; Lubov, New York, 2022; Kraupa-Tuskany Zeidler, Berlin, 2022; 47 Canal, New York, 2022; Deutsches Hygiene-Museum, Dresden, 2021; and Museum Het Valkhof, Nijmegen, 2021. She received the 2019–2020 Jerome Foundation Queens Museum Emerging Artist Fellowship, and was a 2019–2020 resident of the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council Workspace. Shen’s works are in the collections of Asymmetry Art Foundation, London; G Museum, Nanjing; Longlati Foundation, Hong Kong; Macalline Art Center, Beijing; M+ Museum, Hong Kong; and Sigg Collection, Basel.
​

Sydney Shen, [Data Expunged], 2018
​

​In [Data Expunged], Sydney Shen employed the form of hospital privacy screens, which is dissembled from its original context and surgically sutured with hand-braided aluminum chainmailles. The folding screens stands on the ground of uncertainty and fragility, while providing limited protection and privacy for recipients on both sides of the screens, the seeming balance is easily challenged and interrupted. The position of the objects being protected of and being protected from is constantly exchanged and modified in relation to the physical and psychological existence of the divider, obscuring the boundary between the hunter and the prey, the sadism and the masochism, and the assaulter and the victim. The implied bodily violence and aggression is further reinforced within the professed elegance of the aluminum chainmailles, which references to medieval chain armor, functioning both as protective equipment for external penetration and decoration in modern conversation. Its combination of combativeness and ornamental value echos with the social political capacity of human body in historical and contemporary context as the spontaneous activist and the passive observee.
​

Solo and Two-Person Exhibitions

2023    First Chair, Gallery Vacancy at Art Basel Hong Kong, Hong Kong, CN
2021    Cupio Dissolvi, Gallery Vacancy at Liste Art Fair Basel, Basel, CH
2021    Strange But True, Queens Museum, New York, US
2021    Misery Whip, Gallery Vacancy, Shanghai, CN
2019    Every Good Boy Does Fine, Sophie Tappeiner, Vienna, AT
2019    Onion Master, New Museum, New York, US
2018    Poor Thing, with Kyung Me, Hotel Art Pavilion, Brooklyn, US
2018    Spring 2018 - Sydney Shen, For Seasons, Zurich, CH
2017    Four Thieves Vinegar, Springsteen, Baltimore, US
2017    What’s Worse Than the Void Is Matter, Motel, Brooklyn, US
2016    骨蘋果茶 (Bone Apple Tea), Holy Motors, Hong Kong, CN
2016    Shriek wildly and throw yourself into whatever bottomless gulf may yawn, with Aleksander Hardashnakov, Roberta Pelan, Toronto, CA
2016    Hard to Be a God, with Joel Dean, Weekends, London, UK
2015    Master’s Chambers, Interstate Projects, Brooklyn, US

​
Group Exhibitions

2023    Plant a Weed, curated by Francesca Altamura, Jack Barrett, New York, US
2023    Looking at the Stars, G Museum, Nanjing, CN
2022    VISCERA, Simone Subal Gallery, New York, US
2022    Heaven Above Sea Below, organized by Reilly Davidson & Jacques Louis Vidal, Lubov, New York, US
2022    Blue of Noon, Kraupa-Tuskany Zeidler, Berlin, DE
2022    Impressions of the Fall, 47 Canal, New York, US
2022    Self-Dismiss, Gallery Vacancy, Shanghai, CN
2021    The Transparent Man, Deutsches Hygiene-Museum, Dresden, DE
​2021    [Permission Denied], Gallery Vacancy, Shanghai, CN
2021    The Pest, Museum Het Valkhof, Nijmegen, NL
2019    Space/Reflection, Condo Shanghai, Springsteen hosted by A+ Contemporary, CN
2019    Commutiny, SIBLING, Toronto, CA
2019    Flea Market, The Loon, Toronto, CA
2019    On the Use of Unknown Objects, Aldea, Bergen, NO
2019    no body to talk to, INVISIBLE-EXPORTS, New York, US
2018    Jane Fonda, Pina, Vienna, AT
2018    The Private Collection of Water McBeer, Deitch Projects, New York, US
2018    The Changes Wrought, american medium, New York, US
2018    Note G, Chicago Manual of Style, Chicago, US
2018    PAIN IS THE MINIMUM, Condo Mexico City, Springsteen hosted by Breve, MX
2018    MOMENT I | EVER--, Shimmer, Rotterdam, NL
2017    A Most Filial Imprint, Aike Dellarco, Shanghai, CN
2017    Some Me, Into Timeworn Bits, FASTNET, Brooklyn, US 
2017    Protocols Found in a Bathtub, Minibar, Stockholm, SE
2016    Closing Time – or – "You don't have to go home, but you can't stay in the 20th century", Weekends, Paris, FR
2016    Blue Plate Special, Dead Horse Bay, New York, US
2016    Left Gallery Summer Selection, with Laurel Schwulst as Perfume Area and Damon Zucconi, Neumeister Bar-Am, Berlin, DE
2016    For granted, Hole Of The Fox, Antwerp, BE
2016    Safety Deposit Box, Lock Up International, Frankfurt, DE
2016    Welcome to Earth, the story so far..., High Tide, Philadelphia, US
2016    Redleaf, Sydney, Sydney, AU
2015    BLIND MIME IN REVERIE, KnowMoreGames, Brooklyn, US
2015    Unsafe at Any Speed, VIE D'ANGE, Montreal, CA
2015    [Aubergine], Et al., San Francisco, US
2015    A Rare Earth Magnet, Derek Eller Gallery, New York, US
2015    Against Automatism, fused, San Francisco, US
2015    Watching Things Burn, Springsteen, Baltimore, US
2015    ...Looking at myself from the second floor of an Italian restaurant in the Catskills..., american medium, New York, US
2015    hTERT, Hester, New York, US
2015    6th Sense, Minibar, Stockholm, SE


Awards & Fellowships
​
2019    The Queens Museum-Jerome Foundation Fellowship for Emerging Artists, New York, US
2019    Lower Manhattan Cultural Council Workspace Residency Program, New York, US
2019    Artist-in-Residence at Nordisk Nordisk Kunstnarsenter Dalsåsen, Dale, NO
2018    Queens Art Fund, Queens Council on the Arts, New York, US
​

Collections

​Asymmetry Art Foundation, London, UK
G Museum, Nanjing, CN
Longlati Foundation, Hong Kong, CN
M+, Hong Kong, CN
Macalline Art Center, Beijing, CN
​Sigg Collection, Basel, CH
​Tanoto Family Collection, Singapore, SG

---

---