[South Boston, MA] The Distillery Gallery is pleased to present the first solo exhibition of Sunny Moxin Chen, a Boston-based multidisciplinary artist. In Wandering Be-ing, Chen explores ideas around home, materials, and space. Born in Moscow before later moving to Beijing, San Jose, and then Boston, her concept of home was never a grounded one. The sense of being somewhere while also belonging there was never permanent. But Chen has always made a point to take advantage of the immediate feeling of being. As the places she called home continued to shift, she began to pay attention to what materials a given place provided. Creating work within these varying limitations became an important part of her practice. While the act of artmaking feels subconscious to her, the sourcing of materials is a very conscious part of her process. In addition to found objects, Chen uses paint to create geometric and biomorphic shapes to establish a feeling that is simultaneously artificial and organic. Although paint is a key medium in her work, the word “painting” feels limiting to Chen. While paintings are traditionally considered images on a surface, Chen’s work addresses what happens when you remove the plane from the painting. How does a painting become an object that interacts with the space it exists in?
Exhibition Dates
September 1 – October 15, 2022
Opening Reception
Thursday September 1, 7 – 9pm
Venue
Distillery Gallery
516 E. 2nd Street, South Boston, MA
Contact
distillerygallery@gmail.com
For more information, please visit:
http://distillerygallery.squarespace.com
About Artist
Sunny Moxin Chen (b.1996) is a multi-disciplinary artist who currently lives in Boston, MA. She holds MFA Painting from Boston University and BFA in Painting & Studio for Interrelated Media from Massachusetts College of Art & Design. Chen’s work was recently selected in the national curated show at Main Street Arts (Clifton Springs, NY) and got the “Best in Show” prize. She has also shown works at the Morgan Lehman Gallery (NYC, NY), Fowler-Kellogg Art Center (Chautauqua, NY), Piano Craft Gallery (Boston, MA), Faye G., Jo, & James Stone Gallery (Boston, MA), Cambridge Arts Association (Cambridge, MA), Musa Collective (MA/online), Project V Gallery (NYC/online), Hive Art Community (Brooklyn, NY) and so on. She has previously worked as an assistant in many non-profit art organizations such as MassArt Art Museum (Boston), UCCA Center for Contemporary Art (Beijing), WhiteBox Art Space (NYC), and she has worked as a co-director and curator at the Godine Family Gallery (Boston).
(text & photo courtesy of the artist)
