TISHAN HSU
Born 1951, Boston, MA.
Lives and works in New York, NY.
Tishan Hsu, Breath 5, 2021, UV cured inkjet, silicone on wood, 48 x 52 x 3 1/2 inches (121.9 x 132.1 x 8.9 cm). Courtesy Tishan Hsu © 2021 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York, Miguel Abreu Gallery, New York. Photo by Elisabeth Bernstein.
Over the course of his forty-year-long practice, Tishan Hsu has consistently created work that is ahead of contemporary standards and practices. His early focus in the mid-80s on the phenomenological impact of culture’s hastened and insistent use of technology was not only prophetic, but remains incredibly resonate still to this day. Hsu was even an early adopter of the artistic potential of Photoshop, and continues to incorporate digital imagery and manipulative effects into the surfaces of his paintings and sculptures.
Hsu originally trained as an architect at MIT, and a sense of structure is pervasive through his work, which ranges from large tiled sculptures to more figurative reliefs. Often his wall-mounted pieces, like the one seen here in 8 Americans, will be constructed partly from silicone, allowing Hsu to expand and contract the picture plane, with undulating surfaces that mimic the curves of the body. Other references are less abstract, as the artist eschews subtlety and adds images or even protruding reliefs of eyes, ears, or fragments of other human features. These atypical fabrications and image inclusions highlight Hsu’s focus on the effects of the image on the body, and how a growing dependence on mediated technological experience comes to warp our own awareness of our physical beings.
Hsu originally trained as an architect at MIT, and a sense of structure is pervasive through his work, which ranges from large tiled sculptures to more figurative reliefs. Often his wall-mounted pieces, like the one seen here in 8 Americans, will be constructed partly from silicone, allowing Hsu to expand and contract the picture plane, with undulating surfaces that mimic the curves of the body. Other references are less abstract, as the artist eschews subtlety and adds images or even protruding reliefs of eyes, ears, or fragments of other human features. These atypical fabrications and image inclusions highlight Hsu’s focus on the effects of the image on the body, and how a growing dependence on mediated technological experience comes to warp our own awareness of our physical beings.
RECENT EXHIBITIONS
Tishan Hsu spent his very early years in Zurich, then grew up in Ohio, Wisconsin, Virginia, and New York. He studied environmental design and architecture at MIT and received his BSAD in 1973 and M.Arch in 1975. While at MIT, Hsu studied film at the Carpenter Center, Harvard University. He moved to New York in 1979, where he currently resides. His first exhibition in New York was at Pat Hearn Gallery, and in 1987, he had a one-person show at Leo Castelli. Hsu has served as a board member of White Columns, New York, and the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. He has been a professor of visual arts at Sarah Lawrence College and a visiting professor at Pratt Institute and Harvard University. Tishan Hsu: Liquid Circuit, his first survey exhibition in the United States, was on view at the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (January 26 – April 19, 2020). It was curated by Sohrab Mohebbi and was also on view at SculptureCenter, New York (September 24, 2020 – January 25, 2021). Hsu’s work was included in the 13th Gwangju Biennale, Minds Rising, SpiritsTuning.
Selected public collections include The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Museum für Moderne Kunst (MMK), Frankfurt am Main; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; High Museum, Atlanta; Terra Museum, Mexico City; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami; The Rubell Family Collection, Miami; and the Weisman Museum, Minneapolis. Hsu has served as a Member of the Board of White Columns and the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. He has been a visiting professor at Pratt Institute and Harvard University.