Tishan Hsu

Born in Boston, Massachusetts, Hsu’s early years were in Zurich, Switzerland, and Ohio, Wisconsin, Virginia and New York, U.S. Hsu had his first one-person show as a teenager in Roanoke, Virginia, where his paintings were exhibited in museums throughout the region. He received his B.S.A.D in 1973 and M.Arch in 1975 from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. While at MIT, he also studied film and photography at the Carpenter Center, Harvard University. Hsu has resided in New York since 1979. Hsu first showed in New York at the Pat Hearn Gallery. Since 1985, Hsu has shown extensively in the US, Europe, Mexico and Asia, with works in many public and private collections. From 1988-90, Hsu lived and worked in Cologne, Germany and from 2014-16 in Shanghai, China.  

Much of the artist’s work has attempted to convey the changing cognitive and physical effects of an embodied technology. Hsu’s interest in technology has not been in the use of a particular apparatus but the perception of a technological affect. His work has included drawings, paintings, interactive digital media projections, and sculpture.

Selected public and private collections include Metropolitan Museum, New York; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Museum fur Moderne Kunst (MMK), Frankfurt am Main; High Museum, Atlanta; Terra Museum, Mexico City; Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami; The Rubell Family Collection, Miami; Weisman Museum, Minneapolis; and The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. Hsu has served as a Member of the Board of White Columns and a Governor for the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. He was a Professor of Sculpture at Sarah Lawrence College and a visiting professor at Pratt Institute and Harvard University. 

Tishan Hsu: Liquid Circuit (2020-21), his first survey exhibition covering the period 1982 to 2002, was curated by Sohrab Mohebbi, and held at SculptureCenter, New York, following its first iteration at the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles. His work is currently included in the 58^th Carnegie International, organized by Sohrab Mohebbi, as well as the 58th International Art Exhibition, Venice Biennale: “The Milk of Dreams”, curated by Cecilia Alemani at Arsenale. He also participated in the 13th Gwangju Biennale, “Minds Rising, Spirits Tuning,” in 2021.

In 2019, Hsu opened a solo exhibition delete at Empty Gallery. skin-screen-grass, his first solo show with Miguel Abreu Gallery, was held in 2021. Hsu is co-represented by Empty Gallery, Hong Kong, and Miguel Abreu Gallery, New York.