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.

Hsu has held solo exhibitions at institutions including Museum of Contemporary Art Toronto (2024); Secession, Vienna, Austria (2023/2024); MAMCO Geneve, Geneva, Switzerland (2024); Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, California (2021); Sculpture Center, New York, New York (2020/2021); MIT. List Visual Arts Center, Cambridge, Massachusetts (1988); and Carnegie University Art Gallery, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (1987).

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. He opened a second solo exhibition with Empty Gallery, screen-skins, in March 2023.

Hsu is co-represented by Empty Gallery and Lisson Gallery.

CURRENT:

360°: Why We Paint?
BY ART MATTERS, Hangzhou
May 15 – October 12, 2025

Tending and Dreaming: Stories from the Collection
San José Museum of Art
March 7, 2025 – ongoing

Press:

Marilena Borriello, ‘Tishan Hsu, MAMCO / Genève,’ Flash Art

Ramona Heinlein, ‘Tishan Hsu at Secession’, Spike Art Magazine