As a Moscow-born-Chinese who migrated to the U.S. since high school, I consciously and unconsciously use my art as a medium to link my multi-cultural awarenesses that I bring together to form my “selves”. My legal name “MòXīn” (in pinyin) stands for “a new star that was born in Moscow”, according to my parents. On the other hand, the literal meaning of “Mò” in Chinese means “not” and “Xīn”means something new. Since I was born , I have been constantly moving and living in numerous places that are called “home”. I search for the ideas of be-ing and be-longing by painting, collaging, and sculpting. Colors, forms, and materials symbolize personal histories and cultural nomadism. Specifically, my work explores individual consciousness, identity formation, and the existence or lack thereof of safe spaces to nurture identity as an individual and as a society.

My works investigate and recontextualizes my visions in both traditional and unconventional materials that are linked to the concept of physical and spiritual space, the self, and how one breaks from past selves—rebuilds new conceptions of self through the environments and experiences that surround them—and rebridges the boundaries between themselves through a process that is as much blending as it is destroying.

I started creating this body of work, Home Collective, 2020 since the beginning of the pandemic. I started collecting mailing boxes and using them as molds during self-quarantine. I made “box” sculptures by using collected paper from daily life, tearing, shredding, gluing them, and then painting over them. Noticing our daily routines and ways of communications have dramatically changed/shifted, and mega corps like Amazon’s profit soars 220% while of the 31.3 million of others were unable to work (according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics).

I hold a BFA from Massachusetts College of Art & Design in Painting and Studio for Interrelated Media and am an MFA Painting candidate from Boston University ’22. I don’t label myself as a painter although I have majored in painting. Even though my works are outside the defined categories due to their sculptural/spatial qualities, there’s always a sense of painting or painterly quality in my works.

website: moxinchen.art
instagram: @notsunnychen

Portals and Portholes includes works of art by 137 artists from 10 states and runs through Thursday, May 26, 2022.