February 22 - April 27, 2023                                                                                                                          Opening Reception: Wednesday, February 22, 2023 | 5-7 pm

 This exhibition of new sculpture and photography by Hsini Des explores how the human body changes over time. Drawing upon observations of her elderly mother, toddler daughter, and her own post-pregnancy body, the artist assembles domestic objects into suggestive corporeal forms featuring bulges, wrinkles, sores, and growths. These works wrangle with how pain and trauma are represented, teetering between disgust and humor.

Hsini Des (pronounced shing-ee dez) is an artist and educator who recently relocated to Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley from Brooklyn, NY. She was born in Taiwan and raised in central Pennsylvania. She received her MFA from Hunter College, a BFA from Alfred University, and a Master’s in Library Science from Rutgers University. She was the recipient of the Rema Hort Mann Community Engagement Grant and given Special Recognition for the C12 Emerging Artist Award. She has been in residence at the Institute for Electronic Art (Alfred, NY), Artshack (Brooklyn, NY), and on Governors Island, NY with Works on Water. Her work has been exhibited at numerous venues in New York City, on the cover of the literary journal Conjunctions, on a billboard at Broadway and 174th Street, NYC, and most recently at NADA Miami. She currently teaches at James Madison University, Virginia Commonwealth University, and Mary Baldwin University.