By Olivia Bennett
Culturally Arts is honored to present Boundaries of Being, a solo exhibition by acclaimed installation artist Qixin Chen, opening in early June 2025. Known for her extraordinary ability to fuse conceptual inquiry with immersive spatial environments, Chen offers in this new body of work a profound meditation on existence itself.
Through an intricate progression of installations, Boundaries of Being invites visitors to confront the psychological and societal forces that define, constrain, and ultimately reshape human identity.
The exhibition follows a carefully orchestrated trajectory, mapping an internal journey from repression to transcendence. It asks a set of deeply resonant questions: Who am I? Where am I? How do I exist within the invisible frameworks imposed by society, by institutions, and by my own consciousness? Through five major installations, Chen constructs a spatial narrative that is both personal and collective, guiding viewers through a series of emotional and philosophical thresholds.
The journey begins with Room 13, a chilling environment inspired by institutional medical spaces. Entering this installation, visitors find themselves within a sealed, restrained atmosphere that evokes the sensation of becoming an object under clinical scrutiny. The cold sterility of the setting, combined with subtle sensory cues, replicates the dehumanizing impact of systemic power.
Here, Chen examines how institutions can strip individuals of their agency, reducing existence to mere functionality. Room 13 is not simply a critique of one system, but a broader exploration of how structural violence can reshape the very boundary between being and objecthood.
From there, visitors are drawn into Nightmare, an installation that plunges them into the interior landscape of anxiety and dislocation. In this work, Chen shifts from external structures to internal fractures. Through an immersive interplay of distorted forms and disorienting spatial arrangements, Nightmare reveals how social expectations around normality, success, and conformity can corrode the sense of self. The experience is unsettling but crucial: it suggests that the erosion of existence is not merely an external imposition but a process that, once internalized, continues to unsettle from within.
Emerging from this psychological darkness, Acchata offers a sensory reprieve and a gesture toward transformation. Through a lyrical choreography of light and shadow, Chen constructs a space that feels constantly in motion, alive with the fluidity of change. Here, viewers are invited to let go of fixed forms of identity and to embrace the ephemeral, shifting nature of being.
The installation’s moving lights and fragmented reflections create a sensation of weightlessness and possibility, marking a critical turning point in the exhibition’s emotional arc. Acchata reminds visitors that liberation is found not in rigidity but in accepting life’s inherent mutability.
Camellia continues this exploration with a focus on cultural identity and the tension between resilience and fragility. Using iridescent materials that shift in hue with each movement of the viewer, Chen captures the layered complexity of existing under the gaze of societal definitions. Just as the camellia flower is known for its delicate strength, this work presents identity as something at once enduring and vulnerable. Camellia is both beautiful and poignant, prompting viewers to reflect on how their own self-conceptions are shaped, challenged, and reimagined in the face of external expectations.
The exhibition culminates with Moon, a minimalist and profoundly meditative installation that offers a space for contemplation beyond narrative or form. Here, language falls away, replaced by an experience of presence, stillness, and attention. Moon draws visitors into a quiet dialogue with the universe itself, suggesting that existence is not only defined by struggle and construction but also by the simple fact of being. It is a serene and transcendent ending to a journey that began in alienation and loss.
Through Boundaries of Being, Qixin Chen reaffirms her place as one of the most promising voices in contemporary installation art. Born in Shenzhen and based in New York, Chen received her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2024. Her work explores how subtle power dynamics and societal norms shape individual consciousness, often transforming entire spaces into immersive experiences that prompt self-examination and collective reflection.
Chen’s artistic achievements have been widely recognized. She has received Honorable Mention Awards from Teravarna Art Gallery in Los Angeles and Special Recognition from Light Space & Time Art Gallery in Santa Fe. Her installations have been exhibited in numerous prestigious venues, including A Space Gallery in Brooklyn, SAIC Galleries in Chicago, Teravarna Art Gallery in Los Angeles, and Light Space & Time Art Gallery in Santa Fe. Her works have also been featured in leading art publications such as The Washington Dispatch, Shoutout Atlanta, and Al-Tiba9, among others.
In Boundaries of Being, Chen continues her exploration of the relationship between self and system, presence and absence, individuality and universality. With an acute sensitivity to material, space, and narrative, she constructs environments that resonate long after viewers leave the physical gallery. Her work challenges traditional modes of installation, offering instead spaces that are as emotionally charged as they are intellectually rigorous.
Culturally Arts is honored to host this important exhibition, which will be on view starting early June 2025. Audiences are invited to experience firsthand how Qixin Chen transforms psychological landscapes into profound artistic encounters. Through her work, she offers not just a reflection of the world we inhabit, but a visionary reimagining of the boundaries that define our very being.
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