Xinan Helen Ran

Xinan Helen Ran is an artist specializing in fabric, language, and found objects to construct emotional landscapes. She searches for the point where trauma, nihilism, and humor converge.

Ranked "Highbrow and Brilliant" by the New York Magazine Matrix, Ran has exhibited nationally and internationally at Inna Art Space (Hangzhou, China), Essex Flowers (New York), Hauser & Wirth (New York), and collaborated on public projects with Harvard Peabody Museum of Archaeology (Cambridge, MA), Clover Nature (Shanghai, China), Acompi (New York) and Beam Center (Governors Island, New York).

Xinan received her M.F.A. from Hunter College (2022) and B.F.A. from Pratt Institute (2017), and she is a proud alumna of Pearson College UWC (2013). Apart from her studio practice, Xinan is an art educator, an art administrator, and an aspirational set designer for new theaters.

Academic Research/Specialty Areas

  • Drawing
  • Installation art
  • Interdisciplinary art
  • Performance art
  • Print media
  • Public art
  • Sculpture

Awards, Grants, and Fellowships (Selected)

  • MacDowell Artists-In-Residence (upcoming, 2025)
  • More Art Emerging Artists Commission (2024)
  • New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) Support For Artists Grant (2024)
  • Brooklyn Arts Fund Grant, Greater New York Arts Development Fund of the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs (DCA) (2023)

Exhibitions and Presentations (Selected)

  • SoilSandSelfie, public art commission by Stone Quarry Art Park, Syracuse, NY (2024)
  • Crumbs and Lather, solo exhibition at Essex Flowers, New York (2024)
  • Where We Belong: Tree Chuangs, community project commission by the Harvard Museums of Science & Culture, Cambridge, MA (2023)
     

Selected Work

  • An aerial shot of a grassy field with a road running across the middle and a large tree with the words

    hurry - wingwoman - hurry / worrying and wondering (2024), rammed earth pottery. Xinan Helen Ran and Sarah Lammer, Stone Quarry Art Park, Syracuse, New York. image / provided

  • A three-dimensional fabric installation attached to a wall, made up of fabrics in many different colors, textures, and shapes, with a light green zipper running throughout.

    Where We Belong: Tree Chuangs in Harvard Museum (2023). Xinan Helen Ran, museum and community participants, Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Cambridge, MA. image / provided

  • A multi-colored fabric tube that hangs from the top of a tree branch all the way down to the grass. In the background is a large brick building and a path leading up to it.

    Void (2023), upholstered seed stand. Xinan Helen Ran, Essex Flowers, New York. image / provided

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