Jasmine Chen

Growing up moving between China and America, having lived in many distinctive neighborhoods, I have been a part of a wide spectrum of communities that don’t overlap. My art reflects the struggle to make sense of my place and identity by making connections across time, societies, and places. R.B. Kitaj defined a diasporist artist as someone who lives and paints in two societies at the same time. The unsettled nature of a diasporist’s existence is an important source of inspiration for my art. For the immigrant, the ocean no longer establishes a definitive barrier. The internet, for instance, enables a constant partial exposure to people and places from the past. Memory and imagination are both fed and interrupted by this, and accounting for one’s origins and place can be more problematic than ever. My works respond to this condition.



Jasmine Chen is a visual artist originally from Beijing, China, and is currently based in Boston. Her work is in the permanent collection of the Danforth Art Museum and has been exhibited there and at Matter and Light Fine Art, the Jackson Homestead Museum, and elsewhere. It was also featured in a solo exhibit at the New Art Center. She has a B.A. from Harvard and PhD from Brandeis and studied art independently.

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