People

Anne Chen was raised by Chinese immigrants who sought healing from both ritual exorcists and Prozac. Her practice emerged out of the pandemic, sequestered in attic apartments — workspaces forming in bedrooms, on kitchen floors. An interiority decorator, she makes quilts, pillows, and ceramics that mythologize the ancient histories and convoluted narratives woven into diasporic objects. She collects, appropriates, and deceives, drawing from archives to mistranslate cultural curiosities into household goods for couches, windows, and nightstands. Her research examines how oriental goods, whether stolen through colonization or having migrated in suitcases, carry unspoken values revealed through context, density of environment, and the attention of the interpreter. 

Anne lived in Pittsburgh from 2009 to 2022 and maintains deep roots in the local arts and cultural community. She has taught and coordinated for Prototype, Assemble, BCLA, CMU’s School of Architecture, and co-founded JADED, coproducing events for the AAPI community with the Carnegie Museum of Art, Office of Public Art, OCA, SWOP, and more. She has attended residencies at Caldera Arts, Vermont Studio Center, Ox-bow, Icelandic Textile Arts Center, Serlachius Residency, Soaring Gardens Artist Retreat, ACRE Residency, and Bunker Projects.