Morgan Chen (she/they) is a writer and multimedia artist working in New York and Los Angeles. Starting as a makeup artist for independent film, Morgan has designed a variety of makeup and special effects applications for a diverse range of physical features. Morgan recently graduated from NYU Tisch with a masters from the Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP), where she experimented with combining the technical and digital with body-centered art as an expression of anti-colonial and anti-oriental identity. Morgan is interested in exploring the social and political implications of physical appearance and beauty.
Morgan’s existence is inherently tied to the contradictory experience of being Asian American and a child of first-generation immigrants: her relationship with her family is both close and distant, she has felt desired and undesired in different contexts, she is both foreign and domestic. Her research and work is how she attempts to articulate these contradictions and complexities through visual representations of identity worn on skin and body. She is always searching for answers as to why she feels the way she does.
Press/Featured
“CULTURING” in “Materials in Reminiscing,” theBlanc gallery, 8/26/2022—9/05/2022
“Artist explores cultural identity by deconstructing materials”
https://www.human.cornell.edu/news/imported/2022/08/artist-explores-cultural-identity-deconstructing-materials
Hybrid Body Lab 2022 Artist-in-Residence
https://www.hybridbody.human.cornell.edu/news/2022/5/3/meet-2022-hybrid-body-lab-artist-in-residence-morgan-chen
“Deconstructing Material: Beauty” — Hybrid Body Lab Artist Talk
College of Human Ecology, Cornell University, July 2022
“Secondary Inspection” in “First Instar,” Ecogenic Research Collective inaugural show, 5/27/2022—5/28/2022 (@ecogeniccollective)
︎ Instagram
︎ Twitter
Morgan’s existence is inherently tied to the contradictory experience of being Asian American and a child of first-generation immigrants: her relationship with her family is both close and distant, she has felt desired and undesired in different contexts, she is both foreign and domestic. Her research and work is how she attempts to articulate these contradictions and complexities through visual representations of identity worn on skin and body. She is always searching for answers as to why she feels the way she does.
Press/Featured
“CULTURING” in “Materials in Reminiscing,” theBlanc gallery, 8/26/2022—9/05/2022
“Artist explores cultural identity by deconstructing materials”
https://www.human.cornell.edu/news/imported/2022/08/artist-explores-cultural-identity-deconstructing-materials
Hybrid Body Lab 2022 Artist-in-Residence
https://www.hybridbody.human.cornell.edu/news/2022/5/3/meet-2022-hybrid-body-lab-artist-in-residence-morgan-chen
“Deconstructing Material: Beauty” — Hybrid Body Lab Artist Talk
College of Human Ecology, Cornell University, July 2022
“Secondary Inspection” in “First Instar,” Ecogenic Research Collective inaugural show, 5/27/2022—5/28/2022 (@ecogeniccollective)
︎ Instagram
︎ Twitter