Pittsburgh Creative Corps Artist Directory

Lena Chen

Primary Discipline

Community engagement and social justice
Literary Arts, including poetry, creative writing, fiction, and non-fiction
Live Performance, including puppetry, theater, dance, music, etc.

Artistic Practice

About the Artist

Lena ChenI am a Chinese American artist who creates participatory performance and socially engaged art about gender, labor, and sexuality. I earned a B.A. in sociology from Harvard University, lived nomadically and performed throughout Western Europe for six years, and relocated to Pittsburgh in 2019 to pursue my MFA at Carnegie Mellon University, where I now hold the Lea Simonds Fellowship.

Awarded the Creative Media Award by Mozilla Foundation and Best Emerging Talent at B3 Biennial of the Moving Image, my work has appeared at Baltimore Museum of Art, Haus der Kulturen der Welt (Berlin), Transmediale (Berlin), Färgfabriken (Stockholm), and Museum of Contemporary Art Jacksonville, among others. I have spoken widely about my artistic practice and feminist activism at Ars Electronica, Oxford, Yale, Stanford, and SXSW.

I am well-versed in working on sensitive topics and with marginalized communities. In 2018, I founded Heal Her, a global expressive arts initiative supporting survivors of sexual and gender-based violence. Collaborating with therapists, artistic facilitators, and community organizations in seven countries, Heal Her uses creative and somatic techniques within talking circles where people can discuss experiences of trauma.

In addition to my art practice, I sit on the steering committee of Pittsburgh’s Sex Workers Outreach Project, collaborated with Red Canary Song (which serves serves Asian migrant massage workers), and hosted a public program at the Carnegie Museum of Art to support the AAPI community after the Atlanta massage parlor shootings. A founding member of JADED Collective (with Anny Chen and Caroline Yoo), I am now organizing a public program highlighting the art, history, and cultural practices of Pittsburgh’s AAPI community, with support from the Office of Public Art and the Organization of Chinese Americans.

Photo by Will Hollis

Web

Accreditations, Certifications, and/or Awards

  • Creative Media Award, Mozilla Foundation, 2022;
  • Uprise Grant, Sundance Institute, 2021;
  • Cybersecurity Arts Grant, Center for Long-Term Cybersecurity, University of California, Berkeley, 2021;
  • Judson-Morrissey Excellence in New Media Award, New Media Caucus, 2021;
  • BIPOC Artist Micro-Grant Program, Pittsburgh Foundation, 2021;
  • Interdisciplinary Award, Carnegie Mellon University, 2020, 2021;
  • Best Emerging Talent (with Molly Baber), B3 Biennial of the Moving Image, 2019;
  • M.1 Arthur Boskamp Foundation Advancement Award (with Maternal Fantasies), 2019;
  • Burning Man Global Arts Fund, San Francisco, USA, 2018

Provides Fabrication Services to Other Artists

No

Teaching Artist

Yes, pre-teens to adults

Joined the Directory

March 2022

Related

PROJECT

Journey of the Hungry Ghost

This project celebrates the Hungry Ghost Festival traditionally held on the 15th night of the seventh lunar month.

“Mobilizing mutual care networks that blur the line between artmaking and community organizing, I have produced projects with mothers, trauma survivors, abortion workers, and sex workers. My work with the public has challenged me to balance a variety of demands: the needs of marginalized communities whose narratives have too often been appropriated, the barriers in bringing their stories into institutional spaces, and the desire to make a social impact while recognizing the limitations and possibilities of what a single project can do.”

Lena Chen

Contact the Artist

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    Related

    PROJECT

    Journey of the Hungry Ghost

    This project celebrates the Hungry Ghost Festival traditionally held on the 15th night of the seventh lunar month.

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