Yi Cynthia Chen
Yi Cynthia Chen is an interdisciplinary painter. Her work explores the history of painting, ranging from early Chinese frescoes and ink paintings on scrolls to oil paintings and painting's relationship to photography. Chen questions contemporary relationships of representation through the lens of cultural history, psychology, and ecology.
Chen is an SMFA Traveling Fellow and is currently studying representations of suffering and joy in Mogao Grottoes. Chen was selected as one of Artsy's AAPI in Focus artists in 2026 and curated Willful Dialects: Asian American x Diaspora x Boston in 2025.
