Working primarily in sculpture and tattoo, Lyric Shen’s practice involves a piercing awareness that covers skin and objects alike. Hand-built ceramics, metal and found objects hold images of past times, sharp yet unrefined. Through Shen’s chosen technique of water transfers shapes shift through offset boundaries and images distort like memory itself. Shen’s use of mediums combines ancient crafts like tattoo, handmade ceramic and metal work with highly industrialized techniques like plasma cutting, inkjet printing and everyday technologies like iPhone photos and videos. Crossing languages, regions and cultures in their various modes of making, Shen’s delicate sculptures show us the gentle beauty of transgression that takes shape only when in flux.

Lyric Shen (b. Goleta, California, 1993) lives and works in New York. She completed an MFA at Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, MI and received a BA in Book Arts at the University of California, Santa Barbara, CA. Solo and two-person exhibitions include ‘Promise’s Room’ at Silke Lindner (2023), ‘The Petal’ at Et al, San Francisco (2023) and ‘Biscuit’ at Canada, New York (2022). She has been included in several group exhibitions, most recently in ‘SL x RE’, Rose Easton (London), ‘Contemporary Fossil Record’ at Jack Hanley Gallery, ‘Reciprocity’ at Marinaro (New York), and JUNK IS NO GOOD BABY, Silke Lindner (New York). She will be included in ‘Human Marks’ at Joseloff Gallery, University of Hartford, Hartford, CT in September of 2025.