Xinchen Li
The Lamp, 20 × 8 × 6 in
Xinchen Li: The Shape of What Was
Opening Reception: Friday, September 4th, 5-8pm
The Shape of What Was transforms the gallery into a domestic interior made from life size furniture and household objects built with 3D printing pens and black Polylactic Acid (PLA) filament. Based on objects from places I have lived and left behind, the exhibition explores domestic objects as memory holders and reflects on migration, belonging, and the impermanence of home. For me, the act of remaking is empowering. It allows lost or distant objects to gain a new form and presence. Although the work begins from my personal experience, it invites viewers to reflect on what they have held onto, what they have left behind, and how they define home.
Xinchen Li’s practice moves between contemporary jewelry, sculpture, and installation, using material storytelling to explore memory, migration, displacement, and the impermanence of home. Working with 3D printing pens and Polylactic Acid (PLA) filament, she recreates furniture and domestic objects from places she has lived and left behind. These hand built forms function as drawings in space, holding traces of personal history, routine, attachment, and loss.
Her installation work is shaped by frequent relocation and the emotional weight of objects that cannot always be carried forward. Through the act of remaking, Li gives these lost or distant objects a new presence. Her work invites viewers to reflect on their own relationships to home, memory, and belonging, transforming private experience into a shared space of recognition.
I will send the title and label information for each piece a couple weeks before installation, once the final checklist and installation plan are confirmed. Please let me know if you want me to make any changes or need any additional information from me. Thank you again for this opportunity!
About Xinchen
Xinchen Li is an artist based in the California Bay Area whose practice moves between contemporary jewelry, sculpture, and installation. Using 3D printing pens and Polylactic Acid (PLA) filament, she creates life size domestic objects that explore memory, migration, displacement, and the impermanence of home. Li received her BFA in Metalsmithing and Jewelry from the University of Kansas and her MFA in Studio Art from the University of Wisconsin Madison. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, including at Richmond Art Center in California, Arts + Literature Laboratory in Madison, the Museum of Arts and Design in New York, London Craft Week, and Munich Jewelry Week, and has been featured in Jewelry and Metalsmithing Survey, Create! Magazine.
Opening Reception, Friday, September 4th, 5:00-8:00pm
Exhibition dates: September 4 – 25, 2026
Gallery hours: Thurs – Fri 2-6pm, Sat – Sun 12-4 pm