Xinan Helen Ran (b.1994. Inner Mongolia, China) lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. She received her MFA from Hunter College (2022), and BFA from Pratt Institute (2017). She specializes in fabric, language, and found objects to construct emotional landscapes. She searches for the point where trauma, nihilism, and humor converge.
Ranked “Highbrow and Brilliant” by the New York Magazine Matrix, Xinan is a New York State Council on the Arts Grant recipient (2024) and the recipient of More Art Emerging Artist Commission (2024) as one half of XenoDuo. She was a mentee in New York Foundation for the Arts’s Immigrant Artist Mentoring Program (2023), a Lower Manhattan Cultural Council Arts Center resident (2022), and an Ox-Bow Summer Fellow (2016). Apart from her studio practice, Xinan is an art educator, and art administrator, and an aspirational set designer for new theaters. Xinan is a proud alumna of Pearson College UWC (2013).
Download Xinan’s resume here >>
Instagram: @hdogthefurtrader
Xenoduo: Mobile Home public art project commissioned by More Art with Miguel Alejandro Castillo
Sep 14 - Nov 2, 2024. Durational public installation at Sunset Park, Brooklyn
September 14, 1-3pm, opening day performance at Sunset Park
October 5, “Everyone Who Lives Here is a New Yorker” at Union Square
Saturdays in October, 1-3 pm at Sunset Park: Xenoduo will facilitate workshops with local and community nonprofit organizations working to support migrants and refugees. Topics include: TPS Application filing, paths to citizenship, and work support.
Stone Quarry Hill Art Park commissioned project: SoilSandSelfie
Recipient of the 2024 New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) Grant
Project page, SQHAP website
SoilSandSelfie Interview with SQAP Artistic Director Sayward Schoonmaker
Essex Flower solo show: Crumbs and Lather
March 15 - April 14, 2024
Essex Flowers Website: Essex Flowers
Press Release: >> Exhibition Checklist: >>
“10 Art Shows to See in New York This April” by Hrag Vartanian of Hyperallergic, April 1, 2024
Project now live through New York Foundation for the Arts (NFYA)’s Fiscal Sponsorship Service
Project currently seeks venue + institutional collaborators.
Schedule a zoom meeting, or book a group Mandarin citrus workshop >> Contact Xinan
The Harvard Museums of Science & Culture commissioned Community project:
Where We Belong: Tree Chuangs
September 8–October 31, 2023
Brooklyn Arts Council Community Arts Fund
2023 Grantee (Interdisciplinary)
Workshop schedule
2023 Beijing Contemporary Art Expo
Inna Art Space - Booth B3
April 28 - May 1, 2023
Essex Flowers solo show: 7000SEEDS
March 16 - April 16, 2023
Essex Flowers Website: Essex Flowers
Press Release: >>
"Highbrow and Brilliant” by New York Magazine Approval Matrix, March 24.
Tutu Gallery solo show: Very Sweet
January 20 - March 4, 2023
Press Release >>
Exhibition Listings: Litang, Franklin Furnace goings on
Event: Speed Dating, Feb 12, hosted by Xinan and April
Eastern Connecticut State University Art Gallery group show: Chinatown Chronicles
January 18 - March 9, 2023
Inna Art Space group show: 琳琅满目 lín láng mǎn mù
January 8 - Feb 15, 2023
NYFA 2023 Immigrant Artist Mentoring Program
December 2022 - April 2023
Mentee in Visual & Multidisciplinary
Double Dip MFA thesis exhibition in Hunter College, New York
November 10 - 23, 2022
Xinan’s Thesis Paper Future Trash >>
Tree Chuang Project with Beam Center, on Governors Island, New York
on view till 31 October, 2022
Beam’s website for all six Chuangs
New York Times article (Aug 18, 2022) about Tree Chuangs and Inventgenuity Festival
Chuang’s Old Stone House installation during 2022 Gowanus Open Studio and Tiffiney Davis’s “Top Ten Must See Studios!”
LMCC Arts Center Residency on Governors Island, New York
24 May - 24 August, 2022
#SandSoilSelfie for more info
Collar Works group show: Out of Office, curated by Angelik Vizcarrondo-Laboy, Troy, New York
29 October, 2021 - 30 January, 2022
Hauser & Wirth Hunter MFA and MA Exhibition: We Were Already Gone, New York
14 May - 5 June, 2021
ScheinSpace solo show: The mountains to your right, Hangzhou, China
25 June - 20 August, 2021
Interview with curator Song Yao
Clover Nature commissioned public engagement: Sandbox For All, Shanghai, China
21 - 28 April, 2021
Hengyi Gallery group show: 3x3, Hangzhou, China
Artists: LIU lu, RAN xinan, ZHOU hong
08 April - 08 May, 2021