Alice Wang makes sculptures and experimental films that interrogate medium-specificity as both a conceptual schema and in the exploration of forms. Taking a phenomenological approach in which the body is the site of knowledge production situated within a non-geocentric universe, Wang ventures to the Arctic, Biosphere 2, the Mayan Pyramids, and other geological, technological, and archaeological sites to investigate the uncanny dimensions of the natural world. Using metamorphic substances such as fossils, meteorites, electrons, plants, and heat, she engages the medium of sculpture as a critical framework to examine metaphysical questions about the nature of reality. Wang works in a post-minimalist tradition, combining geometric abstraction with material, form, scale, color, and texture, to strike a balance between mathematical thinking and sensual physicality. Similarly, to short-circuit cognitive operations and reclaim the intelligence of the body, Wang's structuralist approach to moving images calls attention to the perceptual qualities of the cinematic experience. Incorporating guided meditation, GoPro footage shot on a snowmobile and diving underwater, and found footage released by the US Navy and other sources, her films unfold like surrealist objects, shapeshifting in time.
Alice Wang is a Chinese-born American artist based in New York. She received a B.Sc. in Computer Science and International Relations from the University of Toronto, a BFA from the California Institute of the Arts, and an MFA from New York University. Wang was an arts fellow at the Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne and a Villa Aurora fellow in Berlin. In 2021, she was shortlisted for the BMW Art Journey prize at Art Basel Hong Kong. Wang has been a grant recipient from the Canada Council for the Arts and the Foundation for Contemporary Arts. Wang has presented solo exhibitions at the UCCA Dune Art Museum, China (2023); Vincent Price Art Museum, Los Angeles (2024); Capsule, Shanghai (2017, 2021); Human Resources, Los Angeles (2016); and 18th Street Arts Center in Santa Monica (2015), among others. Wang has also presented work at the Hammer Museum, Para Site, Fotografiska, e-flux Screening Room, and the 14th Shanghai Biennale. Her work has been featured in Artforum, Art in America, Hyperallergic, Mousse Magazine, ArtReview Asia, ArtAsiaPacific, and the Los Angeles Times. Wang was an artist-in-residence at the International Studio & Curatorial Program (ISCP) in December 2024; she is an artist-in-residence at Pioneer Works. Current and upcoming projects include New Humans: Memories of the Future, curated by Massimiliano Gioni at the New Museum; Against Outer Space at The Beall Center for Art + Technology; Palomar at The Renaissance Society, curated by Karsten Lund. Her first institutional solo exhibition in New York opened in February 2026 at ISCP, curated by Melinda Lang with an accompanying exhibition catalog featuring an essay by Bettina Funcke.
