Image courtesy of Parker Lily Tuson-Morse
My practice explores trauma and multiplicity, informed by my Chinese-Turkish lineage, childhood isolation, and displacement. Self-portraiture, memory, and metaphysical elements shape liminal spaces where human, animal, and object intersect as hybrid beings in my work.
Painting functions as a channel for my personal history and a psychological process. Anthropomorphized figures emerge as projections of inner states and alienation — a means of coping with loneliness and uncertainty. Through sinister and playful imagery, I reimagine memories and spaces to reclaim agency over trauma.
Once a visceral mental image takes hold, I pursue it methodically through sketches, color studies, and underpaintings, building certainty around something that resists it. This arrival at the final image is a deliberate departure from the darkness; a pitch black starting point that I gradually fill with figures, symbols, and narrative drawn from my own subconscious patterns and visual lexicon.
(b. 2000, Istanbul, Turkey)
Based in Brooklyn, NY
EDUCATION
2023 BFA School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University, Boston, USA (Full Scholarship)
2022 Central Saint Martins at UAL, London, UK
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
ART FAIRS
2026 PAVILION, Fragment Gallery, Hong Kong
2026 Contemporary Art Now, Yusto/Giner Gallery, Madrid, Spain
AWARDS/RESIDENCIES
2026 Fountainhead Residency, Miami, FL, USA
2025 The Macedonia Institute Artist Residency, Chatham, NY, USA
2024 The Bennett Prize 4 Finalist
2024 ChaNorth Artist Residency, Pine Plains, NY, USA
2024 Vermont Studio Center (Emily Mason - Wolf Kahn Fellowship), Johnson, VT, USA
2022 The Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Grant
2022 Dana Pond Competition (School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University)
PRESS/PUBLICATIONS
2026 Hot Coffee Conversations, Colleen Dalusong with artist Rei Xiao
2026 New American Paintings, Northeast, Issue #182
2025 Praxis Interview Magazine hosted by Yale University Radio: Rei Xiao (By Brainard Carey)
2024 Care Book (Edited by Kimi Hamada & Anna Schneider; published by Booooooom)
2023 Tufts Now: Artists Explore the Past Through Family Photos, Dark Humor, and Lots of Hugs (by Julie Flaherty)
2018 212 Magazine, Fall/Winter, 2018-2019 Issue “Eyes”
TALKS
2024 Visiting Artist Panel, Professional Practice Course, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA
2023 Moderated Panel with Exhibiting Artists of Archive and Autobiography, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA, USA