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 often emerge as projections of inner states and alienation, serving as ways to cope with loneliness and uncertainty. Incorporating sardonic and morbid imagery, I reimagine memories and spaces to reclaim agency over trauma. Grounded in lived experience, these narratives unfold across multiple planes of reality.
My process reframes darkness not as an endpoint but as a point of origin instead  — a generative site from which new forms, memories, and possibilities arise. Each work contributes to a growing visual lexicon of surreal stories and shifting atmospheric worlds.


(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 
2025 Dogs & Cats, September Gallery, Kinderhook, NY, USA

ART FAIRS

AWARDS/RESIDENCIES
2025 The Macedonia Institute Artist Residency
2024 The Bennett Prize 4 Finalist
2024 ChaNorth Artist Residency
2024 Vermont Studio Center (Emily Mason - Wolf Kahn Fellowship)
2022 The Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Grant
2022 Dana Pond Competition — School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University

PRESS/PUBLICATIONS 
​​​​​​​2024 Artsin Square: Meet the Artist: Rei Xiao
2024 Care Book (Edited by Kimi Hamada & Anna Schneider; published by Booooooom)
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
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