photo: maryam hoseini
WangShui
1986, Dallas, Texas
WangShui’s work explores divergent structures of perception. Through video, sculpture, painting and installation, they examine the psychosomatic loops that form our experience of the world. The artist’s practice integrates diverse personal experiences and research into desire, architecture and media. A central theme in their work is liminality and its radical potential as a form of resistance. WangShui often addresses the latent space of images and materials as a way to activate the hallucinatory states between detail and distance, transparency and opacity, knowing and unknowing.
WangShui received a BA in Art Practice and Social Anthropology from UC Berkeley, California and an MFA in Film and Video from Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York.
WangShui lives and works in New York.
wangshui
the veil, 2025
oil on aluminum
178 cm x 179 x 6.5 cm (70 x 70 1/2 x 2 1/2in)
wangshui
bloodshed, 2025
ink and oil on aluminum
92 x 153 x 5 cm (36 x 60 1/2 x 2 in)
wangshui
inherently stable, 2025
oil and ink on aluminum
92 3/4 x 152 1/2 x 5 cm (36.5 x 60 x 2 in)
wangshui
qualis [artifex] iv, 2025
ink on aluminum
91.4 x 76.2 cm (36 x 30 in)
wangshui
tidal plume, 2025
ink on aluminum
155.2 x 155.2 x 5.7 cm (61 1/8 x 61 1/8 x 2 1/4 in)
wangshui
the understudy, 2025
oil and ink on aluminum
52.1 x 44.5 x 3.8 cm (20 1/2 x 17 1/2 x 1 1/2 in)
wangshui
history of the universe, 2024
ink on aluminum, and found artist frame
60.3 x 50.5 x 9.2 cm (23 3/4 x 19 7/8 x 3 5/8 in)
wangshui
saint poe, 2024
oil on aluminum, and found artist frame
44.7 x 42.5 x 8.8 cm (17 5/8 x 16 3/4 x 3 1/2 in)
wangshui
who knows where the time goes, 2024
color pencil on aluminum and found artist frame
28.5 x 34.25 x 5.7 cm (11 1/4 x 13 1/2 x 2 1/4in)
wangshui
rhythmic change, 2024
soapstone on aluminum in oak frame
152.7 x 152.7 x 5 cm (61 1/8 x 61 1/8 x 2 1/4in)
wangshui
qualia II, 2024
ink on aluminum in oak frame
246.4 x 155.2 x 6cm (97 x 61 1/4 x 2 3/8in)
wangshui
oppose the serpent, 2024
ink on aluminum in aluminum frame
151.7 x 243.2 x 4.4 cm (59 3/4 x 95 3/4 x 1 3/4 in)
wangshui
quantity of tears, 2024
ink and soot on aluminum in aluminum frame
245.1 x 456.78 x 5 cm (96 1/2 x 179 7/8 x 2 in)
wangshui
osmotic burst, 2024
oil on aluminum in aluminum frame
243.8 x 152.4 x 5.1 cm (96 x 60 x 2 in)
wangshui
ambiguous congress, 2023
three panels. oil on aluminum in aluminum frame
243.8 x 640.1 cm (96 x 252 in)
wangshui
cowlick buzz, 2023
oil on aluminum in aluminum frame, bronze
244 x 152.5 x 5 cm (96 x 60 x 2 in.)
wangshui
gubra (fig∵re V), 2023
oil on aluminum in aluminum frame
152.4 x 152.4 x 5.1 cm (60 x 60 x 2 in.)
wangshui
titration point (isle of vitr∴ous), 2022
oil on aluminum honeycomb panel
304.8 x 304.8 (120 x 120 in.)
installation view of wangshui: desire script, fondazione iris, viterbo, 2025. courtesy of the artist and amanita. photo: giorgio benni
installation view of wangshui: desire script, fondazione iris, viterbo, 2025. courtesy of the artist and amanita. photo: giorgio benni
installation view of wangshui: desire script, fondazione iris, viterbo, 2025. courtesy of the artist and amanita. photo: giorgio benni
installation view of wangshui & maryam hoseini: the demon and the muse (dm), site santa fe, nuevo méxico, 2025. photo: brad trone
installation view of wangshui & maryam hoseini: the demon and the muse (dm), site santa fe, nuevo méxico, 2025. photo: brad trone
installation view of wangshui & maryam hoseini: the demon and the muse (dm), site santa fe, nuevo méxico, 2025. photo: brad trone
installation view of wangshui, kurimanzutto, new york, 2024. photo: zach hyman
installation view of wangshui, kurimanzutto, new york, 2024. photo: zach hyman
installation view of wangshui, kurimanzutto, new york, 2024. photo: zach hyman
installation view of wangshui in foreigners everywhere, 60th venice biennale, 2024. photo: nick ash
installation view of wangshui in foreigners everywhere, 60th venice biennale, 2024. photo: nick ash
installation view of wangshui in foreigners everywhere, 60th venice biennale, 2024. photo: nick ash
installation view of wangshui: poiesis, rockbund art museum, shanghai, 2023. photo: yan tao
installation view of wangshui: poiesis, rockbund art museum, shanghai, 2023. photo: yan tao
installation view of wangshui: poiesis, rockbund art museum, shanghai, 2023. photo: yan tao
installation view of wangshui: window of tolerance, haus der kunst, munich, 2023. photo: milena wojhan
installation view of wangshui: window of tolerance, haus der kunst, munich, 2023. photo: milena wojhan
installation view of wangshui: window of tolerance, haus der kunst, munich, 2023. photo: milena wojhan
Past solo exhibitions include: Desire Script, Fondazione Iris, Viterbo, Italy (2025); WangShui, kurimanzutto, New York (2024); Window of Tolerance, Haus der Kunst, Munich, Germany (2023); WangShui: poiesis, Rockbund Art Museum, Shanghai, China (2023); Whitney Screens: David Hartt and WangShui (two-person exhibition), Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2020); WangShui, Julia Stoschek Collection, Berlin (2019), among others.
Past group exhibitions include: New Humans: Memories of the Future, New Museum, New York (2026); Once Within a Time, 12th SITE SANTA FE International Exhibition, New Mexico (2025); Skincare, Antenna Space, Shanghai, China (2025); Soft Robots: The Art of Digital Breathing, Copenhagen Contemporary, Denmark (2025); Going Dark: The Contemporary Figure at the Edge of Visibility, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (2023); Inheritance, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2023); Human Is, Schinkel Pavillon, Berlin (2023); Myth Makers–Spectrosynthesis III, Tai Kwun, Hong Kong (2022); Quiet as It’s Kept, Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2022); No Humans Involved, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2021); Open Call, The Shed, New York (2019); International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR), The Netherlands (2019); In Practice: Another Echo, SculptureCenter, Long Island City, New York (2018); New York Film Festival, Film at Lincoln Center (2018); SCREENING, 67 Ludlow, New York (2017); From its Mouth Came a River of High-End Residential Appliances, Triple Canopy, New York (2017), among others.
WangShui’s work was included in the 60th Venice Biennial in 2024, as part of the international art exhibition, Stranieri Ovunque – Foreigners Everywhere. Their work was also included in Manifeste de la fragilité, Biennale de Lyon, France (2022).
![wangshui
qualis [artifex] iv, 2025
ink on aluminum
91.4 x 76.2 cm (36 x 30 in)
 ](https://static-assets.artlogic.net/w_1800,h_1000,c_limit/exhibit-e/5ee8d205bd3ab4ab008b4568/06ef46994e9802589f01e4456ff716e3.png)
![wangshui
qualis [artifex] iv, 2025
ink on aluminum
91.4 x 76.2 cm (36 x 30 in)
 ](https://static-assets.artlogic.net/w_647,h_647,c_limit/exhibit-e/5ee8d205bd3ab4ab008b4568/06ef46994e9802589f01e4456ff716e3.png)
