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 where 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, Wang engages the medium of sculpture as a critical framework to examine metaphysical questions about the nature of reality. Wang employs a post-minimalist process for objectmaking, combining geometric abstraction with material, form, scale, color, and texture, striking 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 the snowmobile and diving underwater, and found footage released by the US Navy and other sources, Wang’s films unfold like surrealist objects, shapeshifting in time.

Alice Wang 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. She was an arts fellow at the Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne and a Villa Aurora fellow in Berlin. In 2021, Wang was shortlisted for the BMW Art Journey prize at Art Basel Hong Kong. She 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, Beidaihe, China; Vincent Price Art Museum, Los Angeles; Capsule Shanghai (2017, 2021); Human Resources, Los Angeles; and 18th Street Arts Center in Santa Monica, among others. She has also presented work at the Hammer Museum, Galleria Continua, Para Site, Galerie Urs Meile, 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 will be an artist-in-residence at the ISCP in December. Next spring she will present a selection of her films at the e-flux Screening Room. Wang lives and works in New York.