Shao-Feng Hsu

Instagram: @shaofenghsu

Website: https://www.shaofenghsu.com

Bio: "Shao-Feng Hsu is a visual artist whose practice revolves around the intricate interactions between humans and aquatic environments. He earned his MFA from the California College of the Arts (CCA) in 2022, receiving the Dennis Leon and Christin Nelson Scholarship. He holds a One-Year Certificate in Creative Practices from the International Center of Photography (CP‘19) and received the Rita K. Hillman Excellence Award. In 2020, Shao-Feng co-founded 'Cademy and Fotodemic. Hsu is the recipient of Jury’s Choice Award of Forecast 2023 at San Francisco Camerawork, Photolucida Top 50 of Critical Mass 2023, and participation in the International Juried Exhibition 2023 at the Center for Photographic Art, Carmel. He was a Graduate Fellow at the Headlands Center for the Arts (2022–2023), awarded a Yaddo residency in 2024, and is a 2024–2026 Unseen California Artist in Residence at UC Santa Cruz in partnership with the Kenneth S. Norris Center for Natural History. Hsu work has been exhibited globally, with showcases at Kyotagraphie in Kyoto, Root Division, The Lab, Right Window, and Minnesota Street Project in San Francisco, as well as Galeria Beta in Bogota. Publications and features include The New York Times, Harper's Magazine, SF Chronicle, Photograph Magazine, Lenscratch, 48 Hills, +KGP Books, and the Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts. He has taught and lectured at institutions such as CCA, CalArts, Stanford, and ICP. He is currently a lecturer at UC Santa Cruz and an adjunct professor at Diablo Valley College."

Statement: "Artist Statement Living near the intersection of water and land in my homeland of Taiwan sparked my curiosity with questioning, researching, and creating work centered around water. As a child, I swam to improve my asthma, leading to a long-standing physical relationship with water. As a Taiwanese native, I also underwent compulsory military service in the Kinmen Islands, which were once the frontline of the Chinese Civil War. Living within military infrastructure on that coastline has deepened my understanding of the complexities where land meets water—a theme that resonates with the location and history of the Bay Area. For me, places where the tide comes and goes are also where history is revealed, and creativity unfolds. Water, and my obsession with it—as an air-breathing mammal, as a native of an island nation, and as a veteran of a coastal military—has become a metaphor for the boundaries of life and how we overcome them. I create experiential, photo-based work that focuses on water and the aquatic environment. Using both analog and digital methods of image-making, along with archival images, my work seeks to shift perspectives on how water is traditionally perceived and understood."