Xi Chen

Bio

Xi Chen is an artist based in Paris, working mainly with jewellery, objects and sketches. She studied Jewellery Design at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing and received an MA in Jewellery and Gemstone from Hochschule Trier in Germany. She also completed an Erasmus study programme in Jewellery and Porcelain at ENSAD Limoges, France. Her practice develops through close observation, material research and making, translating details from everyday life, the body and lived experience into jewellery and objects. Her work has been presented at Schmuck 2026 in Munich and Galerie Marzee in 2018 and 2025; she received the Marzee International Graduation Prize in 2018.

Statement

My work starts with looking closely at things around me. I am interested in details that are easy to overlook, and I use sketches to record these observations and to work out ideas before and during the making process.

Jewellery is at the centre of my practice. My background in jewellery has taught me to think through the relationship between an object, the body and the way an object is experienced. I do not usually begin with a finished image in mind. I develop a work through testing materials, changing processes and paying attention to what happens during making. These experiments are not only technical steps; they help me understand what I am observing and how it can be transformed into an object.

I am interested in keeping this process close to real things and real experiences. Rather than looking for a fixed style, I want each work to come from careful observation and find its own material form.

CV