Welcome art friends past, present, and future!
I’m Xena Ni, a socially engaged artist who uses time travel, public archives, and interactive experiences to uplift stories obscured by history, policy, and neglect. My participatory art installations focus on the equity of public benefits, the arbitrariness of federal regulations, and the role luck plays in American lives.
My work has been featured in the Washington Post, the Boston Globe, Hyperallergic, and Bloomberg, and shown at the Fuller Craft Museum in Massachusetts, Contemporary Craft in Pittsburgh, the Ohio Craft Museum, Kunstraum in Brooklyn, and Data Through Design in New York.
Heurich House Museum
Washington, DC, 2024
Fuller Craft Museum
Brockton, Massachusetts, 2022-23
Ohio Craft Museum
Columbus, Ohio, 2022
Contemporary Craft
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 2021-22
Bread for the City
Washington, DC, 2019
Umbrella
Washington, DC, 2019
“Historiographical Interventions” at Kunstraum
Brooklyn, New York, 2022
Art and Activism at The Cheshire
Washington, DC, 2020
Hole in the Sky
Washington, DC, 2019
DC Design Week
Washington, DC, 2022
Rhizome Community-Supported Art Grant
Washington, DC, 2021
Dwell
Washington, DC, 2018
Camp Yes
Point Roberts, WA, 2017
Selected exhibitions
49th DC History Conference
MLK Jr. Memorial Library, Washington, DC, March 2023
Food Justice: Growing a Healthier Community Through Art (Touring Exhibition)
Fuller Craft Museum, Brockton, Massachusetts, November 2022- April 2023
Ohio Craft Museum, Columbus, Ohio, August - September 2022
Southern Ohio Museum, Portsmouth, Ohio, April - June 2022
Contemporary Craft, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, September 2021 - March 2022
Waves of Joy
Gallery Y, Washington, DC, December 2022-February 2023
Time Travel to a future DC: A Meditative Workshop
DC Design Week, October 2022
Futuretelling Performance
Rhizome DC, Washington, DC June 2022
Historiographical Interventions
Kunstraum, Brooklyn, New York, April-May 2022
We are Home
Homme, Washington, DC, May 2021
DC 2121
Rhizome DC, Washington, DC, March-November 2021
Art & Activism
The Cheshire, Washington, DC, January 2020
The Lottery
Derek Lieu Residency Program at Hole in the Sky, August-November 2019
Transaction Denied
Umbrella and Bread for the City DC, April - September 2019
Tempo
Data Through Design at New Lab, Brooklyn, New York, January 2019
Futuretelling Workshop
Dwell, Washington, DC, December 2018
Freaky Futures
Hole in the Sky, Washington, DC, December 2017
Design for Exploration (Pop-up Exhibit)
San Francisco Exploratorium, San Francisco, CA, December 2010
Press
Artists Find Creative Ways to Raise Food Insecurity Awareness, Hyperallergic
When Tech Makes Food Insecurity Worse, Bloomberg
Fuller Craft Museum Offers ‘Food Justice’ For Thought, Boston Globe
This DC Artist’s New Show Takes on a “Racially Motivated Wealth Test for Immigrants”, Washingtonian
How to Start an Art Collection on a Budget? It’s as Easy as Buying a Farm Share, Washington Post
A New Grant for Local Artists Creates ‘Community Supported Art’, Washington City Paper
21 D.C. Curators and Artists to Follow, District Fray