about me
I am a visual artist, writer, and astrologer who is sometimes a curator, sometimes an educator
More recently, I’ve begun practicing within a lineage of Buddhism known as Soto Zen, where I’m in steady pursuit of lay ordination
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As an artist, I work primarily within the realms of sculpture and installation to explore the mystical and affective undercurrents of my being alive in and as time. I draw on a wide variety of mostly natural materials that come together to form a complex visual language that aims to be, like time itself, thick, vibrant, and lumpy. My work comes alive through a combination of imaginative storytelling and a sensitivity to place, fleshed out by my engagement with both historical and experiential research alike. For me, these creative endeavors are unified by their ability to touch into the poetic, aesthetic, and somatic layers of human experience, allowing for a sense of orientation and belonging to be co-created through the ever-evolving journey of spiritual, cultural, and relational wayfinding.
Although I am nomadic (for now), I have deep roots in the SF Bay Area, where I’ve exhibited widely at venues such as Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Jessica Silverman Gallery, Berkeley Art Center, and Cone Shape Top. My practice is in a place of deep transformation – I am in the process of co-curating an exhibition at ACRE Projects in Chicago, which will include a collaborative installation, a small collection of experimental films, long-form poetry / writing, and two nights of spatial activations. Taking Ursula K. Le Guin’s “Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction” as its central conceptual framework, the show will feature an expanded catalogue that will ideally become an ongoing publication project / shape-shifting carrier bag in and of itself.
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e-mail: tracy.mary.ren@gmail.com
instagram: @t_r_a_c_y__r_e_n