Gray Zone-15

Tishan Hsu (b. 1951, Boston) is an artist who uses drawing to expand and mediate the relationship between the screen and body. His drawings pull from his peripatetic upbringing: Hsu grew up in Switzerland, Ohio, Wisconsin, and Virginia before becoming an MIT trained architect (receiving both his BSAD and M. Arch in the 70s). While his architectural training honed his technical finesse as a draftsman, Hsu also maintained a focused and rigorous study of traditional Western art. For example, Hsu was trained by an instructor who was herself a student of the French tradition of Impressionist painting. His formal training included copying and studying the likes of Edward Hopper, Thomas Cole, and the disegno of Florentine masters. In his latest drawing, Gray Zone-15, 2025, Hsu martials both new and traditional media-- he uses pencil, plastic, and digital drawing software-- to harness the full range of the contemporary draftsman's toolbox. Here, rhythmic gestures mimicking halftones are marked on a double layer of Dura-Lar (a brand of archival polyester film) in lieu of paper; and soft, strawberry blonde strands of hair are digitally rendered, the hair's luminosity rivalling that of a feather from an Audubon bird. The resultant hybrid creature appears within rectangular lenses reminiscent of smart phones or iPad screens. In this way, Gray Zone pushes the boundaries of what we understand a drawing to be.