Crystal Ren is an interdisciplinary artist working across installation, performance, film, sound, and material systems. An inward mode of thinking sits at the center of her practice, where rumination, endurance, and self-surveillance shape how space, time, and relational dynamics are experienced. These internal conditions often become the underlying structure of her projects.
Her work takes the form of immersive environments and time-based pieces that hold tension rather than resolve it. Distortion, repetition, and instability function not as visual effects, but as ways of thinking through form. Working with unfamiliar or experimental materials remains central to her process, allowing learning, friction, and uncertainty to stay visible.
Ren received her MFA in Digital + Media from the Rhode Island School of Design. Her practice continues to shift across mediums, driven by curiosity, discomfort, and sustained attention to how thinking takes shape in the world.
Selected Exhibitions & Performances
Crystal Ren’s work has been presented through solo and group exhibitions, institutional performances, and research-based sound events across academic and public contexts.
In 2025, her MFA thesis installation Beneath the Skin was presented at the RISD Graduate Show at the Rhode Island Convention Center, and featured in A Hands-On History of Electronic Music Concert at RISD Studio for Research in Sound and Technology, situating the work within experimental sound and performance discourse.
Her performance Gravity was presented as a Spatial Audio Concert at RISD Studio for Research in Sound and Technology, and later as a Solo Performance at the Pro Wash Auditorium through the Turner Fund, emphasizing live risk and system responsiveness.
Ren has participated in curated group exhibitions, including SENSORAMA at The Wurks (Round Me Up) and The Key at Sol Koffler Gallery (Backroom). In 2025, she also took part in a group performance program at the Fall River Museum of Contemporary Art, responding to Pauline Oliveros’ I of IV (1966). Her work has additionally appeared in the online publication Bold Journey.