qianshen003@gmail.com

Qian Shen (沈牵), also known as Emilia Qian Shen, graduated as a scholar from Alfred University in 2024 and is she is currently an MFA candidate at Washington University in St. Louis. After graduating from Alfred, her artistic practice transitioned from ceramics to soft sculpture, where she explores the expressive potential of the abstracted body. Emilia creates ambiguous, humanoid forms—suggestive of skin, organs, and memory—that evoke visceral, instinctive responses. Her work centers on the emotional weight of materiality, using softness, distortion, and tension to challenge perceptions of the body and its boundaries. In 2022, Emilia was awarded the Stephen John Hill Memorial Scholarship and the Peters Valley School of Craft Scholarship. In 2024, she received the Lisa Elwell Ceramic Artist Endowed Encouragement Award, the Ernestine Betsberg and Arthur Osver Scholarship, and the Ann & Lee Liberman Scholarship. Her work has been exhibited at the Robert C. Turner Gallery in Alfred, the Des Lee Gallery, Lewis Collaborative in St. Louis, as well as Hera Gallery in Wakefield. In 2025, Emilia hosted a wool material workshop at the Mildred Lane Kemper Museum in St. Louis. Originally from Shenzhen, Guangdong, China, Emilia currently lives between Shenzhen and St. Louis.