H 246 cm × W 158 cm
Cotton threads
Xiaoshan Lace
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Multiple sizes
Cotton threads
Xiaoshan Lace
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Multiple sizes
Ikat thread
Xiaoshan Lace
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150 cm x 170 cm (each)
Threads, beads
Xiaoshan Lace
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Multiple sizes
Threads, beads
Xiaoshan Lace
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Multiple sizes
Threads
Xiaoshan Lace
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Multiple sizes
Fiber
Xiaoshan Lace, paper making
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W 800 cm × H 300 cm
Threads, video
Xiaoshan Lace
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H 60 cm × W 150 cm
Threads, video
Xiaoshan Lace
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406.4 cm × 254 cm
Silk, Ikat
Floor loom weaving
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254 cm × 203 cm
Silk, Ikat
Floor loom weaving
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Multiple sizes
Threads
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94 cm × 145 cm
Silk, Ikat
Floor loom weaving
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Multiple sizes
Jacquard weaving, TC 2
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Multiple works
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riverscichlids@gmail.com
Through techniques such as looping, crossing, gathering, and layering, her practice allows materials to convey narratives of labor, land, and the intergenerational movements of women. Her works often reveal traces of misalignment and repair, where memory, ecology, and cultural transitions converge in dynamic forms.
Rivers holds an M.F.A. from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and is pursuing a Ph.D. in Fine Arts at Tokyo University of the Arts. Her work has been exhibited internationally, including at the Art Institute of Chicago (AIC) and the University Art Museum in Tokyo, and has received support from the Ucross Foundation, Vermont Studio Center, CAMP, Sakata Orimono, and the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts.
Recently, she has been cultivating and processing plants and fibers with her family in Xiaoshan, while maintaining active collaboration with her multigenerational lace-making community.
Xiaoshan lace—an inheritance from four generations of women in my family—constitutes a critical foundation within this practice. It functions not as a subject of preservation, but as a structural grammar: a conceptual framework for examining interdependence, absence, and the politics of touch. I pursue the "trace of the trace"—the residual evidence that endures amidst archival fragmentation or the anonymization of labor—and interpret misalignment not as error, but as evidence: a register of handling, fatigue, reparation, and temporal passage.
Material research constitutes a core methodological approach. I consistently return to bast fibers, including hemp and linen, tracing their continuity from Neolithic fiber remnants to modern industrial textile systems. This material persistence serves as a mechanism for connecting histories that appear discontinuous: the intimate rhythms of domestic labor alongside the macro-scale forces of industrialization, migration, and territorial transformation.
My recent work expands into material reconstructions of memory through field observation. By tracking fissures, boundary edges, irrigation furrows, and pathways, I transcribe these territorial markers through the microscopic language of needlework. This process inverts conventional labor hierarchies by utilizing the 'soft' memory of interior spaces to reclaim and articulate the expansive, rugged archives of exterior landscapes. The resulting installations integrate fiber structures with archival imagery and moving image—monumental yet precarious—suspending narratives in tension while allowing certainty to unravel, drift, and dissipate.
PhD Candidate, Fine Arts specialized in Craft, Tokyo University of the Arts, Tokyo, Japan
2021-2023
MFA in Fiber & Material Studies, School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC), Chicago, IL, United States
2017-2020
BFA in Fiber, Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA), Baltimore, MD, United States
Research Student Program in Craft, Tokyo University of the Arts, Tokyo, Japan
2023
Correspondence course Certification (Online), Japan Handicraft Instructors’ Association, Tokyo, Japan
2023
Workshop in Papermaking, Penland School of Craft, Bakersville, NC, United States
2022
Workshop in Fiber, Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, Deer Isle, ME, United States
Studio Assistant for Diana Guerrero-Maciá, Chicago, IL, United States
2023
Studio Assistant for Kate Smith, Chicago, IL, United States
2023
Jacquard Assistant, Fiber and Material Studies Department, School of the Art Institute of Chicgao (SAIC), Chicago, IL, United States
2023
Teaching Assistant for Jacquard Class with Poppy DeltaDawn, School of the Art Intitute of Chicago (SAIC), Chicago, IL, United States
2023
Jacquard Assistant, Fiber and Material Studies Department, School of the Art Intitute of Chicago (SAIC), Chicago, IL, United States
2023
Research Assistant, Textile Resource Center, School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC), Chicago, IL, United States
2023
Lab Monitor, Fiber and Material Studies Department, School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC), Chicago, IL, United States
2021
Teaching Assistant for Advanced Woven Structure with Danielle Andress, School of the Art Intitute of Chicago (SAIC), Chicago, IL, United States
2021
Studio Assistant for artisan Fu Chunjiang, Xiaoshan Zhongyi Lace Company, Zhejiang, China
2020
Research volunteer for Project “Indigo Shade Map” with Rosa Chang, Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA), Baltimore, MD, United States
2020
Teaching Assistant for History of Textile with Julie Geschwind, Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA), Baltimore, MD, United States
(Solo) Thread’s Return along the Equinox, ARC Gallery, Chicago, IL, United States
2025
On Lost and Absence, Art Institute of Chicago (AIC), Chicago, IL, United States
2025
The Dyeing and Weaving Exhibition, Tokyo University of the Arts, Tokyo, Japan
2025
Art Venture Ehime Fes 2025, Art Venture Ehime Secretariat, Ehime, Japan
2025
(Solo) Between Patterns: The Language of Kasuri, Sakata Gallery, Fukuoka, Japan
2024
Gallery Opening and 2024 Counting Down Exhibition, Xiang Space, Ningbo, Zhejiang, China
2024
The Kanagawa Art Exhibition 2024, Kanagawa Prefectural Gallery, Kanagawa, Japan
2024
The Dyeing and Weaving Exhibition, Tokyo University of the Arts, Tokyo, Japan
2024
The Fourth China Japan Fiber Art Exhibition, Tokyo University of the Arts, Tokyo,Japan
2024
Elsewhere Dafu Store Opening Exhibit, DAFU Store, Tokyo, Japan
2023
(Solo) Tracing with the Thread - Lace on an Enclosed Tideland, SITE Gallery, Chicago, IL, United States
2023
Once: 2023 Annual Emerging Artist Exhibit, Cleve Carney Museum of Art, Glen Ellyn, IL, United states
2023
On Purple, London Art Collective Gallery, London, United Kingdom
2023
Unwinding / Unwound (Curator: Michelle Grabner, Chair of SAIC Painting Department), Research House for Asian Art, Chicago, IL, United States
2023
Graduate Exhibition II, SAIC Gallery, School of the Art Intitute of Chicago (SAIC), Chicago, IL, United States
2023
Creating Our Own Home, Gallery 1922, School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC), Chicago, IL, United States
2022
Grand Rising: On Feeling and Interbeing, SAIC Wellness Center, School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC), Chicago, IL, United States
2022
Graduate Exhibition, Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA), Baltimore, MD, United States
2021
NextGen 8.0, VisArts Center, Baltimore, MD, United States
Artist Talk, Thread’s Return along the Equinox, ARC Gallery, Chicago, IL, United States
2022
Artist Lecture, Flowing Ambivalence, Fiber and Materials Studies, School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC), Chicago, IL, United States
2021
Artist Lecture, Xiaoshan huabian-Lace, Fiber and Materials Studies, School of the Art Intitute of Chicago (SAIC), Chicago, IL, United States
2021
Artist Panel, VisArts Center, Baltimore, MD, United States
Xiaoshan Huabian Workshop, Tokyo University of the Arts, Tokyo, Japan
2024
Xiaoshan Huabian Workshop, Heritage Museum of Asian Art (HMAA), Chicago, IL, United States
2024
“Zha ran” Workshop, Heritage Museum of Asian Art (HMAA), Chicago, IL
2024
Xiaoshan Huabian Workshop, Fiber and Materials Studies Department, School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC), Chicago, IL, United States
(Coming) Vermont Studio Center Residency with VSC Fellowship, Johnson, VT, United States
2026
(Coming) Winter Residency with Fellowship, Penland School of Craft, Bakersville, NC, United States
2025
Banff 2025 Fall Artist Residency with Banff Centre Award, Banff, CA, Canada
2025
ATHENA FUND 2025 Awardees, ARC Gallery, Chicago, IL, United Stataes
2025
Kurume Kauri Residency, Sakata Orimono, Fukuoka, Japan
2025
Artist Residency with Fellowship, Ucross Foundation, Clearmont, WY, United States
2025
CAMP Open Grant, CAMP Residency, Aulus-les-Bains, France
2025
Takako Sano Student Scholarship, Glass Art Society, Seattle, WA, United States
2025
Workshop Financial Aid, Pilchuck Glass School, Stanwood, WA, United States
Nominator, 2024 Brandford Elliott Award, Textile Society of America, Millersville, MD, United States
2024
Outstanding Award, Cleve Carney Museum of Art, Glen Ellyn, IL, United States
2024
Novak Pekins Full Scholarship, Penland School of Craft, Bakersville, NC, United States
2022
Clay Morrison Scholarship, School of the Art Intitute of Chicago (SAIC), Chicago, IL, United States
2020
Lenore G. Tawney Foundation Scholarship, Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA),Baltimore, MD, United States
2019
International Outstanding Scholarship, Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA), Baltimore, MD, United States
2019
Drawing Department Scholarship, Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA), Baltimore, MD, United States
2017
Neil and Sayra Meyerhoff Scholarship, Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA), Baltimore, MD, United States
“Unwinding / Unwound Exhibition Spotlight” by Anne Skaug & Delaina Doshi, October 20, 2023
“Discover five new Chicagoland artists” by Xiao daCunha, October 27, 2023
“SAIC’s Graduate Exhibition Offers a Primer on Chicago’s Best Emerging Artists” by By Joe Rosenthal, May 19, 2023
“Xiaoshan Huabian and its cultivating stitches'” by Muran, May 11, 2023
Click to download: Portfolio_Rivers Qinnan Zhu 朱沁楠
Last Updated 2026.02.04
Distributed for the Art Institute of Chicago
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October 18, 2025 - November 3, 2025
Imambari City Hall, Ehime, Japan
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May 9, 2025 - July 9, 2025
Tokyo University of Arts, Tokyo, Japan
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September 4, 2024 - September 29, 2024
Kanakawa City Hall, Knanakawa, Japan
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August 21, 2024 - August 29, 2024
The University Art Museum, Tokyo University of the Arts, Tokyo, Japan
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2023
March 27, 2023 - April 28, 2023
SITE Gallery, Chicago, IL, United States
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August 1 2025 - August 29, 2025
ARC Gallery, Chicago, IL, United States
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