Many Moons ©Alison Chen

The moon in Alison Chen’s work can be a cold mirror or a guiding light for navigating lineage and acts of mothering. Against warm yellow and silvery blue gallery walls, The Tenderness of Tides at Filter Photo unfolds as you feel the pull of invisible forces. Ancestors leave traces, even when cut from the scene. Gestures of care are caught in her images and Chen’s sensitive use of light seems to reach longingly into time. Small spotlights cast archival images in warm glows. A projection animates a vintage portrait as a hand moves in to gently cradle the cheek, then across the mouth as if to silence it. In a looping video, her young child paints over Chen’s self-portrait, obliterating her image. Presence and absence flicker throughout Alison Chen’s movingly realized interventions.

The Tenderness of Tides at Filter Photo, 2025 ©Alison Chen

Family Ghosts, Scenes ©Alison Chen

Ngoi Po and Me ©Alison Chen

If She Could Speak, She Would Sing ©Alison Chen

Family Jewels ©Alison Chen

Sun Over Mom ©Alison Chen

A Hole to the Water ©Alison Chen

In Great Grandmother’s Vest ©Alison Chen

Family Ghosts, Arrangement 1 ©Alison Chen

Family Ghosts, Arrangement 2 ©Alison Chen

Family Ghosts, Arrangement 3 ©Alison Chen

The gravitational relationship between Moon and Earth parallels the dynamics of the bond between mother and offspring; it is a force that endures throughout the lifetime of both, and reverberates long after one of them is gone. Tides are determined by the Moon’s pull, as its gravity tugs at Earth, shifting its mass and distorting its shape ever so slightly. The pull is strongest on the points closest to the Moon and weakest on the points farthest away, but every single bit of water is affected.

In The Tenderness of Tides, curated by María Sprowls-Cervantes, Alison Chen explores water and its relationship to the moon’s gravitational pull—the magic of invisible forces that dictate the rhythm of the ocean. Such a relationship is perceived and manifested by Chen as both cosmic and intimate, a dance that has existed long before us, and will continue long afterwards.

This body of work began as an organic documentation of Chen’s daily experiences in motherhood and greatly expanded when she found a photograph of her maternal grandmother as a new mother holding her newborn daughter. The photograph was rediscovered upon her grandmother’s death at the end of 2019. On that same trip, she heard her mother’s last words to her own mother, who lay cold on the mortician’s table. Knowing the tenuousness of their relationship and gazing upon this celebratory image taken during her traditional Chinese one-month celebration, the artist wondered: “How do we learn what mothering should look like? How does our own generational and cultural trauma factor into our ideas of what it means to care for our children?”

Like the tides, Chen frequently finds herself pulled by forces in her own motherhood journey that are invisible and lay beneath the surface—the residual and inherited trauma of generations past. The artist exists in a constant navigation between her personal beliefs, experiences, and the historical hardships of the past.

L to R: Ngoi Po and Me, I want to hear the waves, and A Hole to the Water from The Tenderness of Tides at Filter Photo, 2025 ©Alison Chen

Unrest Wall from The Tenderness of Tides at Filter Photo, 2025 ©Alison Chen

About the Artist

Alison Chen (she/her b. 1986, New York City) is a visual artist working in photography, video, and performance. She received her M.F.A. from Parsons School of Design and her B.F.A from Cornell University. Chen’s work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, including at the Torrance Art Museum (Torrance, CA) and the CUE Art Foundation (New York, NY). She was a shortlisted artist for the Discovery Award at Jimei x Arles International Photo Festival. Her practice has been recognized by fellowships and residencies at the Wassaic Project and Kala Art Institute. Chen has also had the honor to study under the direction of Magnum photographer Antoine d’Agata. She currently lives and works in Los Angeles, CA.

https://alisonchen.com/

Instagram: @_alisonchen

About the Curator

María Sprowls-Cervantes (she/her b. 1985, Mexico City) is a Mexican-born New York-based visual artist and independent curator. She holds an M.F.A. in Photography from Parsons School of Design and a B.A. in Communication Arts focused on Semiotics. She has participated in artistic residencies under the mentorship of Antoine d’Agata at Atelier de Visu in Marseille, France and under Marina Abramović’s Cleaning the House workshop in Upstate New York.

María has worked closely and at length with artists as Studio Manager to Lawrence Weiner and Press Director to Marina Abramović. She worked as Exhibitions & Programming Manager at Fotografiska New York, continuing to work directly with artists such as Miles Aldridge, Larry Fink, Andrés Serrano, Anders Petersen, the Ruth Orkin Archive, among many others. Inspired by her years of experience directly working with artists and with photography, María founded Atelier Cervantes, a curatorial & arts consulting laboratory based in New York City.