Aileen Khuu
Aileen Khuu (b. 2004) is a multidisciplinary artist based in Dallas, Texas, primarily working with paper-mache clay. She earned her BFA in Studio Arts from the University of North Texas in 2025. During undergrad, she was actively involved in the Denton art community through art organizations such as Greater Denton Arts Council, the Denton Maker Center, and The Art Room. In these spaces, she supported studio operations and fellow artists by sharing her skills, running workshops, and promoting local art events. Since graduating, Aileen has expanded her presence into the Dallas–Fort Worth arts community. She is currently a member of the McDermott Fellows Cohort 2, works at the Dallas Museum of Art, and continues to exhibit throughout the DFW metroplex.
My work uses rocks, collected since childhood, as a source of comfort to explore how trauma reshapes memory. Growing up in a negligent household, these overlooked rocks became symbols of comfort and self reflection as they echo my own experiences of neglect. These rocks, primarily made of paper pulp, also reference erosion as a metaphor for healing and growth. By breaking down paper into pulp and making it whole again with the fragments of its original self, the work reflects this emotional process of unbecoming and rebecoming. Just as a stone is shaped through pressure, trauma can make a person a more resilient version of themselves.
Each recreation also mirrors the way memories are not fixed, but are constantly reshaped with each recollection. Despite each sculpture recreating a specific rock, it will never be the exact same in the same way that memories constantly change each time they are recalled. Through this labor of love, each rock acts as a way to care for my past self and reshape painful memories recalled in the process.