Van Duren’s scavenging adventures started alongside her mother on the streets of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where they were frequently on the hunt for useable furniture. Van Duren continues to search her Oakland California neighborhood for any item that she can transform. She strips away the intended use of her found materials, recreating abstract forms, intersecting them with vinyl bags and glycerin soap, that when manipulated, results in twisted mysterious liquid forms, alluding to flesh and bones. Her passion for experimenting with everyday materials has been influenced by the viscerous work of Eva Hesse, Doris Salcedo and Arte Povera.

Van Duren’s work has been shown throughout California and the U.S. She is one of the founding members of Mercury 20 Gallery, situated in the Oakland Art Murmur district. She received her BFA in drawing from Carnegie Mellon University and completed her MFA in sculpture at San Francisco State University in 2017. Van Duren teaches sculpture at City College of San Francisco and is a guest lecturer teaching drawing and ceramics at multiple community colleges in the SF bay area.