Yu-Chen Wang (TW/UK)
lives and works in London
The work of Yu-Chen Wang asks fundamental questions about human identity at a key point in history, where eco-systems and techno-systems have become inextricably intertwined. At the same time, her Taiwanese origins, combined with a London-based career, have created a vision that is personal and autobiographical.
Yu-Chen’s central practice is drawing, allowing her to explore and meditate on mechanical and biological forms, and the ways in which their bodily borderlines blur and mutate. From these extemporisations, she then finds collaborative routes that take her work into the realms of fictional text, provoking the subsequent production of sculptural installation, performance, music, and film, in various combinations.
When audiences encounter her work, they are not only encountering her art, but also entering her fictional narratives. The nature of these fictions frequently reaches back to the first great age of machines in the 19th century, but also asks audiences to stretch their imaginations forward to the furthest limits of current technology and planetary over-heating. Yu-Chen Wang is an artist for the future, with her feet planted in the present, on ground that covers relics from the past.
Yu-Chen has exhibited widely both in the UK and internationally. Her recent solo exhibitions include Full Circle, Danum Gallery, Library and Museum, Doncaster (2022); Yu-Chen Wang, Centre for Chinese Contemporary Art, Manchester (2016); Nostalgia for the Future, Yu-Chen Wang: An Introspective Retrospective, Taipei Fine Arts Museum (2016); Heart to Heart, Science and Industry Museum, Manchester (2016); This is the end…, Yeo Workshop, Singapore (2015). She was artist-in-residence at Taipei Artist Village (2019); Grand Union, Birmingham (2018); Metal, Liverpool (2017); Seoul Museum of Art (2017); Drawing Room, London (2016-17); Science and Industry Museum, Manchester (2015); Treasure Hill Artist Village, Taipei (2014); Centre for Chinese Contemporary Art, Manchester (2011).
She has exhibited in numerous group shows, including Drawing Room, London (2021, 2019, 2017); Kumu Art Museum, Tallinn (2020); MOCA Taipei (2020); Science Gallery Dublin (2020); National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Taichung (2020); iMAL,Brussels (2020); Science Gallery London (2019); FACT, Liverpool (2018, 2017); Manchester Art Gallery, Manchester (2016); Taipei Biennial (2014); Hayward Gallery, London (2014, 2012); Art Lending Library, Glasgow International (2012); Cornerhouse, Manchester (2011); TÜYAP Istanbul Art Fair-ARTIST 2010, Turkey (2010); Gallerie Onno van Toor, Rotterdam (2009); Barbican Centre (2008); FRAC Nord-Pas de Calais, France (2007); Galerie L'Oeil de Poisson, Quebec City (2007); Institute of Contemporary Arts, London (2006); Camden Arts Centre, London (2006).
As part of the Collide International Awards, a partnership programme between Arts at CERN and FACT, her work is currently shown in touring exhibitions at FACT, Liverpool; CCCB, Barcelona; iMAL, Brussels; National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Taichung; Kumu, Tallinn; Le Lieu Unique, Nantes (2018-2021). Forthcoming projects include Arts Council England funded residency at Metal, Peterborough (2022) and artist book Yu-Chen Wang (2023).
Yu-Chen Wang is Associate Lecturer in BA and MA Drawing at Camberwell College, University of Arts London. Previously she has delivered lectures and talks at Falmouth university, Cornwall; National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei; Liverpool John Moore University, Liverpool; University of Lancaster, Lancaster; National Taipei University of Education, Taipei; University for the Creative Arts, Canterbury; National Cheng Kung University, Tainan; Wimbledon College of Arts, UAL, London; College of Arts, University of Lincoln, Lincoln; Lasalle College of the Arts, Singapore.
Emotionarama 2020
Published by Slimvolume; distributed by Cornerhouse Publications
Quantum: In search of the invisible 2019
Published by CCCB and Direcció de Comunicació de la Diputació de Barcelona
30 Years of CFCCA 2016
Published by Centre for Chinese Contemporary Art, Manchester; distributed by Cornerhouse Publications
Return From Voluntary Exile: Yu-Chen Wang talks to White Fungus 2016
Published on the occasion of Nostalgia for the Future, solo show at Taipei Fine Arts Museum
The Song of the Machines 2012
Published by Centre for Chinese Contemporary Art, Manchester; distributed by Cornerhouse Publications