Chen Wei

1980 China     Biography

In the artist’s statement from her 2009 solo exhibition, The Bird’s Eye, Chen Wei made an annotation for her artistic presentation approach – she touches the world in a visual way. Regardless painting, montage or installation artworks, as a young artist engaging in multi-media creation, Chen shows dexterousness in using different kinds of materials with a strong personal style. Such impression should come from the vivid “handmade” presentation in her artworks, in which during the interactive process between materials and artist’s hands, personal response toward the external reality is directly written and preserved in the work. The downcast and obscured color tone and the fragile and dilapidated texture speak out a sense of withering in time. The soul of objects is dissociated and absent, which highlights the short and yet fugitive essence of life. In form, the dry brushstroke is very similar to the free stroke style in traditional Chinese ink brush painting and full of the desolate quality of landscape scrolls in Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368). The birds and animals by Chen are like monitored prisoners, which become implication for artist herself. It reminds viewers of those faces by Marlene Dumas (1953-) which often present the intension when fate confronting domination and manipulation. Chen also grows profound sentiments on daily life objects in her youth. Carton is the material she prefers. Layers of processed texture deliver the artist’s complicated sentiments; plentiful layers interweaving together breed live strength inside them.

Past Exhibitions at Gallery100：
2014 ART TAIPEI
Horse Riders
See You Somewhere Sometime
Memo to the Unknown