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I-Yen Chen

Born 1990 Taipei, currently based in Freiburg, Germany.


 

We are soft, but so is our world.
As an artist, Chen is taken and moved by both the fragility of lives and the instability of the environment around us. Through her art, Chen explores the relationship between people and the spaces they inhabit, mapping underlying and neglected “landscapes:” these are terrains of emotion, politics, and memory, as well as earth. Through multi-media and installations, she seeks to present landscapes not as eternal or objective, but as a reflection of human memory and dreams. Chen believes that it is through the unending transformation of this multi-layered space that we settle in, and find affinity with, the world around us. Though she uses an array of media, the fragility and ruggedness of ceramics match well with her current creative approach. Her recent practice both deepens and transforms earlier concerns: borders, senses, and the “metaphorical landscape.” Beginning with a visual experience mesmerized by surface reflections, Chen explores deep into the borders of everyday life created through each tactile experience and its relationship to the visual. Thus, she aims to investigate a dependent yet conflicting relationship between humans and their surroundings.

Since 2016, Chen has been working as a professional artist between Melbourne, Australia and Taipei, Taiwan.

In 2021, Chen relocated to Freiburg, Germany. 

CV

EDUCATION


2016      Master of Contemporary Art
             Victorian College of the Arts, University of Melbourne
2014      Bachelor of Arts
             History department, National Taiwan University

 

EXHIBITIONS

 

2022      Wild Wild Kept − Solo Exhibition by I-Yen Chen, Jing Lü Gallery, Taipei, Taiwan

2021       2021 Taiwan Annual, Online EXOP, Taiwan


2020      Young Art Kaohsiung, Pier-2 Art Center, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
             
              ART TAIPEI 2020, Taipei World Trade Center Exhibition Hall 1, Taipei, Taiwan              
             The Art of Transformation, National Taiwan Craft Research and Development Institute, Nantou, Taiwan

2019      Crossing Pain and Intimate Memories, Firstdraft, Sydney, Australia
             A State of Obscurity, XPO, Enschede, the Netherlands
             The Union Art Collection: Recent acquisitions 2016-18, George Paton Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
2018      RIFTS: Particulate Matter, Testing Ground, Melbourne, Australia
             Shall We Have Some Tea…, May Tr.IPP Event, Transit Dance Studio, Melbourne, Australia
             Point Cook Unknown, Point Cook Pop Up Park Pilot, Melbourne, Australia
2017      When Lands Float like Memory, Saltwater Community Center, Point Cook, Melbourne, Australia
             Moreland Summer Show: Noel Counihan Commemorative Award, Counihan Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
             Shall We Have Some Tea…, The Ownership Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
             In the Creases of Time, Red Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
             Changing Places, Linden New Art, Melbourne, Australia
2016      VCA Art Masters Exhibition, 2016, Victorian College of the Arts, Melbourne, Australia
             The Union Collection: Recent Acquisitions 2012-2016, George Paton Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
             
- nibble, erosion, eclipse, Fringe Festival, Chinese Museum, Melbourne, Australia
             None of us are in here, VCA Student Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
             
流水環石 Flowing Water, Bordered Stones, George Paton Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
2015      The 2015 Mary & Lou Senini Student Art Award exhibition, McClelland Sculpture Park and Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
             Joy to the Other World, VCA Student Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
             Within/ Without, VCA Student Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
             A Hundred Years of Landscape, Out-door exhibition, Jia-Yi, Taiwan

ARTIST RESIDENCY


2019      ARE (Artist Residency Enschede), Enschede, Netherland, April- June 2019
2018      Cloud Forest Collective Artist in Residence, October 2018 to May 2019
2017      Saltwater Artist in Residence - Wyndham Art Spaces, July to September, 2017
             High school Art Mentoring and Education Program, Point Cook High school, Coordinated by University of Melbourne and VCA

 

AWARDS & COLLECTION


2017      Noel Counihan Commemorative Award, Finalist, Melbourne
2016      Nomination of the Visual Art Award, Melbourne Fringe Festival, 2016
              (https://melbournefringe.com.au/news/story/visual-art-and-words-and-ideas-award-nominees-announced)
             Private Collection
             George Paton Gallery Collection
             UMSU Creative Arts Grant, 2016

2015      The 2015 Mary & Lou Senini Student Art Award for Ceramics, Finalist, Melbourne

PUBLICATION & INTERVIEW


2018      Exhibition Review by Jessica Williams on Art+Australia online:
              http://www.artandaustralia.com/online/discursions/utterance-sugar-and-plastics
2017      Exhibition report by the LIMINAL Magazine
              https://www.liminalmag.com/blog/shall-we
              ABC interview about exhibition “Shall we have some tea…” with Jonathan Green
              http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/drawingroom/history-and-culture-in-a-cup-of-tea/8652570
2016      Exhibition reports by the Melbourne Chinese Museum:
              http://chinesemuseum.com.au/meet-artists-behind-%E8%9D%95%EF%BC%8Dnibble-erosion-eclipse/
              http://chinesemuseum.com.au/opening-party-%E8%9D%95%EF%BC%8Dnibble-erosion-eclipse/
              http://chinesemuseum.com.au/%E8%9D%95%EF%BC%8Dnibble-erosion-eclipse-extended-31-october/
              Triple J interview with Stacy Gougoulis
              ABC interview with Hilary Harper
              RRR Radio interview with Richard Watts
              Vision Australia Phone interview : www.rphadelaide.org.au/links/VE.mp3
                                                          http://www.rphadelaide.org.au/links/FP.mp3

 

 

COMMUNITY ACTIVITIES
 

2107      Mapping Point Cook, Melbourne
              Studio Open day, Brunswick, Melbourne
2016      The Sensory Tour, George Paton Gallery, Chinese Museum, Melbourne
2014      The Dining Table in the Field, Yi-Lan, Hua-Lian, Jia-Yi, Taiwan
              Series of artistic cooperations with an agricultural social enterprise.
2013      Eyes of the Tribe, Taitung, Taiwan
              Interactive Photography program designed with children in Wulu aboriginal tribe.

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