artist statement - Leigh Wen
My paintings express my personal and cultural histories. Having grown up on the island of Taiwan, I have a deep affinity for the elemental power of water and the forces of nature. As a Chinese now living in America, I feel the ebb and flow of competing cultures. The ancient philosophies of my homeland, which teach self-discipline and selflessness, collide and mingle with Western notions of ego, alienation, and desire.
My working method is a process of subtraction from darkness to light. I carved into the paint with a stylus to bring forth the individual lines that are the central motif of my work. These lines flow across the canvas in rhythms and frequencies that create depths and swells on the painted surface. Something of the self is lost in the resulting tangle, then regained, only to be lost again. Simplicity and harmony exist within the chaos of the world.
Color is used to expand the work's emotional range; my palette is drawn not from appearances but from the lyric and psychic necessities of my art. The uniformity of line, from edge to edge and painting to painting, implies a suppression of the artist's hand in favor of an objectivity learned from nature. In spite of this, the work remains deeply autobiographical.
I had completed a series of monumental paintings of the four elements of Western cosmology. I have completed Water (10' X 50') , Fire (10'X30'), Earth ( 10' X 30') , and Air (10'X 30'). Each large painting employed some variation of my essential wave
motif( ); the completed series will constitute a comprehensive whole that will explore the infinite and the universal.
My work in several different media, including printmaking, ceramics and engraving. Though my paintings are completed entirely with oil on canvas, they retain elements of these other mediums, in particular the scored and scratched textures of the intaglio plate and the engraved surface. In a sense, these borrowings also express the tension and richness of simultaneously inhabiting two different worlds, where both, as Joyce wrote in Ulysses carve their "persevering penetrativeness" into my psyche.
EDUCATION:
1994 M.F.A. University at Albany, State University of New York, Albany, NY
1985 M.A. University at Albany, State University of New York, Albany, NY
1984 B.F.A. Washington State University, WA
1981 National College of Art, Taipei, Taiwan
HONORS AND AWARDS
2006 United States Department of State, Art in Embassies Program, Hong-Kong
2006 Taiwan President Office, Contemporary Ceramics Program, Taiwan
2006 United States Department of State, Art in Embassies Program, Botswana
2006 United States Department of State, Art in Embassies Program, Barbados
2005 Artist Grant, Pollock-Krasner Foundation, NY, NY
2003 Art in Embassies, Manila, the Philippines
2003 Art in Embassies, Singapore
2001 Fourth Place in Painting, Lorezo Il Magnifico Award. The Biennial Internationale
De ll’ Arte Contemporanea in Florence, IT.
The Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Florence,Italy
2001 Sotheby’s -New York Foundation for theArtsFellows’ exhibition , NY,NY
2000 Helena Rubinstein Fellow, The Helena Rubinstein Foundation, NY, NY
2000 Artist Fellowship, New York Foundation for the Arts, NY, NY
1999 Artist Grant, Pollock-Krasner Foundation, NY, NY
1999 Art in Embassies. United States Embassy in Amman, Jordan.
1998 Artist Award, New York State Assembly, Albany/Schenectady League of Arts.
1998 Juror’s Award, Gazette Newspaper Award.
Purchase Award, Albany Institute of History & Art.
Artists of the Mohawk Hudson Region Juried Exhibition, Schenectady Museum.
1998 New York State Biennial, New York State Museum, Albany, NY.
1997 Artist Fellowship, New York Foundation for the Arts, New York.
People’s Choice Award, University at Albany.
1996 Artist Grant, National Taiwan Art and Humanity Foundation, Taiwan.
Mohawk-Hudson Invitational Exhibit, Albany Center Galleries, Albany, NY.
Artist Grant NYFA/RCCA.
1995 University at Albany Purchase Award, Artists of the Mohawk-Hudson Region Exhibition.
Purchase Award, University of Wisconsin – Parkside, Kenosha, WI.
1980 Outstanding Merit, Festival of Youth and Arts, Young Artists in Asia Now Competition.
1979 First Prize in Painting, Republic of China Second Ten Outstanding Young Talents.
SOLO EXHIBITIONS:
2007 Allen Shepard Gallery, New York, NY
2007 Glass Garage Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2007 Red Door Gallery, Richmond, VA
2006 Howard Salon, Taipei, Taiwan
2006 Carla Massoni Gallery,Chestertown, MD
2005 The Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, OH
2005 Jacqueline Casey Hudgens Center for Arts, Atlanta, GA
2003 Scott White Contemporary Art, La Jolla, CA
2001 Reed Gallery, Atlanta, GA
2000 The Conclusion of Pollock-Krasner Artist Grant, Arnot Art Museum, Elmira, NY.
2000 The Four Elements, Lung Men Art Gallery, Taipei, Taiwan
1998 Water vs. Fire, Albany Center Galleries, Albany, NY.
Water vs. Fire, Lung Men Art Gallery, Taipei, Taiwan.
1997 The Harbour and the Open Seas, Artemisia Gallery, Chicago, IL.
The Harbour and the Open Seas, Yates Art Gallery, Siena College, Loudonville, NY
1996 The Harbour and the Open Seas, Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taipei, Taiwan
The Harbour and the Open Seas, Lung Men Art Gallery, Taipei, Taiwan.
The Harbour and the Open Seas, Albany Center Galleries, Albany, NY.
GROUP SHOWS
2002-6 Art in Embassies Program, the Philippines, Jordan, Singapore, Barbados, China, and
Moscow, United States Department of State, USA
2006 Taiwan president Office, Taipei, Taiwan
2006 2 X 13 Gallery, NY, NY
2006 Allen Sheppard Gallery, NY, NY2005 Academy Art Museum, Easton, MD
2005 Taipei Fine Art Museum, Taipei, Taiwan
2005 Carla Massoni Gallery, Chestertown, MD
2004 Mendenhall Sobieski Gallery, Pasadena, CA
2004 Contemporary Art Center of Virginia, Virginia Beach,VA
2004 John Pence Gallery/ Arnot Art Museum, San Francisco, CA
2002 Scott White Contemporary Art, CA
2002 Beyond the Landscape, University of California, San Diego, University Gallery, CA
2001 Sotheby’s- New York Foundation for the Arts Fellow Exhibition, NY, NY
2001 Florence Biennale, Florence , Italy
2001 Re-presenting Representation, Corning Incorporated Gallery, New York, NY
2000 Zone of Myth: Between Tenderness and Tension, Taipei Fine Art Museum, Taipei, Taiwan
1999 Visions of Pluralism, Contemporary Art in Taiwan, National Taipei History Museum, Taipei, Taiwan
1999 Two Person Show, Art Music Dance, The Art Center Gallery, Saragtoga Springs, NY
1999 Arnot Art Museum, Re-presenting Representation IV Exhibition, Biennial, Elmira, NY
1997 Albany Institute of History & Art, Albany, NY
1996 10th Parkside National Small Print Exhibition, University of Wisconsin.
First Annual National Juried Small Works, Chuck Levitan Gallery, NY.
Small Works International, Amos Eno Gallery, NY. Juror: Beth Venn.
Large Small Work ’95 International, Slowinski Gallery, NY.
National Work on Paper Exhibition, St. John’s University, NY.
9th Parkside National Small Print Exhibition, University of Wisconsin-Parkside,
1995 Indiana University, Bloomington, IN.
Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY.
1994 University Art Museum, University at Albany, SUNY, Albany, NY.
Russell Sage College Gallery, Troy, NY.
1985 University Art Museum, University at Albany, SUNY, Albany, NY.
PUBLICATIONS
A Collaboration Between Chen-Long Lin and Leigh L. Wen
---Turbulent Sea Rouses Slumering Earth
Earth, Fire, Air, and Water,2000, Lung Men Art Gallery
The Harbour and the Open Seas, 1996, Taipei Fine Arts Museum
Leigh Li-Yun Wen Prints and Drawings, 1995
COLLECTIONS
Eileen Mason, Deputy of National Endowments of the Arts
United States Department of State, Art in Embassies Program
Butler Institute of American Art
Freshens Inc. Atlanta, GA
Siena College, NY
Albany Institute of History & Art, NY
University at Albany, State University of New York,NY
University of Wisconsin, Parkside, WI
Art Pool, Budapest, Hungary
Phoenix Life Insurance Company, CT
National Taiwan College of Art, Taiwan
Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Museum, Taipei, Taiwan
Bullard, McLeod and Associates,Albany, NY
& over 100 private collections
JOURNALS AND MAGAZINES
Water Front Home and Design, Fall 2005
Art News 2001, Summer edition
Vision of Pluralism, Contemporary Art in Taiwan, 1988-1999, Mountain Art Museum
New American Paintings, Number 14, The Open Studio Press, February 19
Taipei Art Fair 1997 International
Asian Art News, Vol. 8, No. 2, March/April 1998
Chinese Art News, April 1998
Modern Art Bi-monthly, No. 64, 1996, Taipei Fine Art Museum
ARCH, August 1998, No. 103
Dialogue, April 1998, No. 013
Vogue, April 1998
Harper’s Bazaar, April 1998, No.100
VIVI Magazine, April 1998
Unitas, September 1998, No. 167
Gleaners, June 1996
Natural Beauty, June 1996
Better Home and Gardens, Building Ideas, Winter 2000
REVIEWS
Art in America, May, 2006
Artco, Asia, 2006
Piedmont Review, Atlanta, GA
Atlanta Journa-Constitutionl, March 6, 2004, GA
Art News, Summer edition 2001
Art News, May 2000
Chicago Reader, May 23, 1997
Metroland, Albany, New York, September 18, 1997.;June 19, 1997; May 17, 1997
The Times Union, Albany, New York, May 1996; April 1999; June 1999; March 2001
The Daily Gazette, Schenectady, New York, May 8, 1997
Portland Phoenix, Jan 2000 and more.