GALLERIES | ARTISTS
JU Ming, LEE Chung-Chung, YEH Tzu-Chi, SHEN Qin, BU Zi, DONG Shaw-Hwei, LI Chen, Tobe Kiu Sin KAN, Bernar Venet, David Brian Smith, Charlotte Keates
INDIGENOUS ART | ARTISTS
Etan Pavavalung, Eleng Luluan, Tuan Mu, Ali Istanda
SVIP Preview
Oct 29 (Thu) 12:00 – 20:00
VIP Preview
Oct 29 (Thu) 15:00 – 21:00
Oct 30 (Fri) 11:00 – 14:00
Public Access
Oct 30 (Fri) 14:00 – 19:00
Oct 31 (Sat) 11:00 – 19:00
Nov 01 (Sun) 11:00 – 19:00
Nov 02 (Mon) 11:00 – 18:00
Asia Art Center will present works by eleven artists from Taiwan and abroad at Booth D01 in the Galleries section of ART TAIPEI 2026, including JU Ming (Taiwan, 1938–2023), Bernar Venet (France, b. 1941), LEE Chung-Chung (Taiwan, b. 1942), YEH Tzu-Chi (Taiwan/USA, b. 1957), SHEN Qin (China, b. 1958), BU Zi (Taiwan, 1959–2013), DONG Shaw-Hwei (Taiwan, b. 1962), LI Chen (Taiwan, b. 1963), David Brian Smith (UK, b. 1981), Tobe Kiu Sin KAN (Hong Kong, b. 1984), and Charlotte Keates (UK, b. 1990). In addition, Asia Art Center continues its collaboration with the Taiwan Art Gallery Association and the Indigenous Peoples Cultural Development Center in participating in the Indigenous Art section at Booth S01. Curated by Manray HSU under the title Flowers on the Fault Line, the presentation brings together four artists from different generations: Etan Pavavalung (b. 1963), Eleng Luluan (b. 1968), Tuan Mu (b. 1994), and Ali Istanda (b. 2000). Encompassing weaving, carving, printmaking, AI-generated imagery, and digital art, their works address the cultural ruptures and processes of cultural revitalization experienced by contemporary Indigenous communities amid capitalism and modernization.
At its main presentation in Booth D01, Asia Art Center draws upon its longstanding engagement with modern Chinese art and sculpture to explore how artists across generations approach form, space, and spirituality. JU Ming's Taichi Series—Arch captures the movement of qi (vital energy) in Tai Chi through abstract sculptural forms, while Living World Series—Ballet translates the extension of the human body and the shifting center of gravity in dance into sculptural balance. His works are also currently featured in the 2026 Changwon Sculpture Biennale in South Korea. LI Chen's distinctive black sculptures create a compelling tension between weight and weightlessness, reflecting contemporary considerations of life, the body, and spiritual space. Entering the World employs the imagery of a bodhisattva and an infant to contemplate the meaning of entering earthly existence, drawing connections between reincarnation, destiny, and engagement with the world. Floating Light, inspired by the Buddhist verse "A thousand rivers hold a thousand moons; beneath a cloudless sky, the heavens stretch endlessly," transforms the reflection of moonlight on water through the relationship between the sculpture and its base, lending a sense of movement to an otherwise static form. Meanwhile, Li Chen: A New Eastern Spirit—Genuine and Otherworldly, co-organized by Gana Art Center and Asia Art Center, is currently on view in Seoul.
French conceptual artist Bernar Venet employs lines, mathematics, and geometry as the foundations of his artistic language. The presentation will feature works including 222.5° Arc × 5 and Vertical Disorder: 11 Arcs, exploring the transformations of scale, weight, and spatial relationships that emerge when precisely calculated arcs and angles move from two-dimensional planes into three-dimensional space. Concurrently, Asia Art Center's Taipei gallery is presenting BERNAR VENET: Indeterminate Radicality, the artist's first solo exhibition in Taiwan. Featuring sculptures and works on paper created over the past two decades, the exhibition includes several newly completed works from 2026, presented publicly for the first time.
A reconsideration of Eastern culture and artistic traditions also runs through the practices of several participating artists. Rooted in the traditions of Chinese painting and calligraphy, LEE Chung-Chung moves beyond established conventions to expand the possibilities of ink painting through a highly personal perspective. SHEN Qin employs a restrained, ethereal, and almost silent ink language to evoke the contemporary literati spirit and inner landscapes. His work is currently featured in a joint exhibition with CHEN Qi at Asia Art Center's Beijing gallery. Drawing on the tradition of wild cursive calligraphy, Bu Zi developed his distinctive Rotational Calligraphy, transforming calligraphy from the writing of characters into a contemporary expression of line, rhythm, and bodily movement.
Through his longstanding exploration of egg tempera and oil painting techniques, YEH Tzu-Chi meticulously captures shifting light and shadow in natural landscapes, conveying a profound sense of inner tranquility. Since the late 1990s, DONG Shaw-Hwei has gradually developed a more subjective and introspective pictorial language. Her Old Courtyard series, presented at this year's fair, draws upon familiar scenes of everyday life, depicting courtyards, plants, and domestic surroundings to construct quiet, contemplative spaces.
In the realm of international contemporary painting, David Brian Smith translates family memories and cultural inheritance onto canvas, revisiting his personal and familial history through painting. Drawing inspiration from interior design, travel, and architectural structures, Charlotte Keates incorporates natural elements into modernist-inspired interiors, creating visual experiences in which architecture and nature intersect, blurring the boundaries between the real and the imagined. Tobe Kan navigates the space between reality and dreams, drawing upon personal experience and psychological states to investigate memory, perception, and the intricate relationships of cause and effect that underlie them.
Across generations and geographical boundaries, these artists explore nature, everyday life, memory, and inner perception, revealing the multiple connections between individuals and their surrounding environments. Together, their works resonate with Symbiosis, the central theme of this year's fair.
At Booth S01, the Indigenous Art section presents Flowers on the Fault Line, curated by Manray HSU. Drawing upon Indigenous lived experiences, historical transformations, and cultural resilience, the exhibition examines the continuity and regeneration of cultural traditions through contemporary artistic practices.
Born into a family of Paiwan artisans (Pulima), Etan Pavavalung has developed a distinctive mixed-media practice of pattern-based point painting, building upon his longstanding exploration of a visual system combining patterns, carving, and drawing. Deeply informed by his mother's words and teachings, his work draws upon traditional visual systems and craftsmanship to seek coexistence and reconciliation with nature.
Eleng Luluan, from the Rukai community of Kucapungane (Old Haocha), is known for her intricate and richly colored weaving techniques. Through these woven compositions, she traces intimate pathways of memory and searches for an ancestral homeland to which return has become increasingly difficult. Her practice has long engaged with cultural loss, colonial trauma, contemporary ecological imbalance, and reflections on personal experience.
Tuan Mu, from the Siraya community of Kabua Sua Tribe, often takes Buddhist and Taoist philosophy, East Asian animist beliefs, and mythological narratives as points of departure. Combining artificial intelligence, virtual reality, animation, sound performance, ink painting, and calligraphy, the artist constructs interdisciplinary narrative structures that traverse different media and systems of thought.
Ali Istanda, an artist of Bunun heritage, specializes in translating memories of the land through printmaking. As a member of a younger generation of artists, Ali approaches cultural heritage with an open and exploratory perspective, intuitively transforming personal reflections and interpretations of culture into artworks that offer new understandings of time, space, and lived experience.
This year marks Asia Art Center's third consecutive participation in the seventh edition of the Indigenous Art section through its collaborative exhibition initiative. By connecting its two presentations at Booth D01 in the Galleries section and Booth S01 in the Indigenous Art section, Asia Art Center continues its longstanding commitment to Asian modern and contemporary art. Through a cross-cultural perspective, the gallery invites audiences to explore how art connects tradition, modernity, and contemporary life.
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