Ballon Rouge is pleased to present a solo exhibition of works by Taiwan-born, Ghent-based artist Pei-Hsuan Wang at Art Brussels 2023. Wang has exhibited work at the Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Hong-Gah Museum, Taipei, and the National Gallery of Indonesia, among others. Recent solo exhibitions include Ghost Eat Mud at Kunsthal Gent, Ghent (2022), I've Left My Body to Occupy Others at Good Weather, Chicago (2020), For Iris at Gallery 456, New York (2020), and You Are My Sunshine at Taipei Contemporary Art Center (2019). She has a forthcoming solo with Ballon Rouge in September of this year.
For Art Brussels she has titled her presentation “Statues of Asking.” As is typical of Wang’s works, her practice is rooted in ways of engaging with her identity. Much of this centers on her and her family's diasporic migration from Taiwan to the US. Her work also explores her relationship with the women in her life; takes inspiration from ancient Chinese and East Asian myths and folklore, and plays with the idea of shapeshifting. From her grandmother, the matriarch of the family, whose fruit farm in Taiwan becomes a metaphor for propagation and nurturing in her work - to the relationship she has with her niece Iris, who is first generation Taiwanese-American and biracial - with an East Asian mother and white father. In Wang’s work Iris becomes a kind of doppelganger to the artist as well as a representation of the relationship between whiteness and desirability, and whiteness as aspiration.
The intricate drawings on paper that will be presented come from her drawing series titled Miniatures which solicits an allegorical reading. Recurring central figures include the artist and her niece Iris, featured conducting ambiguous activities and accompanied by mystical objects and creatures in magnificent settings. Multi-point perspective suggests nonlinear plotlines, convoluted by decorative layering of details and symbols. Then there is the drawing titled Hounds of Love, a reference to shapeshifting and self-portraiture, and Mother and Lychee Tree, a tribute to her mother and her grandmother, and her matrilineal heritage. Her family becomes mythical, symbolic.
Then there are five sculptures presented atop their crates. These sculptures, Statue of Asking: Threshold Guardian I & II, Turtle (Tortoise Who Held Up the Sky), Rabbit, and Monkey, are representative of her parsing of folklore, morphologies, shapeshifting, symbolism, and metaphors - each with their own specific references and stories. For example, Turtle (Tortoise Who Held Up the Sky) is an homage to the giant tortoise in the myth Nuwa Mending The Sky, a story in which the tortoise lifted up the sky with his legs. When viewed with Rabbit, it harkens to the story of The Tortoise and the Hare. And additionally, when viewed with Monkey, alludes to the Filipino folktale The Monkey and the Turtle. They rest on their crates as a representation of a sense of (transnational) movement and in-transit-ness, paired with a sense of pragmatism and humility, endurance, and much care. Each box costum-made by the artist and exhibits all the marks and wears from its travels.
In Wang’s practice everything is interwoven and meaningful - thought-through. Personal history is entwined with ancient folklore, creating a unique aesthetic and perspective, an invitation into her world.
Pei-Hsuan Wang
(b. 1987, Hsinchu, Taiwan. Lives and works in Ghent, Belgium)
Education
2012 MFA, Cranbrook Academy of Art—Bloomfield Hills, MI, USA
2010 BA, Macalester College—St. Paul, MN, USA
Solo Exhibitions
2023 With Infinite Softness (working title, upcoming), Ballon Rouge—Brussels, Belgium
2022 Ghost Eat Mud, Kunsthal Gent—Ghent, Belgium
2020 I’ve Left My Body to Occupy Others, Good Weather—Chicago, IL, USA
2020 For Iris, Gallery 456—New York, NY, USA
2019 You Are My Sunshine, Taipei Contemporary Art Center—Taipei, Taiwan
2018 Momentary Grace, Haiton Art—Taipei, Taiwan
2016 The Uncontainable Tales of a Paradise, Waley Art—Taipei, Taiwan
2014 Formation No.1: On Levitation, Bamboo Curtain Studio—Taipei, Taiwan
Two-Person Exhibitions
2022 Animal Beings, with Merel Cremers, Valcke Art Gallery—Ghent, Belgium
2018 where we meet, with ektor garcia, Good Weather, Chicken Coop Contemporary—Portland, OR, USA
Selected Group Exhibitions
2022 A Glittering Ruin Sucked Upwards, curated by Yann Chateigné, HISK Gosset—Brussels, Belgium
2021 The HISK Affair, curated by Pieter Vermeulen and Sam Steverlynck, HISK Gosset—Brussels, Belgium
2021 Either Too Quiet or Too Loud, curated by Bo Chun Hsiao, Hong-gah Museum—Taipei, Taiwan
2020 ///\\///, Solid Art—Taoyuan, Taiwan
2019 Passage of Sinthome, Sanya Art Museum—Hainan, China
2019 IRL {In Real Life}, ASIA NOW Paris Art Fair, curated by X Zhu-Nowell—Paris, France
2019 Proyector Festival de Videoarte—Madrid, Spain
2018 Asian Art Biennale, National Gallery—Dhaka, Bangladesh
2016 Negative Horizon: Taiwan Intl Video Art Biennale, Hong-gah Museum—Taipei,Taiwan
2016 Jakarta Ceramics Biennale, National Gallery of Indonesia—Jakarta, Indonesia
Awards and Grants
2019 Special Jury Prize, Huayu Youth Award, China
2016 Juror’s Choice Award, Taipei Arts Award, Taiwan
2013 Dorchester Fellowship, Theaster Gates Studio + Rebuild Foundation, Chicago, IL, USA
Curation and Exhibition-Making
2020 like a luminous animal, Solid Art Taipei Space—Taipei, Taiwan
2013 Soul Manufacturing Corporation, w/ Theaster Gates, Locust Projects and the
Fabric Workshop and Museum—Chicago, IL + Miami, FL + Philadelphia, PA, USA
Selected Residencies
2021-22 HISK (Hoger Instituut Voor Schone Kunsten, Higher Institute of Arts) —Ghent, Belgium
2022 CERCCO at Geneva University of Art and Design—Geneva, Switzerland
2019 Rijksakademie (guest resident)—Amsterdam, Netherlands
2018 Asia Culture Center—Gwangju, South Korea
2018 iscp (International Studio and Curatorial Practice)—New York, NY, USA
2016 Jatiwangi Art Factory—West Java, Indonesia
2015 Sundaymorning@EKWC—Oisterwijk, Netherlands
Selected Lectures
2023 Musea Brugge—Bruges, Belgium
2022 LUCA School of Arts—Ghent, Belgium
2022 University of Oregon—Eugene, OR, USA
2020 National Taiwan University of Arts—Taipei, Taiwan
2019 Taipei Contemporary Art Center—Taipei, Taiwan
2018 iscp (International Studio and Curatorial Practice)—New York, NY, USA
2016 Jatiwangi Art Factory—West Java, Indonesia
Selected Publications
2022 Een wirwar aan souvenirs van Oost/West, toen/nu – Pei-Hsuan Wang in Kunsthal Gent
An-Katrien Callebaut—Metropolis M, Netherlands, October 30, 2022
2022 Ghost Eat Mud by Pei-Hsuan Wang at Kunsthal Gent, Editor—YYYYMMDD, October 12 ,2022
2021 You can see crises as end times as well as new beginnings,
Senne Vanderschelden—Subbacultcha, Belgium, July, 2021
2020 August Review—Contemporary Art Daily, USA, August 8, 2020
2020 I’ve Left My Body to Occupy Others, Editor—Journal, USA, May, 2020
2020 Ambush of the Beast: Intimacy in Pei-Hsuan Wang’s When Mountlake Terrace Dreams,
Po-Wei Wang—The Affairs, Taiwan, May 10, 2020
2020 Pei-Hsuan Wang at Good Weather, Editor—Contemporary Art Daily, April 18, 2020
2020 Critic’s Picks ///\\///, Shih-yu Hsu—Art Forum China, May, 2020
2019 Cat and Bird, Lotte van Geijn—KLEI Keramiek Magazine, July, 2019
2018 ‘where we meet’, Editor—O Fluxo, USA, July 2018