Tracing the Layers: A Message from Taiwan
The Goldmark Cultural Center’s Ruth Andres Gallery presents “Tracing the Layers: A Message from Taiwan”. This group exhibition features artworks by 6 contemporary Taiwanese artists, curated by Yen-Hua Lee, the 2025 recipient of the Goldmark Cultural Center’s Anthony Okonofua International Artist Residency.
The exhibition features works by Wen-Tao Liu, Tzuying Sung, Bu Xiao, Yan-Ru Li, and Yukaotani and Hank Ou from O2 Lab Art&Tech.
During the opening reception on Saturday 10/8 from 2:00pm to 3:00pm, curator Yen-Hua Lee will present an artist talk about the exhibition.
The exhibition is on display from 10/13 to 10/25 in the Ruth Andres Gallery at the Goldmark Cultural Center.
About the Exhibition
Curator Yen-Hua Lee draws inspiration from Taiwan’s everyday culture, exploring how its inherent essence can be expressed through multidimensional visual works. These works span material, visual, conceptual, historical, temporal, and spatial layers, analyzing the traces of memory embedded within. The artists’ creations convey Taiwan’s hidden artistic culture through layered messages. Viewers can not only interpret the structure of Taiwanese culture but also engage in a dialogue with its deeper essence and meaning.
O2 LAB Art&Tech team’s work, Landscape Container, uses layered paper materials and light to interpret Taiwan’s natural landscapes. By stacking scenes layer by layer, the work reflects the historical impact and influence of multiple cultures on Taiwan as an island nation, revealing the hidden essence of its landscapes. Through the evocative quality of light and the subtle penetration of micro-illumination, the team highlights Taiwan’s suburban mountain scenery and geographic memory.
Wen-Tao Liu focuses on Taiwan’s everyday street scenes, specifically the culture of real estate advertisements plastered in public spaces, to express a silent rebellion against the island’s soaring housing prices. The exorbitant prices listed on these flyers underscore the unattainable and disheartening dream of homeownership for many. Through collecting, destroying, and reconstructing these advertisements, Liu engages viewers in a dialogue, prompting reflection on our relationship with the concept of “home” and its broader implications.
Tzu-Ying Sung captures Taiwan’s cultural landscapes, architecture, and food memories through the concept of instant photography from short trips. She uses transparent tape to collage a cultural map of Taiwan, where the plastic tape symbolizes the early economic value of Taiwan’s history. Taiwan’s culture, shaped by repeated waves of diverse influences, is reflected in the layered and reassembled nature of her work. Sung’s choice of tape colors and patterns, reminiscent of Japanese aesthetics, also nods to the historical and modern cultural influences that continue to shape Taiwan.
Bu Xiao’s sculptural work, Softly Surrounding You, reimagines Taiwan’s traditional construction materials like sheet metal and bricks, transforming them into seemingly soft forms. These are presented using flat, soft-textured fiber materials infused with the luxurious scent of perfume, which permeates the space. As the fragrance interacts with viewers, the work juxtaposes visual flatness with the concept of architectural and sculptural imagery in the environment. It subtly reflects the tension between the cheapness of common building materials and the extravagance of high-end perfume.
Yan-Ru Li employs transparent paper to layer and interpret the concept of Taiwan’s interior spaces within his art. Individual indoor spaces are compressed and presented from a bird’s-eye perspective, reimagining designed domestic environments. Through layered data, the artist uses writing, drawing, visual dimensions, assigned colors, and virtual spaces to explore human experiences of space and memory, meticulously presenting the tangible records of constructed environments. His work flattens time and space into a two-dimensional plane, where the projected domestic spaces not only reflect past records but also invite viewers to reinterpret these virtualized homes from new perspectives.
About the Curator
Yen-Hua Lee was born in Taiwan. She earned a Master of Arts from the University of Dallas in 2004, and obtained an MFA from Northern Illinois University in 2007. She has received numerous accolades, including the First Prize at the 2024 Taiwan Emerging Art Award, First Place at Studio Montclair in 2008, First Place at the Newark Arts Council’s Open Doors 08, First Place at West of Center Art House in Northville, Michigan, and the 3rd Fiber Creation Award from the Museum of Fiber Arts in Taichung, Taiwan. She has also been awarded several art residency fellowships.
Her work has been exhibited in Taiwan, Poland, China, Japan, Germany, Austria, Italy, the United Kingdom, Argentina, Canada, Mexico, Russia, and the United States. Lee has held over 30 solo exhibitions at prestigious venues, including the Zarya Center of Contemporary Art, Cooper Union School in New York City, Chiayi Art Museum in Taiwan, Yingge Ceramics Museum in Taiwan, National Tsing Hua University Art Center in Taiwan, Centro Cultural Gonzalez Gallo in Jalisco, Mexico, CYCU Art Center in Taiwan, Dallas Contemporary in the USA, NY Studio Gallery in New York City, Taipei Cultural Center in New York City, and Gallery Uno in Chicago.
She has also participated in group exhibitions at notable institutions such as the Aomori Contemporary Art Centre in Japan, National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Pier-2 Art Center in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, Yingge Ceramic Museum in Taiwan, Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts in Taiwan, Taitung Art Museum in Taiwan, China Ceramic Museum in China, Chelsea Art Museum in NYC, Katonah Museum in New York, Masur Museum of Art in Louisiana, Westchester Biennial in 2008, 2010, and 2012 in New York, and the ARWI International Art Fair in San Juan, Puerto Rico in 2007.
Her works are part of the collections of the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, the Kohler Arts Center in the USA, the Taichung City Government’s Port Art Center, the China Ceramic Museum in Jingdezhen, China, as well as private collections both domestically and internationally.
























