Chou Yu-Cheng

Chou Yu-Cheng was born in 1976 in Taipei, Taiwan. Chou lives and works in Taipei.  Paintings, objects and performances are central to his practice, questioning society and the place of art within it. Installations have incorporated audiences, performers and the gallery space itself to examine the structure of cultural industries: how corporate sponsorship influences art institutions, as well as the role of less visible workers such as cleaners and security guards. His work has explored attitudes around hygiene and how new diseases have changed the way societies operate. Series of abstract paintings experiment with pigment and technique to explore ideas around nature and the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic. Chou sees his work as an amalgamation of Western and Taiwanese traditions.

Origami is a series of paintings made using cut paper which is painted and inlaid into linen. Pigments are mixed to replicate the density of a riverbed from heavy sediment to flowing water. Colours echo the shades of natural water as well as those of a polluted river. In Wiping, Perception, Touching, Infection, Disinfection, Education, New Habit (2019) face towels soaked in lemon are offered to audiences once the temperature reaches 24 degrees - the temperature at which infection spreads most rapidly. It becomes a performance of how new diseases change behaviour. Chemical Gilding, Keep Calm, Galvanise, Pray, Gradient, Ashes, Manifestation, Unequal, Dissatisfaction, Capitalise, Incense Burner, Survival, Agitation, Hit, Day Light (2016) is a seemingly random collection of juxtaposed objects and materials in a panoramic display. Central to it is a slab of galvanised steel - a material used for cheap housing and department stores in Taiwan - which viewers are invited to throw rocks at. This act becomes a performance of protest, disrupting the gallery atmosphere as the sculpture shifts from static object to an interactive work. The installation is interspersed with fruit, plates and bowls as well as Chou’s gradient paintings, which originate from Chou’s perception of daylight.

Solo exhibitions include Kate MacGarry, London (2022); Refresh, Sacrifice, New Hygiene, Infection, Clean, Robot, Air, Housekeeping, jackercleaning.com, Cigarette, Dyson, Modern People III, TKG+ Projects, Taipei (2018) and Edouard Malingue Gallery, Shanghai (2017); Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin (2015); Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts, Kaohsiung (2015); Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taipei (2014); Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts, Taipei (2011); Museum of Contemporary Art Denver, Colorado (2008). Recent group exhibitions include NEXT: Taishin Arts Award 20th Anniversary Exhibition, MoNTUE, Taipei (2022); TWENTY, Kate MacGarry, London (2022); The Phenomenal Transition, MoCA Busan, South Korea (2021); Rehearsing the future: Dance with Nonhuman, ALIEN Art Centre, Kaohsiung, Taiwan (2021); Performa 19 Biennial, New York (2019); Biennale de Lyon (2019); Liverpool Biennial (2018); Museum of Contemporary Art and Design (MCAD), Manila (2018); New Museum, New York (2015); Asian Art Biennial, Taichung (2015); Queens Museum, New York (2013); Taipei Biennial, Taipei (2012). Chou held a residency at the Centre for Chinese Contemporary Art (CFCCA), Manchester in 2013 and received the Taipei Art Award, Taiwan in 2012 as well as the Taishin Visual Arts Award, Taiwan in 2011.