Chen Chieh-Jen

Biography

In 1980s, the Cold War/Martial Law period in Taiwan, Chen Chieh-jen challenged the limits of expression under the Martial Law system and the conservative art establishment with guerrilla-style performance art and underground exhibitions.

In 1996, Chen created a series of photographic and video projects that re-imagine, re-write and re-connect his experience of living in a marginalized region. Working with local citizens, Chen Chieh-jen combines experimental aesthetics with the unique poetic qualities of video to initiate dialogue and connections with audiences around the world. Chen emphasizes the use of visual art to suggest bodily memories, perceptions, elusive states of mind, and hard to articulate atmospheres related to ideological and political topics, especially those in this era of increasing neoliberal domination. His artwork is not only an act of resisting the historical amnesia that surrounds us, but is also about imagining new forms through which a "people's history" can be written and new possibilities through which a "democracy of diversity" can be achieved.

Chen Chieh-jen was born in 1960 in Taoyuan, Taiwan, and graduated from a vocational high school for the arts. He currently lives and works in Taipei, Taiwan. Chen frequently receives overseas invitation, and enjoys high reputation worldwide. His works were collected by several significant art museums, such as Art Sonje Center , Seoul ; Centre Georges-Pompidou, Paris; M+, Hong Kong; Mori Art Museum, Tokyo; Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, Fukuoka; Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taipei; National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Taichung; Kaohsiung Museum Fine Arts, Kaohsiung; Asia Society and Museum, New York; Williams College Museum of Art, Massachusetts; Artium Centro-Museo Vasco de Arte contemporáneo, Vitoria, Spain; Centre national des arts plastiques, Paris; UBS AG The UBS Art Collection, Zürich; COFF Photography Foundatio, Spain; DSL Collection Contemporary Chinese Art, France. The artist has held solo exhibitions at the Vienna Secession; Art Sonje Center in Seoul; the Mudam Luxembourg; the Taipei Fine Arts Museum; Redcat art center in Los Angeles; the Museo Nacional Centro De Arte Reina Sofia in Madrid; the Asia Society in New York; and the Galerie nationale du Jeu de Paume in Paris. Group exhibitions include: the Venice Biennial, São Paulo Biennial, Lyon Biennial, Liverpool Biennial, Gothenburg Biennial, Istanbul Biennial, Moscow Biennial, New Orleans Biennial, Sydney Biennial, Taipei Biennial, Gwangju Biennial, Shanghai Biennial, Shenzhen Sculpture Biennial, Kochi-Muziris Biennale, Guangzhou Triennial, Fukuoka Triennial, and the Asia Pacific Triennial. Chen has also participated in photography festivals in Arles, Spain and Lisbon; film programs of various international art institutes include: Tate Modern, Mori Art Museum, Centre Pompidou and dOCUMENTA 13. He was also the recipient of the Award of Art China—Artist of the Year in 2018, the Taiwan National Culture and Arts Foundation's National Award for Arts in 2009, and the Korean Gwangju Biennial Special Award in 2000.