Evelyn Taocheng Wang

In her work, the contemporary artist Evelyn Taocheng Wang utilizes a range of mediums, including video, performance, and painting, to explore the interplay and divergence between Eastern and Western cultures, various socioeconomic strata, and identity-related stereotypes. 

Biography of Evelyn Taocheng Wang

Evelyn Taocheng Wang (born 1981 in Chengdu) presently resides and works in Rotterdam. She earned her Bachelor's degree in Chinese Traditional Art from Nanjing Normal University in 2006. In 2012, she completed her MFA at HBK Städelschule. From 2012 to 2014, she participated in an independent artist residency program at De Ateliers in Amsterdam.

Wang's work is held in the collections of institutions such as ABN AMRO Collection in Amsterdam, The Netherlands; Art Institute of Chicago in Chicago, US; Centre Pompidou in Paris, France; Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam in Amsterdam, The Netherlands; Centraal Museum in Utrecht, The Netherlands, and others. Additionally, she has received several awards, including the 2019 ABN AMRO Art Award, the 2018 Dolf Henkes Award, and the 2016 De Volkskrant Beeldende Kunst Prijs and Dorothea von Stetten-Kunstpreis.

Evelyn Taocheng Wang has showcased her art in numerous solo and group exhibitions. Her recent solo shows include "Norwegian Music in Dutch Window," Kayokoyuki, Tokyo, Japan (2022); "Sour Gnossiennes," Museum Abteiberg, Mönchengladbach, Germany (2020); "No Blood in the Afternoon," Carlos/Ishikawa, London, UK (2019), and many more. 

Group exhibitions that have featured Wang's works include "Busan Biennale 2022: We, On the Rising Wave," Busan, South Korea (2022); "In The Midst of It All," G Museum, Nanjing, China (2021); "Frequencies of Tradition," Guangdong Times Museum, Guangzhou, China (2020); "In my room," Antenna Space, Shanghai, China (2019), among others.

Evelyn Taocheng Wang's Art Style

Evelyn Taocheng Wang's body of work emerges as a dynamic "constellation" of sources drawing from diverse artistic categories, encompassing painting, calligraphy, installation, video, fashion design, and performance. This rich artistic tapestry serves as a medium and conduit for a multitude of themes she has curated, spanning traditional Chinese art, modern and contemporary art, colonial history, queer theory, femininity, and feminism. Through intricate layering and skillful hybridization, the artist develops a vocabulary that harmoniously integrates and interweaves these ostensibly separate concepts.

In her recent creation exhibited in Busan, Wang incited a juxtaposition between the virtual imagery of Busan she encountered online before visiting Korea and the contrasting reality she experienced upon her arrival in the city. The artwork also draws upon her extensive period of residency in Europe and her education in the appropriation of Ink wash painting. Specifically, the minimalistic art and modernist architecture of the Netherlands merge with Busan's urban panorama, prompting contemplation on the notion and essence of "universal" aesthetics. By navigating dichotomies like realist and abstract art, indirect and direct encounters, and fact and fiction, the artist offers a wholly distinct interpretation of Busan, rooted in her own subjectivity and intuition.