Ling Chen

Ling Chen is a contemporary artist working primarily with colored water-based pens, using abstraction as a language to explore cellular structures as both biological reality and conceptual metaphor.

At the core of Chen’s practice is the idea of the “cell” — not merely as a microscopic unit of life, but as a fundamental model for understanding existence, relationships, and systems of order. Through repetitive mark-making and intricate layering, Chen constructs visual fields that echo organic growth, fragmentation, and regeneration.

The use of water-based pens introduces a delicate tension between precision and fluidity. Controlled lines coexist with subtle bleeding and diffusion, allowing the works to evolve in a way that mirrors living processes. Each piece becomes a contained yet expanding system, where boundaries remain porous and constantly shifting.

Rooted in a contemporary conceptual framework and informed by Eastern sensibilities of rhythm, balance, and emptiness, Chen’s work resists fixed interpretation. Instead, it invites viewers into a meditative space—one that reflects on the invisible structures shaping both the body and the external world.

Her practice is an ongoing observation of life at its most essential scale, ...

university pantheon Sorbonne Paris 1
École beaux arts de Nantes