Cheng Yen Yu

Cheng-Yen Yu’s practice spans painting, installation, and the use of found objects, grounded in the methodology of pintura matèrica (material painting). At its core lies an inquiry into the nature of materials—their primordial states, embedded histories, and latent narrative potential.

He combines watercolor, acrylic, and mixed media with elements such as calcium carbonate, soil, sand, clay, minerals, fossils, mother-of-pearl, as well as architectural and natural materials. Through processes of mixing, sedimentation, cracking, and layering, he generates highly tensioned textures and a tactile visual language in which traces of time gradually emerge.

For Yu, materials possess intrinsic physical conditions while also being continually re-signified across different cultural contexts. They function not only as formal elements but also as carriers of his experiences shaped by postcolonial conditions and displacement. In the series Spiritual Fossils and Dust that Never Settles, his work explores the fluidity of identity across cultural contexts and the liminality of geography. Formed through his ongoing experiences of migration and reconstruction, his visual language oscillates between intimacy and estrangement, producing a dynamic per...

Cheng Yen received his MA in Painting from the Royal College of Art, London, UK (2023–2024), and his BA in Fine Arts and Design from National Dong Hwa University, Taiwan (2017–2021).

Residencies:
He has undertaken artist residencies at Schleswig-Holsteinisches Künstlerhaus Eckernförde (Otte 1 Künstlerhaus), Germany (2026); Swatch Art Peace Hotel Artist Residency, Shanghai, China (2026); and La Chapelle Saint-Antoine Artist Residency, Naxos Cyclades, Greece (2025). He has been selected for a 2027 artist residency at the A4 Residency Art Museum in Sichuan, China.

Solo Exhibitions:
Solo exhibitions include Geopoetry at La Chapelle Saint-Antoine, Naxos Cyclades, Greece (2025), and The Observer’s Eyes at Kaohsiung Cultural Centre, Kaohsiung, Taiwan (2020).

Selected Group Exhibitions:
Selected group exhibitions include Geopoetics: Plant Memory and Fictional Archaeology at Swatch Art Peace Hotel, Shanghai, China (2026); Embers Underfoot at River Art Gallery, Taichung, Taiwan (2025); the Royal College of Art Degree Show, London, UK (2024); SET IN MOTION – LONDON X COLD MAGAZINE at Old Street, London, UK (2024); Echoes of Entanglement at L’ART, London, UK (2024); A Part Of US at Tutussie ArtFair, London, UK (2024); About Time at Swanfall Art Gallery, London, UK (2024); Material Voices at ST.ART Gallery, London, UK (2024); Abstract Art – Virtual Group Show at Royal Blue Gallery (2024); Transitional Trace at MP Birla Mi...