Wei Tan

Wei Tan (b. Malaysia, 1991) is a painter and sculptor based in Berlin. With a background in music composition, she completed her Master's degree in Music Technology at New York University. In summer 2015, while developing work on image-based experimental sound art, Wei Tan plunged into the world of abstract painting – first collaborating with her teacher Gina Bonati in a small East Village apartment, then experimenting on her own, drawing inspirations from the great Abstract Expressionists and today’s cross-disciplinary artists. Since then she has worked and exhibited in New York, London, Kuala Lumpur and Berlin.

Wei Tan’s art began as an urgent act of self-revelation through improvisation. Each painting is a journal entry where thoughts and memories are purged. Like making soup, materials are thrown onto the canvas and mixed together through spontaneous gesture. Wet paint, powdery pastels and viscous oil clash into each other creating haphazard geographies. Often a period of mindless doodling is carried out before the painting emerges with an unexpected coherence. The process of automatic drawing allows thoughts from the subconscious to emerge and form a narrative.

In her later work, Wei Tan developed an interest in more tangib...

Bachelors of Music (BMus), King’s College London, 2012
Masters in Music Technology (MM), New York University, 2015

Passage: Self-Location, iros.gallery, Berlin, 2026
The Shape It Takes, Galerie Grolman, Berlin, 2025
LAPADA Fair, Berkeley Square, London, 2024
LA Art Show, LA Convention Center, Los Angeles, 2024
Aqua Art Miami, Aqua Hotel, Miami, 2023
Beyond Reach, Galerie Sara Lily Perez, Berlin, 2023
My Chair is Having an Out-of-Body Experience (Solo), Incubator, Wiesbaden, 2022
London Art Fair, Business Design Centre, London, 2022
Bild einer Ausstellung, Galerie Parterre, Berlin, 2021
Shingle22j: Biennial of Contemporary Art, Museo Civico Archeologico, Rome, 2019
Salon des Refusés, Camden Image Gallery, London, 2019
Bath Open Art Prize, 44AD Artspace, Bath, 2019
Sunny Art Prize Exhibition, Sunny Art Centre, London, 2018
Royal Arts Prize Shortlisted Artists Exhibition, La Galleria Pall Mall, London, 2018
Joya: from Pebbles to Hills (Solo), Ome, Penang, Malaysia, 2017
Summer Exhibition, The Concept Space, London, 2017
New ART, Galleria360, Florence, 2017
FLUX Exhibition, Old Truman Brewery, London, 2016
Summer Arts Prize Finalist Exhibition, Lacey Contemporary Gallery, London, 2016
Abstract Art Group Show, Brick Lane Gallery, London, 2016
MELT by Tatawa (Solo), Adjacent to Life Gallery, New York, 2016