IN FLUX
acrylic, chalk on canvas, 2025
"This impregnation infuses throughout the story and can only reach us, as we feel the beating heart of the city, the evanescence of the clouds, its ventral thrusts: buried memories overflowing the entire space, the hazards of wandering, the atmosphere of the Place... Where are these throbbing ebbs and flows leading us to? To exile or to cohesion? To unity or to dissemination? Mei-Tsen's response is an intertwining of 'I' dotted with invitations to map, to inscribe nomadism, the material in the living. She explodes the blues like so many affects which intersect and uncross, certainties of sources surrounded by white volutes materializing the infinite paths of her ramblings. The cities follow one another and fit into each other. Cultures are revealed. The geographies fold back – gaps in the sky – taking on meaning, as if flown over by St Exupéry. A crossover between otherness and identity which leads her to move from experience to the future, from wide angle to thin branches that streaks the butterflies. Every thought becomes ephemeral. All anchoring is in vain. We just have to abandon ourselves to this empty-fullness." by Marc-Williams Debono
acrylic, chalk on canvas, 2025
"This impregnation infuses throughout the story and can only reach us, as we feel the beating heart of the city, the evanescence of the clouds, its ventral thrusts: buried memories overflowing the entire space, the hazards of wandering, the atmosphere of the Place... Where are these throbbing ebbs and flows leading us to? To exile or to cohesion? To unity or to dissemination? Mei-Tsen's response is an intertwining of 'I' dotted with invitations to map, to inscribe nomadism, the material in the living. She explodes the blues like so many affects which intersect and uncross, certainties of sources surrounded by white volutes materializing the infinite paths of her ramblings. The cities follow one another and fit into each other. Cultures are revealed. The geographies fold back – gaps in the sky – taking on meaning, as if flown over by St Exupéry. A crossover between otherness and identity which leads her to move from experience to the future, from wide angle to thin branches that streaks the butterflies. Every thought becomes ephemeral. All anchoring is in vain. We just have to abandon ourselves to this empty-fullness." by Marc-Williams Debono
Solo Exhibition "Taipei I Paris" at the FOCUS Art Fair, Saatchi Gallery, London, 2025
Mei-Tsen Chen: Fluid Structures
FOCUS Art Fair, London
16–19 October, 2025
Saatchi Gallery
Curated by Jenny Lee
Taiwanese artist Mei-Tsen Chen presents two interrelated series — In Flux (2025) and Paradise (2012–2017) — that explore the intersections of memory, identity, and place. Her work transforms the familiar structures of maps and architectural plans into lyrical meditations on belonging, mobility, and transformation.
Born in Taipei to an architect father, Chen grew up surrounded by blueprints and drafting tools — a visual language that later became integral to her artistic vocabulary. Now based in Paris, she carries these early imprints into a practice that bridges East and West, precision and emotion. Across her canvases, lines act not as boundaries but as living traces of thought and movement, charting both inner and external landscapes. Her compositions unfold in the liminal space between reality and memory, where physical geographies and emotional cartographies intertwine. Because her work is situated between these two dimensions, it reveals an artist who draws nutrients from the diverse cultures in which she has immersed herself — reflecting on her roots while continually moving forward.
Her monumental five-panel painting In Flux unfolds like a cartographic tapestry rendered in deep indigo. Layers of acrylic and chalk generate subtle tonal variations, while flowing white lines traverse the surface with rhythmic momentum. These lines recall rivers that shift course, roots that intertwine beneath the soil, or constellations that drift through the night sky. Their motion suggests not control but surrender — an openness to change and impermanence. As light catches the chalky surface, the work reveals a quiet depth, where structure and spontaneity coexist in delicate balance.
In dialogue with this new work, the Paradise series reimagines urban grids of London (LHR), New York (JFK), and Shanghai (SHA). Painted in a special hues of red tones, these compositions pulse with a visceral energy. Each map, stripped of legibility, becomes a breathing organism of lines, arteries, and cells. The painterly surface oscillates between abstraction and cartography, blurring the distinction between geography and the body. Through the repetition of mapping and un-mapping, Chen transforms cityscapes into living archives of memory and migration.
Together, In Flux and Paradise reveal Chen’s notion of “constructive nomadism” — an idea shaped by decades of living between cultures. For her, the act of moving across geographies becomes a creative strategy rather than a rupture; displacement becomes a space of construction, not loss. Each mark on the canvas is both a record of movement and a gesture of renewal.
Chen’s work invites viewers to reconsider how we locate ourselves in a constantly shifting world. Her lines, at once architectural and organic, trace the fragile boundaries between permanence and transience, order and emotion, reality and memory. In these layered surfaces, the viewer may find fluidity in shifting positions — the quiet negotiation between where we come from and where we are becoming.
陳美岑 Based in Paris, Mei-Tsen Chen was born in Taiwan and graduated in Fine Arts from TNUA (Taipei National University of the Arts). She has contributed to numerous exhibitions in Asia, Europe, United States and Russia. She is the winner of the European Cultural Centre Award 2024 at the Venice Biennial, and her paintings were collected by China Medical University Art Museum in Taichung, Taiwan, a building designed by Frank Gehry which will be inaugurated in 2028.
李晏禎 Based in Taipei, Jenny Lee was born in Taiwan and graduated in Economics from UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles). She is a curator and consultant active in the Asian and international art scenes, and has served as the Taiwan Representative for Art Basel VIP. Her curatorial work explores the intersection of materiality and spirituality, highlighting art’s role in fostering empathy and diversity. She believes art can serve as a bridge, offering connection and stability in uncertain times.
FOCUS Art Fair, London
16–19 October, 2025
Saatchi Gallery
Curated by Jenny Lee
Taiwanese artist Mei-Tsen Chen presents two interrelated series — In Flux (2025) and Paradise (2012–2017) — that explore the intersections of memory, identity, and place. Her work transforms the familiar structures of maps and architectural plans into lyrical meditations on belonging, mobility, and transformation.
Born in Taipei to an architect father, Chen grew up surrounded by blueprints and drafting tools — a visual language that later became integral to her artistic vocabulary. Now based in Paris, she carries these early imprints into a practice that bridges East and West, precision and emotion. Across her canvases, lines act not as boundaries but as living traces of thought and movement, charting both inner and external landscapes. Her compositions unfold in the liminal space between reality and memory, where physical geographies and emotional cartographies intertwine. Because her work is situated between these two dimensions, it reveals an artist who draws nutrients from the diverse cultures in which she has immersed herself — reflecting on her roots while continually moving forward.
Her monumental five-panel painting In Flux unfolds like a cartographic tapestry rendered in deep indigo. Layers of acrylic and chalk generate subtle tonal variations, while flowing white lines traverse the surface with rhythmic momentum. These lines recall rivers that shift course, roots that intertwine beneath the soil, or constellations that drift through the night sky. Their motion suggests not control but surrender — an openness to change and impermanence. As light catches the chalky surface, the work reveals a quiet depth, where structure and spontaneity coexist in delicate balance.
In dialogue with this new work, the Paradise series reimagines urban grids of London (LHR), New York (JFK), and Shanghai (SHA). Painted in a special hues of red tones, these compositions pulse with a visceral energy. Each map, stripped of legibility, becomes a breathing organism of lines, arteries, and cells. The painterly surface oscillates between abstraction and cartography, blurring the distinction between geography and the body. Through the repetition of mapping and un-mapping, Chen transforms cityscapes into living archives of memory and migration.
Together, In Flux and Paradise reveal Chen’s notion of “constructive nomadism” — an idea shaped by decades of living between cultures. For her, the act of moving across geographies becomes a creative strategy rather than a rupture; displacement becomes a space of construction, not loss. Each mark on the canvas is both a record of movement and a gesture of renewal.
Chen’s work invites viewers to reconsider how we locate ourselves in a constantly shifting world. Her lines, at once architectural and organic, trace the fragile boundaries between permanence and transience, order and emotion, reality and memory. In these layered surfaces, the viewer may find fluidity in shifting positions — the quiet negotiation between where we come from and where we are becoming.
陳美岑 Based in Paris, Mei-Tsen Chen was born in Taiwan and graduated in Fine Arts from TNUA (Taipei National University of the Arts). She has contributed to numerous exhibitions in Asia, Europe, United States and Russia. She is the winner of the European Cultural Centre Award 2024 at the Venice Biennial, and her paintings were collected by China Medical University Art Museum in Taichung, Taiwan, a building designed by Frank Gehry which will be inaugurated in 2028.
李晏禎 Based in Taipei, Jenny Lee was born in Taiwan and graduated in Economics from UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles). She is a curator and consultant active in the Asian and international art scenes, and has served as the Taiwan Representative for Art Basel VIP. Her curatorial work explores the intersection of materiality and spirituality, highlighting art’s role in fostering empathy and diversity. She believes art can serve as a bridge, offering connection and stability in uncertain times.