Charwei Tsai
Charwei Tsai was born in 1980 in Taiwan
She currently lives and works in Taipei, Taiwan
She graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design in Industrial Design and Art & Architectural History (2002) and has completed the postgraduate research program La Seine at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris (2010).
Highly personal yet universal concerns spur Tsai’s multi-media practice. Geographical, social, and spiritual motifs inform a body of work, which encourages viewer participation outside the confines of complacent contemplation. Preoccupied with the human/nature relationship, Tsai meditates on the complexities among cultural beliefs, spirituality, and transience.
Charwei Tsai has had solo exhibitions internationally, and has participated in international exhibitions and biennials including solo projects and exhibitions: The Womb & The Diamond, Live Forever Foundation, Taichung, Taiwan (2021), Jogja Biennale and Power of Intention : Reinventing the (prayer) Wheel, Rubin Museum, New York (2019), Charwei Tsai : Bulaubulau, Centre for Chinese Contemporary Art (CFCCA), Manchester, UK (2018), Hear Hear Singing, Commissioned by Hayward Gallery, Southbank Centre, UK, Water Moon, Contemporary Art Institute, Villeurbanne / Rhône-Alpes, France, Biennale of Sydney (2016), Simple Shapes at Mori Art Museum, Tokyo (2015) and Centre Pompidou-Metz, France (2014), Sharjah Biennial (2013), Phantoms of Asia at Asian Art Museum of San Francisco (2012), Yokohama Triennial (2011), 6th Asia Pacific Triennial (2009), Traces of the Sacred, Centre Pompidou (2008), Thermocline of Art: New Asian Waves at ZKM Center of Art and Media, Karlsruhe (2007), the inaugural Singapore Biennale (2006) and J’en rêve, Cartier Foundation, Paris (2005).
Tsai’s works are in public and private collections including those held at Tate Modern, London ; the Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane ; Mori Art Museum, Tokyo ; Asian Art Museum, San Francisco ; M+ Collection Hong Kong ; Faurschou Fondation, Copenhagen ; Kadist Foundation, San Francisco/Paris ; Contemprorary Art Institute, Villeurbanne / Rhône-Alpes, France and FRAC Lorraine, France.
Tsai has also published a curatorial journal titled Lovely Daze twice a year since 2005. The complete sets of Lovely Daze are in the library collections of Tate Modern, London, Museum of Modern Art, New York, Pompidou Center, Paris, and MACBA, Barcelona.
Exhibition View, The Womb & The Diamond, Vital Art Center, Taiwan, 2021
Exhibition View, The Womb & The Diamond, Vital Art Center, Taiwan, 2021
Ndewa & Hamanangu, 2021 - Installation, Ikat Textile from Sumbra
The Womb and the Diamond, 2021 - Installation with Handblown glass, mirrors, and a diamond
The Womb and the Diamond, 2021 - Detail of the installation
The Womb and the Diamond, 2021 - Detail of the installation
Spiral Incense - Five Budha Principles, 2017 - Hand-inscribed spiral incenses - Exhibition view, IAC Villeurbanne, 2017
Spiral Incense - Hundred Syllable Mantra, 2016 - Hand-inscribed spiral incenses - Exhibition view, Biennale of Sydney, 2016
Spiral Incense - Five Budha Principles, 2017 - Hand-inscribed spiral incenses
Spiral Incense - Five Budha Principles, 2017 - Hand-inscribed spiral incenses - Detail
Reinventing the [prayer] Wheel, 2019 - Exhibition View, Rubin Museum, New York
Plane Tree Mantra, 2014 - Site specific installation - Performance view, Jardin des Plantes, Paris, 2014
Plane Tree Mantra, 2014 - Site specific installation - Performance view, Jardin des Plantes, Paris, 2014
A Dedication to the Sea - Exhibition View, Espace Louis Vuitton, Singapore, 2012
Bulaubulau - Exhibition View, CFCCA, Manchester, 2018
Bulaubulau - Exhibition View, CFCCA, Manchester, 2018
Driftwood, 2011 - Installation hand-inscribed driftwoods - Detail
Listen to the Sound of the Earth Turning: Our Wellbeing since the Pandemic - Exhibition view, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan, 2022
Listen to the Sound of the Earth Turning: Our Wellbeing since the Pandemic - Exhibition view, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan, 2022
Exhibition View, The Womb & The Diamond, Vital Space & Art Center, Taiwan, 2021
Water Moon - Exhibition view, IAC Villeurbanne, 2017
We Came Whirling Out of Nothingness XII-VII, 2020 - Ink, mica pigment, gum arabic on linen - Detail
We Came Whirling Out of Nothingness XII-VII, 2020 - Ink, mica pigment, gum arabic on linen
We Came Whirling Out of Nothingness XI-IV, 2020 - Natural pigments and ink on rice paper
We Came Whirling Out of Nothingness XI-IV, 2020 - Natural pigments and ink on rice paper - Detail
We Came Whirling Out of Nothingness XI-III, 2020 - Natural pigments and ink on rice paper
We Came Whirling Out of Nothingness XI-III, 2020 - Natural pigments and ink on rice paper - Detail
We Came Whirling Out of Nothingness XI-I, 2020 - Natural pigments and ink on rice paper
We Came Whirling out of Nothingness VIII-V, 2017 - Water color and ink on rice paper
We Came Whirling out of Nothingness VIII-V, 2017 - Water color and ink on rice paper - Detail
A Dedication to the Victims of Pandemic (Turbo Marmoratus Raw) - Hand-inscribed group of shells
A Dedication to the Victims of Pandemic (Charonia Tritonis I), 2020 - Hand-inscribed pair of shells
A Dedication to the Victims of Pandemic (Turbo Marmoratus VI) - Hand-inscribed group of shells - Detail
Numbers, 2020 - Digital video, color, sound
Numbers, 2020 - Digital video, color, sound
Numbers, 2020 - Digital video, color, sound
Incense Mantra IV, 2013 - Digital photograph
Bulaubulau, 2018 - Digital video, color, sound
Bulaubulau, 2018 - Exhibition View, The Womb & The Diamond, Vital Art Center, Taiwan, 2021
Root of Desire, 2018 - Digital video, color, sound
Song of Chuchepati Camp, 2017 - Digital video, color, sound
Lanyu - Three Stories (Shi Na Paradna), 2012 - Digital video, color, sound
Lanyu - Three Stories (Hair Dance), 2012 - Digital video, color, sound
Lanyu - Three Stories, 2012 - Exhibition View, CFCCA, Manchester, 2018
Lanyu - Three Stories, 2012 - Exhibition View, Sharjah Biennial, 2012
Alba's Pilgrimage, 2012 - Digital video, b&w, sound
Hear Her Singing, 2017 - Digital video, b&w, sound
Hear Her Singing, 2017 - Digital video, b&w, sound
Water Moon - Exhibition view, IAC, Villeurbanne, 2017
Bardo, 2016 - Digital video, color, sound - Exhibition view, IAC, Villeurbanne, 2017
As It Is - Exhibition view, mor charpentier, Paris, 2017
Universe of Possibilities (Solitude), 2017 - Archival pigment print
Universe of Possibilities - Awakening, 2017 - Hand-Inscribed Photograph
Earth Mantra II, 2009 - Digital photograph
Earth Mantra I, 2009 - Digital photograph
Meat Map IV, 2008 - Digital photograph
Meat Map, 2008 - Digital photograph - Detail
Lotus Mantra II, 2006 - Digital photograph
Lotus Mantra II, 2006 - Digital photograph
Still Water Runs Deep - Exhibition view, Kaoshiung Museum of Fine Arts, Taiwan, 2018
In Memory of Poet Yu Kwang-Chung, 2018 - Series of drawings, watercolor and ink on rice paper
In Memory of Poet Yu Kwang-Chung, 2018 - Watercolor and ink on rice paper - Detail