Person

Agi Chen (Chen Yi-Chieh) was born in Taoyuan, Taiwan, studied for her MFA and doctorate in Tainan, at Tainan National University of the Arts, and now lives and works in Taipei. Her work mines the realms of popular culture, using the colour matrixes of cartoon characters such as Spongebob Squarepants, and superheroes such as Batman and Superman. She sees this practice as a means through which she can create series-based artworks that reflect our contemporary mass media environment. More importantly, though, even when her initial cartoon inspirations are disguised and abstracted, she wants them to awaken collective visual memory.
Chen is the recipient of numerous grants and awards, including the Arts Prize from the Taipei Fine Arts Museum for her digital print series Powerpuff Girls’ Wednesday (2005); an Asian Cultural Council grant for artist’s residency at Arcus Studio, Japan (2005); the Taiwan-England Artists in Residence Programme at Loughborough University in the UK (2007); and the Glenfiddich Artist-in-Residence programme at the Glenfiddich Distillery in Dufftown, Scotland (2013). She has participated extensively in international group exhibitions and other significant art events both in Taiwan and abroad, including ‘Alice’s Rabbit Hole’, Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taiwan (2015), ‘Post-PoP: East Meets West’, Saatchi Gallery, London, UK (2014) and the 5th Fukuoka Asian Art Triennale 2014, Fukuoka, Japan (also 2014). Recent solo exhibitions include ‘Ho Sin Tung x Agi Chen : Duo Solo Exhibition’, Hanart TZ Gallery, Hong Hong, China (2015) and
‘Suspending on the Surface of Speed’, IT Park, Taipei, Taiwan (2013).