ABOUT VT
A young artist-run group named Very Temple formed back about 20 years ago in Taipei, Taiwan. At its initial stage, the group has allied with various parties, holding exhibitions on an irregular basis with no fixed exhibition venue, and achieving their artistic ideals with guerrilla-like practices. The group members might not have imagined that “Very Temple” could stick to this course for 20 years. It can be said that this group has carved out an evolutionary path of art. In 2006, this guerrilla force with united talents resulted in the establishment of VT Artsalon (hereafter referred to as VT). This gallery complex was found by a team of curators and artists, including Jui-Chong Yao, Wen-Chi Chen, Wei-Cheng Tu, Chun-Hao Chen, Sean C. S. Hu, Dar-Kuen Wu, Hui-Yu Su, and Isa Ho. They orientate VT towards transdisciplinary performance, exhibition and exchange, and devote their energies to promoting arts outside the mainstream. With the spirit of local touch and innovation, VT has made several adjustments to its space in the following years. It made a new start after moving to its new home on Xin-Sheng North Road in 2012. Since then, it has re-orientated itself towards holding professional exhibitions and developing various interlinking art projects.
In addition to the regular exhibitions, VT focuses on the multi-angle extension as well. Since 2014, VT has started a series of worldwide exhibitions, such as a three-year exhibition/residential exchange project with Apartment der Kunst in Munich, and showcases with am art space in Hong Kong, SGFA in Malaysia, Marso in Mexico, GUP in the Netherlands, Casino in Luxembourg, and so on. VT has been invited to several art fairs in Paris, France, Germany, Busan, Seoul, Gwangju, Korea and Beijing, China. From 2017, VT has officially launched two major international exchange projects, Island Hopping Project – Empire Retrograde and Younited States, which have collided the sparks between Taiwan and other countries and created various groundbreaking ideas. Besides, VT also brings young curators and art administrators to the world, cultivating their universal vision, the way of getting along with art workers from around the globe, as well as a better international literacy of art. It is hoped that more talents will be encouraged, and more Taiwanese art workers will shine on the global stage.
Furthermore, VT has invested its efforts in cultivating Taiwanese young artists and art workers through hosting various open calls and projects, such as Very Period for art administrators and researchers, VT Open Call for curators, Very Show for fledgling young artists, and Very View for young art critics. In 2019, VT has launched a young art worker cultivation project, integrating relevant plans and momentum step by step. VT believes that with long-term and stable cultivation as the primary, and the spirit of innovation as the supplement, it can gradually cultivate and support the next generation of artistic talents.
During operation, VT always ponders the role and the significance of Taiwan as a member of the world, together with how to rebuild a new cultural and political context under the premise of using art as the method. Accordingly, Taiwan can build a positive relationship with other countries, and at the same time to benefit from it. Since 2008, VT has continued to conduct various international exchanges in the form of joint exhibitions, residencies, forums and publications. In 2018, there was a brand-new chapter of VT: it was transformed from an artist’s space into an artist-run-space as collective art or project. From then on, VT started to create a platform as the cohesion within the Taiwanese art community, and the basis to integrate Taiwan’s art, artists, curators, critics, and administrators to stand on the international stage.
MEMBERS
Wu Dar Kuen
Wu Dar-Kuen now is senior curator of Taiwan Contemporary Culture Lab, (C-LAB). He was the director of Taipei Artist Village and Treasure Hill Artist Village and the chairman of Taiwan Art Space Alliance (TASA),and the chief curator of Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts, and the director of VT Artsalon. He is also a creative artist in addition to being a curator.
Yao Jui Chung
Yao was born in 1969. He graduated from The National Institute of The Arts (Taipei National University of the Arts) with a degree in Art Theory. Yao specializes in photography, installation and painting. In 1997, he represented Taiwan in Facing Faces-Taiwan at the Venice Biennale. After that, he took part in the International Triennale of Contemporary Art Yokohama (2005), Asia Triennial Manchester (2014), Asia Biennale (2015), Sydney Biennale (2016) and Shanghai Biennale (2018). His works have been widely exhibited in numerous international exhibitions.
Hu Sean C.S.
Born in Taiwan, Sean C.S. Hu graduated from The Broadcasting & Television Section of Mass Communication Department, Fu Jen Catholic University. He then received M.A. degree in Art Administration in Fashion Institute of Technology, State University of New York in 1998.
Hu was on worked as an art curator for Fubon Art Foundation, the director general of the Association of Visual Arts in Taiwan, the director of Taiwan Contemporary Art Archive and an adjunct lecturer at National Taiwan University of Arts.
Su Hui Yu
Su Hui-Yu (b. 1976, Taipei) obtained an MFA from Taipei National University of the Arts in 2003, and has remained active in the contemporary art scene ever since. Su’s “Re-shooting” series centers around Taiwanese and East Asian history, memory, re-imagination and transgression.
Su’s works have been exhibited at renowned festivals, exhibitions and art institutes, including the International Film Festival Rotterdam, VIDEONALE 17, PERFORMA 19, Wuzhen Contemporary Art Exhibition, Bangkok Arts and Culture Center, Power Station of Art in Shanghai, and collected by three major public art museums in Taiwan, JUT Art Museum in Taipei, and the White Rabbit Gallery in Australia.
Tu Wei Cheng
Born in Kaohsiung, Taiwan in 1969, Tu Wei-Cheng holds an MFA from the Graduate Institute of Plastic Arts of the Tainan National University of the Arts (2005). He now works as an artist, as well as a lecturer at the Taipei National University of the Arts in Taiwan.
He has exhibited internationally, including at the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, Netherlands (2019); 1st Thailand Biennale, Krabi, Thailand (2018); V&A Museum, London, U.K. (2017); Singapore Art Museum (2013); Gwangju Biennale, Gwangju, South Korea (2012); Guangzhou Triennial, Guangdong, China (2012); Queens Museum, New York, U.S. (2008); Palazzo delle Arti Napoli, Napoli, Italy (2007); and Shanghai Biennale, Shanghai, China (2006).
Chen Wen Chi
Graduated from the Taipei National University of the Arts with a BFA degree in Art Theory in 1994 and the MFA degree from the Long Island University in 1999. Once served as the head of the Communication Design Department of the Shih Chien University. Works have been invited to numerous solo and group exhibitions around the world including, USA, Italy , Japan, South Korea, Switzerland, Germany. Spain, Russia, Spain, China… etc. now is Useful design art studio(DAS) founder.
Chen Chun Hao
Born 1971 in Nantou, Taiwan Lives and works in Taipei, Taiwan
Since 1997, Chen has experimented with the use of industrial materials in his work, such as thumbtacks. For the “Mosquito Nail Shan Shui” series, Chen carefully emulates landscape paintings found at the National Palace Museum, Taipei and abroad, by placing diminutive mosquito nails on canvas. Enlarging the original Early Spring (1072), he then carefully replaced the ink of the scroll with the mosquito nails, which protrude about one centimeter from the canvas. Each nail punctures the surface of the canvas, at the same time conjuring a three-dimensionality that accentuates the work’s otherworldliness.
Ho Isa
Isa Ho received her Master of Fine Arts from Taipei National University of the Arts. She concentrates on digital and contemporary photography. Creates simulated reality.through these methods that she works to address her social concerns and fulfill her personal responsibility to society.
She was awarded 2018 Arte Laguna Prize special price ,2013 ISE Cultural Foundation Award, 2012 and 2015 Asian Cultural Council grant, Her works have been collected by National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts, Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts and White Rabbit Gallery in Sydney, Australia. She was the resident artist at International Studio and Curatorial Program (ISCP) in New.