Artist Statement
Nowhere in Taiwan is a selection of photographs made while traveling through my native country of Taiwan in the summer of 2011.
Influenced by the idea of the “road trip” in American photography, exemplified in the work of such photographers as Robert Frank, Stephen Shore, and Joel Sternfeld, I set out to find scenes and situations that seem to be “in between,” neither landscape nor cityscape but existing in an ambiguous space I call “nowhere.” Some of these sites are suburban, or partly urbanized, or abandoned and left behind. The aspect of location that interests me most has to do with the traces of human presence and gesture that reside or remain. In search of nowhere, I look for unexpected instances of intimacy, so that there is a sense of “nowhere” being unveiled.
bio /
I-Hsuen Chen is a New York-based photographer, video artistand performer, born and raised in Taiwan. He received an MFA in Photography from Pratt Institute in 2012. His work has been selected for the New York Photo Festival’s 2012 Invitational, his series Nowhere in Taiwan is in the Permanent Collections of Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and he was chosen as one of Magenta Foundation’s Flash Forward Emerging Photographers 2012. In 2011 he won Jen Bekman Gallery’s Blurb book prize and a Hey Hot Shot! Honorable Mention, and was awarded the New Artist Feature by the site Culturehall, chosen by curator Tema Stauffer. Chen’s work has been published in magazines and online, including Conveyor Magazine, PHOTONEWS(Germany), American Photo, CCNY blog, and LENSCRATCH. His work has also been shown at 25CPW Gallery, hpgrp Gallery, ISE Foundation and Ed. Varie Gallery in New York. Before coming to the U.S., he was a professional opera and choir singer in Taiwan.
cv /
EDUCATION
Master of Fine Art, Photography, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, New York
B.A, Advertising & Public Relations, Fu Jen Catholic University, Taipei, Taiwan
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2012 ART STUDENT EXHIBITION IN NY 2012, ISE CULTURAL FOUNDATION, New York
2012 Simply, The Center for Fine Art Photography, Fort Collins
2012 PhotoPlace Open, PhotoPlace Gallery, Vermont
2012 "Beyond 1 lens & Over 100 eyes " Exhibition, hpgrp GALLERY NEW YORK
2012 New York Photo Festival Invitational Exhibition, 2012
2012 Nowhere in Taiwan, Steuben South Gallery, Brooklyn, New York
2012 EXCAVATION/MEMORY, Ed. Varie Gallery, New York, New York
2011 Annual Salon Show, Greenpoint Gallery, Brooklyn, New York
2011 No Trend, Steuben South Gallery, Brooklyn, New York
2011 Art from the Heart, 25CPW Gallery, New York
2010 Layers, Dekalb Gallery, Brooklyn, New York
AWARD
2012 Flash Forward - Emerging Photographers 2012, Magenta Foundation, Canada
2012 New York Photo Festival Invitational Winner
2012 Culturehall New Artist Feature, Winter 2012
2012 Blurb Book Prize, Hey, Hot Shot! 2nd Edition 2011, Jen Bekman Gallery, New York
2012 Honorable Mentions, Hey, Hot Shot! 2nd Edition 2011, Jen Bekman Gallery, New York
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
Showcase Magazine, "NEW YORK PHOTO AWARDS", Oct 2012 /online
Conveyor Magzine, "Group Show: Trading Reason for Wonder," Smoke & Mirrors Issue, Jul 2012
Camera Obscura, "On the Road to Nowhere, by I-Hsuen Chen", Jul 2012 /online
The Camera Club of New York, "A Conversation with I-Hsuen Chen", Jun 2012 /online
Hey, Hot Shot! blog, "HHS! Contender I-Hsuen-Chen", May 2012 /online (In Your Place)
Sing Tao Daily (????), "???????5/17?? ??????" May 2012
World Journal (????), "??? ?????????", May 2012
PHOTONEWS magazine, Houston FotoFest, "Entdeckungen vom Meeting Place", May 2012 (Germany)
fototazo, fototazo 82: I-Hsuen Chen, Apr 2012 / online
No Culture Icons, "I-Hsuen Chen - Nowhere in Taiwan", Apr 2012 /online
LENSCRATCH, "I-Hsuen Chen", Apr 2012 /online
americanphoto magazine, "A Warm Look at Taiwan", Mar 2012 /online
Culturehall New Artist Feature, "I-Hsuen Chen", Feature Issue 84, Mar 2012 /online
World Journal (????), "????????? ??????", Mar 2012
Hey, Hot Shot! blog, "HHS! Contender I-Hsuen-Chen", Nov 2011 /online (Nowhere in Taiwan)
ARTIST TALK
2012 Artist Performance/Talk, Global Cinema, Pratt Manhattan Gallery, New York
2012 Artist talk, Focus & Motivation, Hunter College, New York
2011 Artist talk, General Studies Seminar, International Center of Photography, New York
COLLECTION
2012 Permanent Collections, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
How to use our image viewer
Click on any of the thumbnail images to launch the viewer. You can then navigate forward and backward within the portfolio by clicking the left or right side of the enlarged image. Click the add to collection checkbox to automatically add an image to your collection. Image tags or search engine keywords appear below the collections' checkbox and each word or phrase is a link to potentially more image matches.
