Chen Chia-Jen was born in Yunlin, Taiwan. While working on his doctoral research in the Graduate School of Contemporary Visual Culture at the National Taiwan University of Arts, he is a core member of the Open Contemporary Art Center since its establishment in 2001 and acted as its director between 2014 and 2018. Chen’s main interest is photography, including digitally altered images and direct photography. His photographs, inspired by lives in the city, reveal the conditions of contemporary urban living. In addition to the reference to the urban environment, his works attempt to evoke an unsettling sense of disturbance by highlighting the absence of photographic subjects, such as people, objects, and places. The concept of absentness, suggesting the loss of information, liberates images from the limit of visual perceptibility and the constraints of signifying readability and so his approach deviates from the established course of photography, namely the representation of reality, and generates poetic qualities to his images. For him, photography can materialize artists’ imaginations, and the surreality of the materializing process can be seen as an extension of reality itself. Chen has shown his works in the Liverpool Biennale: City States (2012) and he has also participated in the exhibitions in Paris, Lyon, Rome, and Budapest.
國際駐村 2015 印尼 日惹 Cemeti Art House 2016 泰國 Baan Noorg藝術空間
CHEN CHIA-JEN Education 2005 M.F.A., the Graduate School of PlasXc Arts, NaXonal Taiwan University of Arts, Taiwan
Professional experiences 2013 ~ 2017 Director of Open-Contemporary Art Center, Taipei, Taiwan
2014 Curator « One has said that...», Taipei South Town Art Festival 2014 —The Contemporary Art of Chinese Characters
2003 ~ 2006 lecturer in Fine Arts (National Taiwan University of Arts) 2004 Co-curator « Renew & Regard », NaXonal Taiwan University of Arts, Taiwan 2002 Co-curator « Afer the “E” generaXon», Open-Contemporary Art Center, Taipei, Taiwan.
Group Exhibitions :
2016 « Daily Scenery», Art Bank, Taichung, Taiwan
2016 « OCAC album 2016», TKG+, Taipei, Taiwan 2015 « Pasang Air #1» CemeX Art House, Yogyakarta, Indonesia.
2014 « The Present and Future of Japanese and Taiwanese Contemporary Art- Amplitude of the Global and Locality», The University Art Museum - Tokyo University of the Arts, Tokyo, Japan.
2013 « ThaiTai: A Measure of Understanding», URS21 Chung Shan Creative Hub, Taipei, Taiwan.
2012 « Other landscapes », La Rotonde, Paris, France.
2012 « Metro-Wonderland: Taiwanese Artist & Urban Morphology », Liverpool Biennial (City States), LJMU Copperas Hill Building, Liverpool, England.
2012 « 19991221>20130421│PART ONE », Open-Contemporary Art Center, Taipei, Taiwan.
2011 « A terrible poeXc », Olivier Houg Gallery, Lyon, France.
2011 « Taiwanese contemporary art : the new generaXon », Ex Gil space, Rome, Italie.
2010 « Today's ethics of the heritage », Frederic Moisan gallery, Paris, France.
2006 « The heritage and the development of plastic arts in Taiwan », National Chung-Shan gallery, National Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hall, Taipei, Taïwan.
2005 « Exposition collective des artistes taïwanais », MAMÜ gallery, Budapest, Hongrie.
2005 « New Media Art », Ün-Chen technology company, Taipei, Taïwan.
2004 « 3rd Art festival », Hua-shan Creative Park, Taipei, Taïwan.
2003 « Magnetic Interface », Magnetic space of sculpture, Taipei, Taïwan.
2003 « Politically correct on the installation art », Chia-yi Railway Art Village, Chia-Yi, Taïwan.
2002 « Three ArXstes », Open-Contemporary Art Center, Taipei, Taiwan.
2002 « After the “E” generaXon », Open-Contemporary Art Center, Taipei, Taiwan.
2000 « ground floor », Open-Contemporary Art Center, Taipei, Taiwan.
Solo Exhibtions :
2016 « Sweetwater», Open-Contemporary Art Center, Taipei, Taiwan.
2005 « Traverse », Open-Contemporary Art Center, Taipei, Taiwan.
2003 « One-work exhibiXon: series III », Open-Contemporary Art Center, Taipei, Taiwan. 2002 « One-work exhibiXon: series V », Open-Contemporary Art Center, Taipei, Taiwan.