Additional Artists G-Z & Exhibitions'11: Yu-Wen Wu

My work explores the intersections of seemingly disparate ideas. Born in Taipei, raised in the United States, educated in science and working as an artist, I am informed by many dualities in my art. I explore juxtaposing ideas between East and West, science and art, and the natural and the man-made world. My work attempts to transcend individual disciplines.

I am inspired by the natural world, in particular water in its various forms. For me, water is a metaphor for transformative identities and multiple versions of a truth. Although it can take many forms in response to internal and external forces it is an organic substance that retains its essential property.

On another level, water recalls rich memories and complex emotions. Images of repeated waves invoke perceptions of rhythm and music. This auditory experience resides in the viewer and not through any actual sound. In my work, renderings of waves become abstract sine waves, hydrogen and oxygen translate to notes from music scores and particles of snow and spray transform into galaxies in the night sky.

Visual music is important for the experience of the work and because it draws a man-made connection to another natural phenomenon— time. My work addresses the suspension and the release of time. In recent bodies of work, I explore the temporal elements of my world through images of waves suspended by the vicissitudes of weather or their geological and manmade environments. Music is also about time. Mapped and charted are non-literal compositions encompassing elements such as amplitudes of notes to the magnitude of stars in black and white or saturated with colors. Composed by waves, these works converge to form multiple layers of meaning.

Yu-Wen Wu graduated from the School of Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, MA and Brown University in Providence, RI. Her recent shows include solo exhibitions at the Danforth Museum of Art in Framingham, MA and the Miller Block Gallery in Boston, MA. She was recently awarded a Fellowship at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts in Sweetbriar, VA. Her works are found in many private and public collections including the Danforth Museum of Art, Fidelity Investments, State Street Bank, Microsoft and Dana Farber Cancer Institute.