When Tina Keng entered Taiwan’s artwork world three a long time in the past, her profession — and the trade’s future — was removed from assured.
“It was like a desert — a lot uncertainty,” mentioned Keng, 72, a veteran Taiwanese gallerist, as she stood in her namesake gallery in Taipei on a current afternoon. She recalled how, within the Nineteen Eighties, when she left her job in actual property gross sales to pursue a profession in galleries, “the market was nonetheless very a lot dominated by Western artwork.”
She noticed this clearly at an public sale preview in Paris about three a long time in the past. There, she encountered a portray by Sanyu, a Chinese language-born French painter, alongside works by Matisse and Monet. She was struck by how Sanyu’s work was simply as spectacular as the opposite artists’, however acquired little consideration in Asia.
“I noticed the potential of artists with Chinese language linkages — each aesthetically and commercially,” Keng mentioned, explaining her determination to gather and current art work by Chinese language-rooted artists like Mr. San and Zao Wou-Ki, a Chinese language-born French painter identified for his oil work. “I made up my thoughts to convey them to Asia since then.”
Now, she does precisely that, displaying fashionable and up to date work by artists of various generations at Tina Keng Gallery, an inviting house on the bottom flooring of a six-story constructing in a busy know-how space within the metropolis’s Neihu district. Within the basement of the identical constructing, the gallery’s sister model, TKG+ — run by Keng’s daughter, Shelly Wu, 42 — shows immersive multimedia installations and experimental tasks, many by native skills. With Keng’s gallery embracing classics rooted in Chinese language heritage, and Wu’s trying to the longer term, the areas are a research in contrasts.
And outdoors Taipei, Keng and Wu have remodeled their galleries into driving forces within the worldwide artwork market. They’ve showcased their collections at worldwide festivals like Artwork Basel Hong Kong, and the Venice Biennale, supporting established names and rising skills. And this month, Tina Keng Gallery and TKG+, together with 9 different Taiwanese artwork galleries, will present their artists at Artwork Basel Hong Kong.
It’s a hanging determine, however not stunning to Keng and Wu, who notice that Taiwan provides a novel mix of sturdy collector help, wealthy cultural variety and a local weather of freedom and openness — the perfect elements for a robust artwork scene, which has nourished their work through the years.
Keng first began within the trade in 1989 with Dimensions Art Center, an organization that makes a speciality of artwork curation. Three years later, she co-founded Lin & Keng Gallery. She famous that within the early Nineties, extra consumers in Taiwan have been keen to pay for artwork because the financial system thrived after the federal government lifted martial lawin the late Nineteen Eighties.
“It was a time when folks began to make fortunes and purchase positive artwork,” mentioned Keng. “Taiwan’s artwork gallery trade additionally thrived quickly throughout that point.”
In 2009, she based Tina Keng Gallery amid the worldwide monetary disaster, and managed to outlive with the help of loyal prospects. The gallery briefly expanded to Beijing, the place Keng hoped to achieve extra potential consumers, however she closed that department in 2012 after discovering that the buying energy of Chinese language collectors didn’t meet her expectations.
“From a market perspective, the energy of Taiwanese consumers is second to none in Asia,” Keng mentioned. “Chinese language collectors are additionally far behind.”
Wu, her daughter and an American-educated designer, based TKG+ in 2009 when she was 27.
“My mother was undoubtedly the principle purpose for me to affix this trade,” mentioned Wu. “I’ve been comfortably following her steps, however I additionally like new challenges.”
Wu’s artwork gallery offers guests an phantasm much like that of a theater. Within the house, darkness, gentle, sounds and varied ongoing experiments all weave collectively. Wu mentioned she had a passion for multimedia artwork. Her roster consists of many artists from Taiwan and different Asian nations. Considered one of them, the Taipei-born Yuan Goang-Ming, at the moment has a solo exhibition up on the gallery, “Forward Into the Darkish.”
In a single room, his video “Everyday War” (2024) performs, depicting a seemingly orderly room being destroyed, after which returning to regular as if nothing had occurred. In one other house, a darkish object slowly strikes backwards and forwards in entrance of the guests, in a piece that Yuan titled “The Breathing Black Hole” (1995-2024).
“I consciously promote extra works by native Taiwanese artists in my gallery,” mentioned Wu.
In 2013, Wu launched TKG+ Initiatives, a particular exhibition space for rising artists at her gallery, the place she invitations curators or artists to strive extra experimental artwork tasks. In a single nook of the world stood “Night and the soul” (2025), a large bookshelf that Chiu Chen-Hung made out of metal beams and concrete sourced from buildings that collapsed in an earthquake. Above, a bit from Julia Hung’s “Wisps and Whispers” collection, made with copper wire enameled to a silvery-white, hung like clouds floating within the evening sky.
“I like issues which can be revolutionary and a bit experimental, that are certainly tougher to maintain commercially at the start,” mentioned Wu as she launched her collections. “However I feel skills beginning out want a stage like this.”
When Keng and Wu head to Artwork Basel Hong Kong, it will likely be their thirteenth consecutive time taking part within the honest. They are going to be displaying works by Yang Mao-lin, Yuan Hui-Li, Chen Ching-Yuan and 9 others. They mentioned that taking part on this exhibition had develop into an everyday a part of their annual schedule. However what they hope is to see Taiwan to be the host of artists from all over the world within the close to future.
“The trade is totally different from after I first got here 30 years in the past, however I hope that someday Taiwan is not going to simply be exhibitors at Artwork Basel, however will even be the host,” mentioned Keng.
