New series “Night Market After Rain” in progress
Large dark canvases, indigo and sodium light. Studio visits by appointment.
Taipei — New York • Est. 2011 • Painting / Light / Memory
LEON YEN
PAINTS SILENCE
Contemporary visual artist exploring migration, memory and quiet landscapes through large-scale oil, ink, pigment and light. 140+ works, 27 solo & group shows, collectors in 14 countries.
14YEARS PRACTICE
27EXHIBITIONS
140+WORKS
LEON YEN — MEMORY AS LANDSCAPE — LIGHT AS MATERIAL — SILENCE AS COLOR — LEON YEN — MEMORY AS LANDSCAPE — LIGHT AS MATERIAL — SILENCE AS COLOR —
01 — About the artist
I paint places that no longer exist, but you remember.
I'm Leon Yen — a multidisciplinary visual artist born in Taichung, working between Taipei and Brooklyn. My practice moves between monumental abstract landscapes, intimate ink studies, and immersive light installations.
Growing up between night markets and mountain fog, I learned that home is not a place but a temperature, a humidity, a color. After studying fine arts and working as a set painter for independent film, I developed a layered technique: 20–40 washes of oil, ash, tea and marble dust, scraped, burned and re-veiled until the canvas holds light like skin holds memory.
FOCUS
Large-scale abstraction, material research, site-specific light, collaborative film & sound.
STATEMENT
“I don’t depict nature. I reconstruct the feeling of returning to it after long absence.”
- ✔ MFA Fine Arts, Taipei National University of the Arts
- ✔ Residencies: New York, Lisbon, Kyoto, Berlin
- ✔ Works in private & public collections in Asia, EU, US
- ✔ Commissions for hotels, galleries and film productions
02 — Selected work 2022–2026
Monuments of quiet color
Each series begins with walking — coastlines, abandoned railways, morning markets at 4am — and ends in the studio with pigment. Hover, feel, imagine scale.
Silent Tide No.9
Oil, ash on linen • 200×160cm
Ember Field Study
Pigment, tea, fire • 180×180cm
Mountain Fog 04:12
Ink, marble dust • 150×120cm
Night Market After Rain
Oil on canvas • 240×200cm
Carrying Light Home
Acrylic, lightbox • variable
Salt Wind Archive
Salt, gesso, oil • 160×130cm
03 — Process & material
How silence is built
01
Walk & record
4am walks, sound recordings, 35mm film, salt water samples. 2000+ photos per series.
02
Wash & bury
Canvas primed with tea, ash and marble dust. First 10 layers buried, then excavated.
03
Burn & veil
Heat gun, scraping, glazing. Light is trapped between translucent veils.
04
Rest & listen
Works rest 30 days in darkness. Final varnish only when painting “breathes”.
Material library: 87 pigments, 12 ashes, 1 ocean.
From Penghu oyster ash to Kyoto sumi, from rust collected at Songshan rail yard to indigo from Yilan. Every painting lists its geography like wine lists its terroir. Collectors receive a material passport and a sound file recorded at the source location.
Ask about commissions2026 — NEW YORK
Solo: “Carrying Fog” — 18 large works, light room
2025 — TAIPEI
Solo: “Silent Tide” — sold out, museum acquisition
2024 — KYOTO / LISBON
Residencies + duo show “Salt & Tea”
2023 — BERLIN
Group: “After Landscape” — installation with fog & sound
04 — Studio journal / News
Latest notes & news
Process films, exhibition announcements, essays on color and memory. Click to read full story — each article lives on its own page.
Silent Tide — thank you Taipei
Sold out solo show, museum acquisition and new light room installation.
Own a piece of quiet?
Commissions open for 2026 — 2 slots left. Collectors, architects and curators: tell me about your space, light and silence. I reply within 48h.
TAIPEI STUDIO: XINDIAN, NEW TAIPEI • BY APPOINTMENT • BROOKLYN VISITS SPRING 2026