Yuan Wen – Artist Biography
Yuan Wen is an interdisciplinary artist based in Vancouver whose practice encompasses printmaking, drawing, and installation. Her work explores the connections between nature, materials, and human experience. As a first-generation Chinese immigrant, Wen draws upon Eastern philosophy and her cultural heritage to reflect themes of interdependence and transformation. She received a Graphic Design Diploma from Mohawk College, a Fine Arts Diploma from Langara College and a Bachelor of Visual Arts from Emily Carr University. Recognized with various awards, including the Audain Travel Award, the Helen Pitt Fund for Fine Arts, and Judge W. K. Warrender Award, she has exhibited her work in British Columbia and Ontario, fostering a deeper connection to the natural world.
文媛 – 艺术家简介
文媛（Yuan Wen）是一位生活在温哥华的跨学科艺术家，创作涵盖版画、绘画和装置艺术。她的作品探索自然、材料与人类经验之间的联系。作为一名第一代中国移民，文媛从东方式哲学和文化传承中汲取灵感，反映了相互依赖和转变的主题。她获得了莫霍克学院的平面设计文凭、兰贺拉学院的美术文凭以及艾米丽卡尔大学的视觉艺术学士学位。她曾获得多个奖项，包括奥代恩旅行奖、海伦·皮特美术基金和温德尔·沃伦德特别奖，并在不列颠哥伦比亚省和安大略省举办过展览，以此促进与自然世界的更深连接。
Yuan Wen – Artist Statement
My artistic practice combines painting, printmaking, and installation to investigate the dynamic relationship between material agency, ecological systems, and cultural memory. I examine the interactions between organic forms and human-made spaces by fusing traditional printmaking techniques with contemporary painting. My process highlights the material characteristics to produce layered, immersive works that reflect both natural cycles and social frameworks.
As a first-generation immigrant artist, my creations are shaped by Eastern philosophies and current ecological discussions. Inspired by the Taoist concepts of Zi Ran (self-production) and Bruno Latour’s critique of the divide between nature and humanity, I seek to blur the lines between human and non-human entities. This exhibition at Lipont Gallery allows me to delve deeper into these themes, utilizing visual abstraction to reveal the invisible forces influencing our relationship with the environment. I invite viewers to reconsider their connections to materials, organisms, and histories.
– Yuan Wen 2025
文媛 – 艺术家陈述
我的艺术创作融合了绘画、版画和装置艺术，探索物质能动性、生态系统与文化记忆之间的关系。我通过将西方传统版画技巧与当代艺术形式相结合，研究有机与人造形态之间的转化。我的创作过程强调材料的特性，创作出层叠、沉浸式的作品，既反映了自然规律，也体现了社会结构。
作为一位第一代移民艺术家，我的作品受东方式哲学和当下生态议题的影响。受道家“自然”概念和布鲁诺·拉图尔对自然与人类分割的批判启发，我寻求模糊人类与非人类实体之间的界限。此次在力邦画廊的展览让我有机会更深入地探讨这些主题，通过视觉抽象揭示影响我们与环境关系的无形力量。我邀请观众重新思考他们与物质、生物和历史之间的联系。
A Thousand Forms, One Nature
A Thousand Forms, One Nature explores the fluid intersection between material agency, natural cycles, and spatial interconnectedness. This mixed-media exhibition examines how organic and synthetic materials interact, degrade, and transform over time, questioning the boundaries between solidity and transience. Inspired by Michel Serres’ assertion that “A thousand cultures, one nature,” this exhibition reflects on how nature endures beyond human fragmentation, illuminating universality, change, and the unseen forces that shape our world.
The works in this exhibition create a dynamic interplay of suspended fragments, gestural forms, and flow networks through a combination of printmaking techniques, painting, and hand-drawn elements. The tension between hard and soft edges reflects my engagement with Taoist principles of zi ran (self-production) and Bruno Latour’s critique of the human-nature divide. By layering organic textures and structural patterns, these works evoke the rhythms of nature—from cellular formations to shifting landscapes—capturing both ephemerality and continuity.
The mixed media paintings, such as Under the Veil, Whispering Stillness, and Motionless, examine materiality, impermanence, and the entangled relationship between nature and social structures. Inspired by 17th-century scientific illustrations, these pieces investigate the intersections of observation, documentation, and shifting environmental realities. Repeated structures and organic motifs reflect the artist’s fascination with patterns that emerge across micro and macro scales, revealing nature’s intrinsic order within apparent chaos.
Ultimately, A Thousand Forms, One Nature invites viewers to reconsider their relationship with materiality and the environment. It prompts reflection on how natural and synthetic worlds interact, how forms persist through cycles of change, and how, despite human-made divisions, we remain connected to a singular, evolving nature.
– Yuan Wen 2025
【万象一源】
【万象一源】探索了物质能动性、自然周期和空间互联的流动。本次混合媒材展览基于对有机与合成材料之间互动、降解和转化的探索，思考坚固与暂时性之间的边界。受米歇尔·塞尔（Michel Serres）“千种文化，一种自然”观点的启发，本展览反思了自然如何超越人类的碎片化，揭示了普遍性、变迁以及塑造我们世界的无形力量。
本次展览的作品通过版画、绘画和手绘元素的结合，创造了悬浮碎片、表现性形态和流动网络的动态互动。曲直边界的张力反映了与道家“自然”（自然生成）原则的关系，以及布鲁诺·拉图尔（Bruno Latour）对人类与自然分割的批判。通过有机质感和结构性图案的叠加，这些作品唤起了自然的节奏——从细胞构造到变动的景观——既捕捉了短暂性，又传递了连续性。
混合媒材画作，如【面纱之下】、【静谧低语】和【静】，探讨了物质性、无常性以及自然与社会结构之间的纠缠关系。受17世纪科学插图的启发，这些作品追寻观察、记录与变化的环境现实之间的交集。反复出现的结构和有机图案反映了艺术家对在微观与宏观形态变化的痴迷，揭示了自然在表面混乱中的内在秩序。
最终，【万象一源】邀请观众重新思考与物质性和环境的关系。它促使人们反思自然和合成世界如何互动，形式如何在变化的周期中持续存在，以及尽管人类制造了分界，我们依然与单一而不断演变的自然相连。
Yuan Wen – Artist CV
EDUCATION
2023 Sep.-2025 Nov Master of Fine Arts in Visual Arts, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC
2020 Sep.-2022 Apr. Visual Arts, BFA, Emily Carr University of Art and Design, Vancouver, BC
2018 Sep.-2020 Apr. Fine Arts, Diploma, Langara College, Vancouver, BC
2016 Jan. -2018 Apr. Graphic Design, Advanced Diploma, Mohawk College, Hamilton, ON
1996 Sep. -1998 Jun. Visual and Creative Arts, Diploma, Chongqing Technology and Business University, Chongqing, China
WORKSHOP
2025 Monotype Collage, Place Des Arts, Coquitlam, BC
2024 Kit Making, Vancouver Asian Heritage Month Society
SOLO / TWO-PERSON EXHIBIITON
2025 Becoming, Place Des Arts, Coquitlam, BC
2024 Rivers of Connection, Pools of Separation, Hearth Gallery, Bowen Island., BC
2024 Connecting the Dots, AHVA Gallery, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC
GROUP EXHIBIITON
2024 Digging, AHVA Gallery, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC
2024 The Journey, National Group Show, Dundarave Print Workshop, Vancouver, BC
2024 Entangled Embodiment: Intersections and Dialogues, AHVA Gallery, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC
2023 Art 4 Life, Canadian Pacific Gallery, Anne Kitching Gallery, Suncor Gallery, PoMoArts, Port Moody, BC
2023 Connection, Regional Group Show, Dundarave Print Workshop, Vancouver, BC
2022 Tropical Café: Centre A Holiday Art Market, Centre A, Vancouver, BC
2022 Connecting the Dots, MOEC Gallery, Michael O’Brian Exhibition Commons Emily Carr University of Art + Design, Vancouver, BC
2022 Emerging Print Exhibition, Dundarave Print Workshop, Vancouver, BC
2022 Luminous Light, Luminous Travels, Luminous Tales, MOEC Gallery,
Emily Carr University of Art + Design, Vancouver, BC
2021 Print Pulse 30: National Undergraduate Printmaking Exhibition, Queen’s university, Kingston, ON
AWARDS
2024 Audain Travel Award, Vancouver, BC
2024 B. C. Binning Memorial Fellowship in Drawing, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC
2024 Helen Pitt Fund for Fine Arts, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC
2023 BPOC Graduate Excellence Award, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC
2021 Emily Carr University Achievement Scholarship, Emily Carr University of Art and Design, Vancouver, BC
2020 Honorary Studio Award, Langara College, Vancouver, BC
COLLECTIONS
2021 Special Collections Portion of the ECU library, Emily Carr University of Art + Design, Vancouver, BC
2020 Patio Press Studio – Emily Carr University of Art + Design, Vancouver, BC
