Born in 1967 in Hualien, Taiwan, Song Sheau-Ming received his PhD in Visual Arts from the Lancaster Institute for the Contemporary Arts (LICA) at the University of Lancaster, UK. Spanning several decades, his artistic journey unfolds between rational structure and poetic emotion, shaping an abstract aesthetic imbued with both intellectual depth and lyrical sensibility.

At the core of Song’s practice lies a profound inquiry into the nature of imagery - an exploration that captivates on both visual and conceptual levels. A recurring element in his work, masking tape serves not only as a formal device but as a symbolic gesture that speaks to themes of time, transition, and the tension between reality and illusion. Through acts of concealment and revelation, his compositions construct layered spaces where internal thought and external landscapes intersect.

In his 2020 solo exhibition “Intertidal”, Song offered a contemplative gaze on memory and homeland. Through intuitive impressions of coastal fragments and the precise rendering of masking tape that obscures the view, the works become windows of introspection. The blurred landscapes oscillate between forgotten terrains and mnemonic projections, with the horizon line quietly carrying the emotional undertow of childhood, migration, and time past.

The 2022 exhibition “Concrete Poetry” further developed these themes. Here, Song employed diptych and polyptych formats, intentionally leaving narrow gaps between panels to evoke the condition of separation - an echo of rupture and the longing for repair. Masking tape once again becomes central: not merely a visual marker, but a device that articulates the rational boundaries of the pictorial plane, softening the grip of realism and channeling minimalist language into subtle and resolute philosophical expression.

In his 2025 exhibition “Anonymous Narrative” (2025), Song pushes further by confronting the very logic of pictorial storytelling. Employing a strategy of de-narrativization, he disrupts the habitual link between seeing and understanding, compelling viewers to decode and reflect upon images whose meanings remain open-ended. Rather than offering a singular interpretation, his works prompt multilayered contemplation and emotional resonance.

For Song Sheau-Ming, painting is neither a vehicle for emotional catharsis nor a means to please the eye. Instead, it becomes a site of inquiry - a sustained dialectic of vision, existence, and meaning. In redefining the expressive potential of contemporary abstraction, Song invites us to engage not only with images, but with the spaces between them.