■The Realm of Becoming—CHEN Cheng-Wei Solo Exhibition
2026.06.28-2026.08.23

Text / Ivy SONG

The Realm of Becoming traces an increasingly distinct inner thread in Chen Cheng-Wei’s recent practice. From the Flower of Life to the Tree of Life, and further to the emergence of The Seven Treasures, flowers, trees, the Eye of Wisdom, and energy gems intertwine across the canvas, gradually forming a world sustained by emotion, memory, and spirituality. What unfolds in these works is more than a transformation of natural imagery; it is the formation of a way of seeing—one that begins with perception, settles inward, and ultimately gives rise to a spiritual landscape that belongs to the artist alone.

Flowers have always marked an important point of departure in Chen’s practice. His earliest flowers came from the love and affirmation he received from his mother and grandmother in childhood. Those experiences of praise, tenderness, and being seen sank deeply into his earliest feelings about life, giving flowers an enduring emotional weight throughout his later work. For Chen, what flowers carry has never been merely a matter of visual beauty; it is closer to a memory of how life is felt, cherished, and held.

In recent years, as his life experience has shifted, the thread first unfolded through flowers has also taken a new turn. The everyday experience of spending time with his child has brought increasing brightness to the paintings, along with a greater sense of openness and purity. High-saturation yellows, greens, and blues reflect across the canvas, carrying a warmth that seems to arise from within life itself. The works remain full without becoming excessive, luminous without losing restraint. At the same time, the image of the flower has been progressively distilled. Concrete floral forms gradually recede, transforming into blocks of color, arcs, and rhythmic graphic structures. The motif of the “Eye of Wisdom” adds a further dimension, allowing the flower to carry implications of looking, sensing, and inward contemplation beyond the fact of blooming itself.

If the flower bears the artist’s earliest emotional response to life, then the tree opens onto deeper extension and rootedness. The emergence of the Tree of Life series pushes Chen’s work from emotional impulse toward a denser and more grounded structure. The tree evokes family, companionship, and the imagination of an inner spiritual home, while also bringing greater spatial depth and internal order into the paintings. The inclusion of The Seven Treasures further unfolds this trajectory. Through the interweaving of color, symbols, and layered imagery, the emotional energy accumulated through flowers and

trees is gradually transformed into a more complete inner vision—a realm shaped by love, memory, seeing, and perception.
What The Realm of Becoming points to is a state of life in continuous generation through time. From the perceptual world of flowers, to the extension of trees, to the spiritual vision opened by The Seven Treasures, Chen Cheng-Wei slowly builds his own way of seeing and his own painterly order upon the foundation of lived experience. What these works ultimately unfold is not only a visible world of flowers and trees, but a realm of life that takes shape slowly through love and memory, and continues