Writing, whether accumulated from bodily experience or generated by artificial intelligence, can no longer convey truth or knowledge. Rather, both approaches reveal the hidden relations underlying writing, the body, and the mind. In doing so, they put the essence of writing into question.
In this dual solo exhibition “Echoes in Calligraphy”, Taiwanese artists Lu Wei and Tuan Mu present video artworks developed from their ink painting practice, addressing themes of gender, the digital, mythology, and nature. The exhibited artworks reflect on the subject’s consciousness in ink arts, exploring how artists and viewers, through diverse modes of visual imagination, could transcend the limits of the physical body, allowing subjectivity to flow across different dimensions. By dissolving and reconfiguring the inherent symbolic meaning of images, the works unfold from difference, bringing forth each artist’s perspective on contemporary calligraphy and ink painting.
In his artworks, Tuan Mu seeks to reinterpret the traditional and unique worldview of Asian cultures through new media, and to explore, with a poetical approach, human perception and thought in the age of technology. In the exhibition, his video artwork “Astvats” draws on medieval Armenian manuscripts and religious texts, using AI algorithms to reassemble text and imagery. The work explores the stability of language as a vessel for faith, while reflecting on the potential of artificial intelligence to create new myths and languages. In “Calligrapedia : A Universal Algorithm”, the artist combines Chinese calligraphy, natural imagery, and oral storytelling, using machine learning to reconstruct forms of writing, flowing between humans and all things.
Lu Wei’s artworks reference cross-cultural female symbols and the figure of the mother, in reflection of her embodied experiences of being both a woman and a mother. Her three-channel video installation “Mirrors” combines poetry, calligraphy, and performance. Using the distinctive visual language of ink and a feminine perspective, the work reinterprets the concept of “shadow” through moving images. “Mirrors” explores religion, literature, mythology, and the archetype of the mother from multiple perspectives, aiming to examine and heal female figures who, throughout history, have been both creatively inspiring yet burdened with negative associations. The work symbolically depicts the artist’s experience of pregnancy and motherhood, while also reflecting on the multifaceted nature of motherhood. It considers how the unique shadow-like qualities of ink as a medium seep into the visual language of video.
The exhibition “Echoes in Calligraphy” seems to open multiple windows onto this question of writing: when life experience, memory, and symbols are reassembled and regenerated through the artists’ practice, how might we reimagine the subject, meaning, and methods of writing?
About the Artists
Lu Wei (Taiwan, b.1994) is a visual artist and curator based in Taipei. She received both her BFA and MFA in Fine Arts from Taipei National University of the Arts. Her practice encompasses ink painting, installations, artist’s books, handscrolls, and folding screens. Drawing on religious, literary, and mythological figures as well as archetypes of motherhood, her works explore symbols of women across cultures to reflect on her own experiences as a woman and mother. While rooted in the traditions of ink painting, her work incorporates feminist thought and gender issues, seeking to reinterpret and expand understandings of gendered bodies and their images within the history of ink.
She has participated in residencies and projects internationally, including Grey Projects (Singapore, 2023) in partnership with Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts, supported by the Asia Pacific Exchange Program and Taipei Artist Village; 18th Street Arts Center (Los Angeles, 2023) with support from Taiwan’s Ministry of Culture; and a curatorial residency in Utah (2024) funded by Taiwan’s National Culture and Arts Foundation. Her solo exhibition My Sole Desires (2024) was presented at Material (Salt Lake City, UT), and the Utah Museum of Fine Arts acquired two of her works for its permanent collection. The Taiwanese American Foundation also collected several of her paintings. In 2025, with support from Taiwan’s Ministry of Culture and National Culture and Arts Foundation, she became the first Taiwanese artist to present dual solo exhibitions at Material and Ogden Contemporary Arts in the United States. These shows received major sponsorship from institutions such as the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, the Utah Division of Arts & Museums, and the George S. and Dolores Doré Eccles Foundation, and were featured in Southwest Contemporary.
Her group exhibitions include the Center of International Contemporary Art (Vancouver, 2025), Yavuz (Singapore, 2025), ER Gallery (Taipei, 2024), Absolute Space for the Arts (Tainan, 2023), OUR Museum (New Taipei City, 2022), Silpakorn University (Bangkok, 2022), Academy of Fine Arts in Prague (2022), Soka Art (Tainan, 2021), Mezzo Art (Tainan, 2021), Taipei Artist Village (2020), and AKI Gallery (Taipei, 2020). As a curator, Lu Wei has organized exhibitions at Taitung Art Museum (2023, nominated for the 22nd Taishin Art Award), MOCA Taipei (recipient of the NCAF Curator’s Incubator Program grant), and Taiwan Contemporary Culture Lab (C-Lab) for the Taiwan Annual (2023).
Tuan Mu (Taiwan, b.1994) is an artist and independent curator based in Taipei. He graduated from Taipei National University of the Arts with a major in Ink Painting. His work explores how new media can reinterpret the worldview of traditional Asian culture, adopting a poetic approach to human perception and thought in the age of technology. His practice draws on Buddhist and Taoist philosophies, East Asian animism, and mythological tales, combining artificial intelligence, virtual reality, animation, sound performance, ink painting, and calligraphy to create transdisciplinary narrative structures that engage viewers in dialogue.
His artworks have been presented internationally, including at Durres Biennale, Athens Digital Arts Festival, Asia Digital Art Exhibition, CutOut Fest, Miami New Media Festival, Now & After International Video Art Festival, Venice Immersive Market (Taiwan Pavilion), Festival ECRA, CineGlobe Film Festival, CYFEST Media Art Festival, and International Digitalkunst Festival.
As a curator, Mu’s projects emphasize cross-cultural research and identity issues in contemporary contexts, often involving fieldwork with curators, artists, and local communities. His curatorial proposals have been selected for SLY Art Space’s Emerge Curator Project and the NCAF Curator’s Incubator Program, and nominated for the Taishin Art Award. Recent curatorial projects include Home: Foundation, Wall Cancer, Skin, and Shelter (Taitung Art Museum, 2023), Humus (MOCA Taipei, 2023), and Beyond Interfaces—Taiwanese Video Program (Mirzoyan Library, Armenia, 2024).
More information about the exhibition here.
