Metamorphosis II (Fleurs), 2025

Jen-chih Yu  

Painter, engraver and art critic, born in 1977 in Taipei (Taiwan) into a family of artists and intellectuals. He studied Fine Arts at Tunghai University in Taichung (Taiwan) from 1995 to 1999, then he obtained a DEA in history and sociology of cinema at the University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne.

From an early age, Yu Jen-chih experimented with various engraving and painting techniques, and participated in two solo exhibitions (1994, 1997) in his hometown. From 2008 to 2014, he participated in several group exhibitions at the Alliance Française of Bahrain, in Colombia (Bogota), in Ukraine (Municipal Museum of Dnipropetrovsk), as well as in galleries and cultural spaces in France (Paris, Dinard , Brest, Quimper), in Italy (Avellino) and in Argentina (MACLA, La Plata).

In April 2010, he shared a major temporary exhibition with the artist Masha S. at the Georgian National Music Center (Tbilisi). In 2012, in Paris, he participated in the group exhibition “Donner du temps au temps", at the Espace des Blancs-Manteaux. From January to March 2014, Yu Jen-chih presented his works in a solo exhibition at the Red Zone Arts gallery in Geneva and again, in 2019, at Red Zone Arts in Frankfurt am Main. In April-May 2017, the Kwang-Hua Information & Culture Center in Hong Kong devoted a retrospective entitled “Between titans and giants" to his engraved works.

In 2018, Yu Jen-chih produced a 720 cm x 122 cm wood engraving for his solo exhibition at the Means du Bord, the art center of the Manufacture des Tabacs in Morlaix. In November 2019, the Red Zone Arts gallery presented it at the Discovery Art Fair, in Frankfurt am Main, then in January 2020, the Alisan Fine Arts gallery (Hong Kong) exhibited it at the Taipei International Contemporary Art Fair. Dangdai.

Yu Jen-chih also co-signed several artists' books, including Ce qui me signe (with Michel Bohbot) and Mesures Démesures (with Werner Lambersy, CMJN éditions).

Yu Jen-chih is an art critic for magazines and newspapers in France (L'Atelier du Roman, Théorème), in China (Panorama Monthly, Eastern China Daily), in Hong Kong (Ming Pao Monthly, Apple Daily) and in Taiwan (INK Literary Monthly, China Times, Liberty Times, Music and Audiophile, Unitas Literature). He is the author of literary files in direct collaboration with Milan Kundera, Carlos Fuentes and Fernando Arrabal, and of written portraits of artists such as Mikhail Kobakhidzé, Patricia Erbelding (Dhalgren Editions) and Bertrand Menguy.

In May 2011, INK Literary Monthly published Interior/Exterior: Still Lifes and Landscapes, a work which brings together twenty texts by Yu Jen-chih on art, published in 2007 and 2008 as part of a monthly column. The book was republished in November 2013 for China, by New Star Press.

Yu Jen-chih has lived and worked in France since 1999.