Artist
Shaoyu Chen
Shaoyu is a visual artist currently working between France and Switzerland. Her studies on literature and Jungian psychology for her BA degree deeply influenced her creative process, as she often approaches her subjects through psychological analysis and metaphorical representations.
In her paintings, she explores the complexity of the human psyche, taking inspiration ranging from daily interactions to other people’s dreams. The mythical figures in her paintings mirror the archetypes that our conscious minds are often unaware of. She is fascinated by the subconscious’s ability to fictionalize the process of individuation in order to communicate with our waking minds.
Shaoyu's Style
Shaoyu has always been sensitive towards her own and others’ mental states, and is fascinated with dreams and their metaphors. After studying a bit of Jungian psychology in university, painting also became an oracle reading between her conscious and subconscious minds.
Artists such as Remedios Varo and Leonora Carrington influenced her work. She says: "I am intrigued by how they “stage” and present the dynamics between different metaphorical objects."
"I keep a diary to document my dreams and conversations with friends, which are the main source of my ideas for painting." - Shaoyu Chen
AVAILABLE ARTWORKS
Shop by Collection
September Drop 2024
"This collection is about trying to relate with others who trigger my fear and pain. By looking at them as if they were my twin, they show me how we are more similar than we are different." - Shaoyu Chen, Kindred Reflections
May Drop 2024
"The title Sometimes a Wild God comes from Tom Hirons' poem of the same title. This collection unfolds a story about embracing unexpected lessons from Life." - Shaoyu Chen, Sometimes a Wild God
July Drop 2023
"This collection is about different situations of meeting the other side, including when we're in conflicts, in admiration, and in reflecting the past of intertwined relationships within my family tree." - Shaoyu Chen, The Other Side
May Drop 2023
"What is it like to be a plant? What is it like to be so tied to a pot, an ikebana bowl, or bound to the earth? How do we sprout during a cold spring? Is it okay to let parts of myself wither? This collection is a reflection of these questions as I observe the relationship between our state of being and the environment." - Shoayu Chen, Rhizomes
Winter Prints 2022
Drop 5 - Winter 2022
"This series wants to add a final touch to autumn before the world hibernates." - Shaoyu Chen, La Dernière Main
The Peace of Wild Things
"I come into the peace of wild things who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief…” - extract from The Peace of Wild Things by Wendell Berry
"I try to hold them together, these wild things in my life. I let self-betraying thoughts grow like weeds until time kindly offers me a pair of scissors to trim them away. I accept my closed eyes when they witness genuine lies. I mourn my inevitable changing nature. I let pretty things die. I celebrate rejections. I watch myself grow into a stranger. If a canvas can hold these wild things together, nothing is lost or broken." - Shaoyu Chen, The Peace of Wild Things
