Born 1971 in Nantou, Taiwan
Lives and works in Taipei, Taiwan
Chen Chun-Hao received a bachelor’s degree in fine arts from the Taipei National University of the Arts (1996) and a master’s degree in plastic arts from the National Tainan University of the Arts (1998). In addition to working as an artist, he has a long career as a curator and director of arts organizations. He is a member of the VT Artsalon in Taipei, where he has also exhibited his work.
Since 1997, Chen has experimented with the use of industrial materials in his work, such as thumbtacks. For the “Mosquito Nail Shan Shui” series, Chen carefully emulates landscape paintings found at the National Palace Museum, Taipei and abroad, by placing diminutive mosquito nails on canvas. After precise calculations, for his first completed piece, Early Spring for the Mosquito Nail (2010), Chen used a specially designed nail gun to place as many as 400,000 stainless steel mosquito nails on canvas. Enlarging the original Early Spring (1072), he then carefully replaced the ink of the scroll with the mosquito nails, which protrude about one centimeter from the canvas. Each nail punctures the surface of the canvas, at the same time conjuring a three-dimensionality that accentuates the work’s otherworldliness.
Chen Chun-Hao has participated in numerous exhibitions, including at the Today Art Museum, Beijing, China (2009), Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taiwan (2001, 2006), Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei, Taiwan (2005), and Headlands Center for the Arts in Sausalito, California, U.S. (2002). His solo exhibitions include Meandering Toward the Clouds, Tina Keng Gallery, Taipei (2020); Once Upon an Otherworldly Realm, Tina Keng Gallery, Taipei (2017); Reclaiming the Lost Territories, Tina Keng Gallery, Taipei (2014); Mosquito Nail Shan Shui, Tina Keng Gallery, Taipei (2011); The Way of Nailing, VT Artsalon, Taipei (2011); Maze, VT Artsalon, Taipei; and Aura Beyond, Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taipei (2001).