If viewing were merely the capture of surface, how could it summon what remains unseen?

The exhibition title “horizon: the visible latent” draws from phenomenology’s profound interpretation of the term “horizon” — not as an external frame or endpoint, but as the open condition that enables experience to emerge and extend. As Edmund Husserl and Martin Heidegger observed, our ability to perceive “something” or understand “being” arises because every object exists within a broader contextual field. “Horizon” thus becomes a threshold where meaning and perception intersect — a space of manifestation between the visible and the invisible.

Inspired by this concept, Chiang transforms painting into a dynamic site of continuous extension: layers of color and intervals of blankness intertwine to create multiple strata, and every contour or color field serves as a point of entry for vision. As the gaze travels across the canvas, seeing ceases to be instantaneous and becomes an experience unfolding through duration. The viewer’s bodily position, the flow of sight, and perceptual rhythm all participate in the co-construction of meaning — extending from the interplay of light and shadow, color, line, and plane within the painting to the perception of space and wholeness. The canvas becomes a living field that bears witness to the horizon as it comes into being.

Creation as Exploration, Geometry as the Dynamic Language of Vision

For Chiang Shu-Yun, creation is a journey into ambiguity and the unspoken. Years of painting practice and accumulated knowledge nurture her exploration and prompt reflection on the meaning and value of painting in contemporary contexts. She examines the habitual ways we engage with two-dimensional works, striving to return to an intuitive, acute, and pure perceptual awareness. Rather than generating more images, she distances herself from narrative and instead employs abstraction to guide viewers toward “seeing seeing itself.”

In her practice, geometry becomes a central language for exploring the inherent order of form, space, and proportion — transformed into a dynamic visual grammar. Its significance lies not in technical refinement but in how it offers a new vantage point for perception, allowing the inner structure of the work to emerge and inviting the viewer to move beyond surface into deeper abstraction.

The mutable nature of abstract art invites continuously open interpretations — offering no single viewing path but creating an environment in which “seeing can occur.” When attention shifts from emotional projection to the internal logic and visual rhythm of the work, art transcends expression and naturally becomes an experience in itself. Viewing, then, is the very condition for the work’s existence.

Chiang explores the openness of perception both within and beyond the canvas, contemplating how viewers participate in the generation of meaning. She allows painting itself to take center stage, turning the act of looking into the work’s essential message — a visual present continuous tense.

About the Artist

Chiang Shu-Yun (b. 1997, Taiwan) lives and works in Taipei. She received her MFA (2023) and BFA (2019) from the Department of Fine Arts, National Taiwan University of Arts. Her practice encompasses painting, imagery, and spatial installation, focusing on habitual modes of viewing and visual framing. Through abstract geometric forms, she reinterprets the essence of painting and reconsiders how borders, contours, and frames define our ways of seeing.

Her debut solo exhibition “facade — Chiang Shu-Yun Solo Exhibition” was held in 2022. She has since participated in numerous exhibitions, including “Soka Young Artists Group Exhibition” (2023), “Y.E.S. TAIWAN IX” at Yiri Arts (2022), and Prospect Space, AKI Leipzig in Germany. Earlier, her works were selected for “2019 Taiwan Contemporary Annual” and “Cross-Strait University Student Outstanding Artworks and Art Lecture Hall” in Xiamen.

This exhibition features several of Chiang’s recent abstract paintings, reflecting on the entangled and dialectical relationships among painting, space, and the creation of meaning. Each work invites viewers to engage in this process of co-creation — to traverse the pictorial field and enter the endless extension of the horizon.