In Tseng Chien-Ying’s Taipei studio, ‘time detaches from the outside world’. Each work he makes there is ‘a living organism that grows according to its own logic’. Tseng’s role is simple to ‘serve as its sun, soil and water.’ Blending classical forms, folk rituals and contemporary pop culture, Tseng’s ink paintings and ceramic sculptures inhabit the complexity of human bodies and relationships.
In his latest work, Tseng draws to the surface the ‘latent queer sensibility’ he finds in East Asian religious iconography. Ahead of his solo presentation with Kiang Malingue at Frieze Seoul, Tseng reflects on navigating the binary of devotion and violence, how to unravel dominant historical narratives and his studio rituals.
Livia Russell Can you talk about your new work for Frieze Seoul?
Tseng Chien-Ying This series continues my exploration of East Asian visual traditions, particularly the symbolic potential of the human body in spiritual and cultural contexts. Some of my works adopts the format of a folding screen and depicts Hanshan and Shide, iconic figures from East Asian religious painting. In this canonical motif, I perceive a latent queer sensibility – an intimacy and ambiguity that resists normative interpretations. The structure of the screen allows for a multi-perspective narrative, echoing the complexity of human relationships I observe both in history and contemporary life. Through subtle shifts in colour, texture and facial expression, I hope to evoke the tension between internal emotion and the collective gaze.
LR How does this work fit within your oeuvre?
TC-Y My work is a longstanding dialogue between classical forms and contemporary expression. I often reframe Buddhist iconography, classical painting and folk ritual objects within psychological and corporeal contexts. In many of my recent paintings, I destabilize the binaries of violence and devotion, tradition and rupture. It opens a space for reflection through ambiguity, contradiction and tension.
LR Are there new sources of inspiration in your current work?
TC-Y Recently, I’ve been delving deeper into marginal narratives within popular culture: folk beliefs, historical iconographies and pop-culture elements. Reassembling these fragmented materials gives me an alternative lens through which to critique dominant art historical narratives. I approach tradition from a personal, bodily and often intimate, or ironically humorous perspective. I’m increasingly drawn to how trauma, gender and morals are encoded within visual traditions.
LR How do you see your practice developing?
TC-Y While painting remains my foundation, I hope to expand my practice into more spatial and narrative forms, such as installations, multi-panel works and interdisciplinary collaborations. I’m interested in how emotional states and memories can be projected into space, and how traditional pictorial languages might be grounded in sensory experience. I want to deepen the conceptual core of my practice while continuing to experiment with the possibilities of East Asian materials and formats.
LR What does time in the studio mean to you?
TC-Y Going into the studio is like entering a ritual space or a kind of spellbound enclosure. Before I begin working, I often go through a set of quiet rituals – burning incense and preparing materials – as a way to centre myself. Once focus sets in, time seems to detach from the outside world. The work begins to feel like a living organism that grows according to its own logic. I simply serve as its sun, soil and water.
The studio is where mental clarity and physical labour meet. It’s not merely a place of production, but a space where pride and humility coexist. It’s like a kitchen, a greenhouse, and most of all, a listening chamber, where I attune myself to my materials, my body and to silence. It’s here that the historical voices I engage with take shape through my hands and begin to speak.
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Frieze Seoul, COEX, 3 – 6 September 2025.
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Frieze Seoul is supported by Headline Partner LG OLED, in a collaboration that merges the worlds of art and technology, and Global Lead Partner Deutsche Bank, continuing over two decades of shared commitment to artistic excellence.
Main Image: Tseng Chien-Ying’s studio. Courtesy: the artist