Mother and daughter due bring Asian art to the forefront in self-founded art galleries
Today, in our art spotlight series, we meet art gallery founders Tina Keng and Shelly Wu. Keng is the founder of a well-known gallery in Taiwan called Tina Keng Gallery. Her daughter Shelly Wu also runs a successful gallery called TKG+ Gallery. Wu’s gallery hopes to showcase the work of Asian artists and bring them to the international stage. FTV reporter Stephany Yang met the mother-daughter duo to find out more.
This is Shelly Wu, the founder of TKG+ Gallery, a contemporary art gallery based in Taipei. The gallery showcases experimental art by contemporary artists from throughout Asia, who employ a range of media including installations, digital media, video, and photography.
Shelly Wu
Art gallerist
My goal has never changed. I’ve always wanted TKG+ and its artists to be recognized internationally. I know that is not something that you can easily do or happen within a couple of years. For the past 10 years, we have a solid foundation. In the next 10 years, we are looking into exploring the Western part of the world to really bring our talents into more people’s homes and more museum institution’s collections.
Wu studied in New York. After returning to Taiwan, she saw that there were many outstanding young artists in Taiwan and decided to start her own gallery in 2009. She founded TKG+, which is contemporaneous with her mother’s gallery, the Tina Keng Gallery. Tina Keng has been an established art gallerist for over 30 years, a forerunner in promoting Asian classical-art masters and modern Taiwanese art. Wu says her mother greatly influenced her and inspired her to start her own, which was not an easy road.
Shelly Wu
TKG+ executive director
I grew up in this art environment and really since a child I’ve been with my mother visiting museums, artist studios, and galleries so I’ve always been in favor of one day I wanted to become a gallerist as well. It’s actually financially, it is very costly to really be supporting young talents because internationally there are a lot of expenses and everything. There are challenges we are facing like there are not just our gallery. There are also a lot of younger emerging galleries and then we share similar programs. How to differentiate ourselves and how to build a stronger program. That’s something you always have to break through.
Tina Keng
Tina Keng Gallery executive director
I’m already passing down art to her because art is my life. Ever since she was a child, she has come with me to visit art museums and galleries. So, this has also become her life. She has her own sensitivity to art and she also studied art. Her English is good and she was educated overseas, so her outlook will definitely be wider, and the angle from which she sees things will definitely be different.
Through years of hard work, Wu has played an important role in bringing cutting-edge Taiwanese artists to international audiences. TKG+ exhibits works of art from Taiwan, and also from artists in Southeast Asia.
Shelly Wu
TKG+ executive director
I have a strong foundation in Taiwan itself because as I said, there are a lot of young talents here but that is kind of my foundation as if you are building a building. Meaning that I want to set foot in this realm itself and have a very solid foundation, and then move to other parts of Asia. So I’ve been starting to work with artists such as Kong Chun Hei and also artists from Cambodia, and also artists from Myanmar, and also artists from Thailand.
Tina Keng
Tina Keng Gallery executive director
The difference between the two of us is era. My era and her era. I think one of the important things for us to do when organizing art exhibitions is to reflect on our era. Works by the important artists of my era have become classics. She is from a different era. To me, her era is a huge transitional period. I also feel like I have a new life now because she is willing to participate in what I do. I am very willing to move forward and integrate my old soul into a new field.
Both mother and daughter hope to continue to promote works by Asian artists, and to share these works with the world.
2022-12-16