HUASHAN WATCH 001: Yvonne Chen at Huashan

Huashan is not one cultural experience. It is a former industrial site operating as exhibition rooms, public square, performance pitch, retail district and tourist landmark. An afternoon can move from an exhibition to street performance, lunch, a bookshop and something made by an artist or designer that you decide to take home.

Right now the park holds 390 works from 78 international illustrators, street circus, guitar and magic performances, Japanese character-design history, anime pop-ups, furniture design and food.

One of those artists is Yvonne Chen.

Chen has worked in illustration and picture books for more than twenty years, alongside painting and ceramics. Her current solo exhibition, Time to Wander, brings oil-painted worlds and ceramic animals into the same room. The current work includes birds, rabbits, tigers, cats and horses. Several horses are named after cakes, caramel or clouds.

The exhibition asks visitors to slow down, leave a familiar rhythm and notice small things alongside these companions. Huashan rewards exactly that kind of wandering: one room or courtyard leads easily into another.

In a picture book, an animal is printed on a page and movement happens from one image to the next. A painting gives it color, brushwork and a larger surface. Clay creates a body with weight, balance, front and back, and ears or legs that can be knocked against.

A ceramic animal can share a shelf or room with its owner and be seen from every side. Someone can also buy it and take it home. That is one way the work keeps living and the artist keeps working.

In Star Horse, four blunt feet spread beneath a pale-blue body. The belly rises in a broad arch, and the curled tail leaves another opening inside its loop. A yellow-and-white star sits among smaller dots on the horse's side. Made in 2026 from ceramic, glaze and colored slip, the work measures 22.9 by 19.8 centimetres in Donna Art's listing.

At least six ceramic animals share a white platform in the exhibition. Their feet meet the plinth differently, leaving different arches and gaps under their bodies. The group makes the move from drawn contour to balanced object visible across more than one animal.

Art and commerce live openly beside each other at Huashan. Artists can show and sell new work; visitors can encounter it for free and decide whether they want to buy a ceramic or print. Performers find audiences, designers meet customers, and old industrial buildings remain in use.

Huashan Watch will return to that mix, one artist, exhibition or performance at a time.

Yvonne Chen's Time to Wander runs through September 29, 2026 at Donna Art, Huashan West 7-2, Red Brick District, No. 1, Section 1, Bade Road, Zhongzheng District, Taipei. Open daily 11:00–19:00. Free.

Exhibition page ↗

Star Horse and exhibition report ↗

Google Maps ↗