ARTIST BIOGRAPHY
Yen Yi Chung is a Taiwanese visual artist based in the San Francisco Bay Area. She creates paintings that use geometric forms, color, and imaginative storytelling to transform the people, objects, animals, and environments around her into a world of her own.
Yen Yi’s connection to drawing began when she was two years old. She would draw every day, often inventing stories as she worked and sharing them with her younger sister. Although her artistic talent was not recognized by her family until an art teacher noticed her ability around the age of eleven, she eventually began formal art training and continued her studies through art high school, university, and graduate school. Before developing her geometric style, Chung was deeply engaged in representational painting and developed a strong sensitivity to color and visual detail.
A major transformation in her artistic practice came during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021. Living alone in San Francisco and working under intense pressure on her graduate thesis, she began breaking familiar subjects into geometric shapes and reconstructing them into new compositions. What began as a way to relieve stress gradually became a distinctive visual language and the foundation of her artistic practice.
Her first major geometric series, Geometric City (2021–2022), transformed urban environments into colorful geometric compositions and earned her the 2024 Leigh Weimers Emerging Artist Award. In 2025, she created her second series, Geometric Life, for the 50|50 exhibition at Sanchez Art Center, transforming ordinary objects from everyday life into geometric paintings. For her second 50|50 exhibition, she has expanded this visual language into Geometric Forest, using 50 paintings to explore animals, landscapes, and imagined stories within a connected natural world.
Moving from the city, to everyday life, and now to animals and nature, Yen Yi continues to explore how far a geometric visual language can take her imagination. Rather than simply depicting what she sees, she transforms the familiar into something new, inviting viewers to enter her world, discover its characters and stories, and become part of the experience. For Chung, imagination has no limit—and her artistic journey is an ongoing exploration of the extraordinary worlds that can emerge from the ordinary.
Yen Yi’s connection to drawing began when she was two years old. She would draw every day, often inventing stories as she worked and sharing them with her younger sister. Although her artistic talent was not recognized by her family until an art teacher noticed her ability around the age of eleven, she eventually began formal art training and continued her studies through art high school, university, and graduate school. Before developing her geometric style, Chung was deeply engaged in representational painting and developed a strong sensitivity to color and visual detail.
A major transformation in her artistic practice came during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021. Living alone in San Francisco and working under intense pressure on her graduate thesis, she began breaking familiar subjects into geometric shapes and reconstructing them into new compositions. What began as a way to relieve stress gradually became a distinctive visual language and the foundation of her artistic practice.
Her first major geometric series, Geometric City (2021–2022), transformed urban environments into colorful geometric compositions and earned her the 2024 Leigh Weimers Emerging Artist Award. In 2025, she created her second series, Geometric Life, for the 50|50 exhibition at Sanchez Art Center, transforming ordinary objects from everyday life into geometric paintings. For her second 50|50 exhibition, she has expanded this visual language into Geometric Forest, using 50 paintings to explore animals, landscapes, and imagined stories within a connected natural world.
Moving from the city, to everyday life, and now to animals and nature, Yen Yi continues to explore how far a geometric visual language can take her imagination. Rather than simply depicting what she sees, she transforms the familiar into something new, inviting viewers to enter her world, discover its characters and stories, and become part of the experience. For Chung, imagination has no limit—and her artistic journey is an ongoing exploration of the extraordinary worlds that can emerge from the ordinary.
Resume
Education
2023 MFA in Fine Arts, Academy of Art University, San Francisco, CA
Awards
2024 Leigh Weimers Emerging Artist Award, San Jose, CA
Publication / Artist Feature
2023 Artistonish Magazine- July
Solo Exhibitions
2026 Upcoming Solo Exhibition, BlueStream Gallery & Wine Bar, San Francisco, CA
2016 Solo Art Show in Vegetable Art Restaurant, Taipei, Taiwan
Group Exhibitions
2026 18th Annual Sanchez Art Center 50|50 Show, Pacifica, CA
2025 17th Annual Sanchez Art Center 50|50 Show, Pacifica, CA
2025 Endless Creativity online exhibition, Hummingbird & Dragonfly Art Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2025 Local Artists Show, San Francisco, CA
2024 Abstraction exhibition, Gallerium. Art, Online
2023 Holiday Bonanza, Helvella. Art, Oakland, CA
2023 Academy of Art University Winter Show, San Francisco, CA
2023 Biafarin Awards International Smart Group Exhibition, Online
2023 Academy of Art University Spring Show, San Francisco, CA
2022 Academy of Art University Spring Show, San Francisco, CA
2023 MFA in Fine Arts, Academy of Art University, San Francisco, CA
Awards
2024 Leigh Weimers Emerging Artist Award, San Jose, CA
Publication / Artist Feature
2023 Artistonish Magazine- July
Solo Exhibitions
2026 Upcoming Solo Exhibition, BlueStream Gallery & Wine Bar, San Francisco, CA
2016 Solo Art Show in Vegetable Art Restaurant, Taipei, Taiwan
Group Exhibitions
2026 18th Annual Sanchez Art Center 50|50 Show, Pacifica, CA
2025 17th Annual Sanchez Art Center 50|50 Show, Pacifica, CA
2025 Endless Creativity online exhibition, Hummingbird & Dragonfly Art Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2025 Local Artists Show, San Francisco, CA
2024 Abstraction exhibition, Gallerium. Art, Online
2023 Holiday Bonanza, Helvella. Art, Oakland, CA
2023 Academy of Art University Winter Show, San Francisco, CA
2023 Biafarin Awards International Smart Group Exhibition, Online
2023 Academy of Art University Spring Show, San Francisco, CA
2022 Academy of Art University Spring Show, San Francisco, CA