AUR proudly celebrates Fine Arts Professor Mei Chen Tseng as she opens her newest solo exhibition, “Landscape of Words,” at the Sala Esposizioni Panizza, Ghiffa, overlooking Lake Maggiore. Curated by Ubaldo Rodari, the show runs from 28 June – 27 July 2025 and forms part of the Il Brunitoio engraving and printing workshop's “Mappe rotte” cultural program for 2025.
Tseng’s meditative wood engravings “draw us not into spectacle but into stillness,” notes critic Jaxon Cooper, whose catalogue essay highlights the artist’s elemental lines, evocations of natural cycles, and dialogue with the I Ching. Working slowly into end-grain box, maple, and cherry blocks, each incision becomes a “record of duration, intention, and touch,” turning absence itself into form. "The method is exacting, slow, and unforgiving—each incision permanent, each gesture irretrievable. But this very slowness becomes, in turn, part of the piece’s meaning," notes Cooper. "Moreover, the density of the material allows for extraordinary subtlety: fine hatching and modulated shadows demonstrate not only atmosphere but also psychological and temporal depth. The very process of carving—removing matter to reveal image—reflects the philosophical dimensions of her themes: absence creating presence, emptiness giving shape to form. The act of engraving becomes a form of meditation, where making the image is itself a practice of tracing change. Within her practice, technique is never merely formal; it is inseparable from the temporal, reflective, and symbolic character of the art itself."
A two-time Society of Wood Engravers Overseas Prize laureate and a member of the UK’s Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers, Tseng’s Landscape of Words series has already been honored by the Royal Society for its innovative exploration of text and topography.
“Teaching at AUR has deepened my practice,” Tseng said ahead of the opening of her exhibition. “My students’ questions push me to rethink the dialogue between technique and time - questions that echo through these new prints.”
Appointed to the AUR faculty in Spring 2024, Tseng leads core studio courses in drawing and advanced printmaking. “Professor Tseng models the research-driven, internationally engaged artistry we want every Fine Arts student to experience,” said Professor Paul Gwynne, director of AUR’s Fine Arts program. “Her Lago Maggiore exhibition demonstrates how our professors’ professional achievements translate directly into classroom excellence.”
"Landscape of Words"
June 28 – July 27, 2025
Panizza Exhibition Hall - Corso Belvedere, 114 28823 Ghiffa (VB) (Google Map Link)