WHITEHOT MAGAZINE 

SEPTEMBER 

2025

"THE BEST ART IN THE WORLD"

By Centering Taiwan, Curator Gin Lin Encourages Collective Reflection on Diasporic Experiences

Article taken from NOAH BECKER'S WHITEHOT MAGAZINE OF CONTEMPORARY ART

By ANNA MIKAELA EKSTRAND, Published August 24, 2025

Installation view. Between Shores: Reimagining Formosa. June 2025. Photographed by Ping Ho. Courtesy of FAPA.

 Focusing on Taiwanese artists, curator Gin Lin has been curating shows in New York over the past two years. New York is home to the second-largest Taiwanese population after Los Angeles, and there are many active organizations that promote their culture and support their sovereignty. Gin’s most recent exhibition, Between Shores: Reimagining Formosa at One Art Space, which she curated with four others, on view in June, recontextualized the work of the non-profit organization Formosan Association for Public Affairs through the lens of art, featuring work by sixteen Taiwanese artists. FAPA, as it’s known for short, promotes the country’s visibility on the global stage. It is not a surprise that they decided to contract Gin as the exhibition’s head curator; hers is a leading name in championing Taiwanese artists in the city. We caught up with Gin to speak about soft power, how her impressive background in research in Christie’s Post-War and Contemporary Art department influences her curatorial praxis, what other art and projects are on her mind, and, perhaps most importantly, how her work reflects diasporic experiences, even for those who are not Taiwanese. 

Gin Lin at the opening of Between Shores: Reimagining Formosa. June 2025. Photographed by Yuyu Chen. Courtesy of FAPA. 

Formosan Association for Public Affairs is a non-profit organization that promotes peace, security, and independence for Taiwan while also building stronger ties between the U.S. and Taiwan. Interesting and important. Could you speak to whether working with this type of soft power context affected your approach to curation, and on the relationship between art and lobbying, or influencing opinion? 

Gin Lin: I see art and lobbying as distinct but occasionally overlapping forces. Unlike traditional lobbying, which often relies on formal, sometimes intimidating discourse, art has the power to influence opinion through emotional and intellectual resonance. It can humanize policy debates and reframe abstract geopolitical issues through visual storytelling that is both intimate and powerful. Art doesn’t dictate, it invites. Also, FAPA’s mission—promoting peace, democracy, and Taiwan’s visibility on the global stage—resonated with many of the themes I already explore in my work, such as identity, diaspora, and cultural memory

That said, I didn’t approach Between Shores: Reimagining Formosa as a propaganda project. Quite the opposite, our goal was to create space for complexity and multiplicity. Rather than presenting a singular message about Taiwan, we invited artists to share personal and political narratives that together reflected the richness and tensions of Taiwanese identity. In doing so, the exhibition itself became a kind of soft power—foregrounding lived experience as a form of testimony and resilience to visibility.

Installation view. Between Shores: Reimagining Formosa. June 2025. Photographed by Ping Ho. Courtesy of FAPA.  

In Between Shores: Reimagining Formosa, you curated sixteen artists who explored personal and historical narratives. Your curatorial statement explains that the artworks “are not merely reflections—they are powerful acts of resistance and remembrance.” What are some of the occurrences that the exhibition highlights? 

GL: Between Shores: Reimagining Formosa sheds light on political and personal histories often overlooked in dominant narratives about Taiwan. For instance, in Ching-Wei Wang’s performance Maintain Status Quo Indefinitely, she kneelt on a large wood panel printed with an image from the 228 Massacre—civilians burning state-monopolized goods in protest—and scrubs it away with sandpaper. Her act confronts collective trauma and questions what is remembered, erased, or left unresolvedYing Chiung Lee’s Herstory recalls life during the U.S. aid era, marked by scarcity and gendered labor—such as sewing clothes from flour sacks and the overlooked stories of sex workers linked to the U.S. military's rest and recreation program. Juxtaposed with Glitch, a fragile glass piece containing a nude figure obscured by air bubbles and torn fabric that she created during the MeToo era, her work connects the silences of postwar Taiwan with contemporary concerns around digital vulnerability and the female body. Inspired by cyberfeminism, Lee explores survival, memory, and the persistence of erasure across time.

I love how your curation highlights that the past is present in our time as something fluid and to be reckoned with.  

Yes, and a direct engagement with present-day geopolitics is seen in Ming-Jer Kuo’s mural Breathing Kūshū: Visualizing the Quotidian Conflict, which visualizes over 3,000 incursions by China’s People’s Liberation Army into Taiwan’s Taiwan’s Air Defense Identification Zone. He calculated the number of PLA aircraft operating around Taiwan in the twelve months leading up to this exhibition. Styled like children’s wall decals and referencing WWII aircraft illustrations, the piece overlays innocence with tension, confronting viewers with the daily reality of militarized pressure in Taiwan.

You hosted several gatherings in conjunction with the show, including a woodblock printing workshop with Print Pals and performances. When you were at TANK in Shanghai, you worked with programming. What is your philosophy around public programs?  

GL: Ultimately, I see public programming as a way to turn exhibitions into living, breathing spaces. Whether it’s an artist workshop, live performance, talk, or food and wine tasting event, these gatherings create opportunities for dialogue, embodiment, and shared experience that go beyond the visual encounter with artworks. During my time at TANK Shanghai, I came to understand just how transformative programming can be. Working on experimental projects like Art Market—where artists, galleries, brands, and creative entrepreneurs engaged directly with the public, I began to see programming not as supplementary, but as a vital tool for democratizing access to contemporary art and reimagining the relationship between institutions, artists, and audiences. In the context of Between Shores: Reimagining Formosa, the workshops and performances were not just add-ons—they were core to the exhibition’s aim of fostering Taiwanese cultural visibility and encouraging collective reflection on identity, diaspora, and belonging.

Installation view. Between Shores: Reimagining Formosa. June 2025. Photographed by Ping Ho. Courtesy of FAPA. 

What was the oldest work in the show and the most recent, and how did they dialogue? 

GL: The most established artist in the exhibition was Leigh Wen. She has exhibited internationally since the 1980s and participated in the U.S. Department of State’s Art in Embassies Program with works exhibited in over 15 American Embassies around the world. Her seascapes are rooted in her personal and cultural history, especially her connection to the elemental power of water. Using carved linework to evoke rhythm and movement, her paintings speak to the emotional and physical in-betweenness of diasporic identity.

In contrast, the youngest participating artist was Ingrid Yi-Chen Lu, a recent MFA graduate from Pratt Institute. Her painting Sunset Kite draws on memories of childhood, mass-produced goods, and city life, using the kite as a metaphor for being suspended between control and surrender, tradition and change. Both artists explore states of in-betweenness through elemental forms, Wen through the sea, Lu through the sky, anchoring the exhibition’s intergenerational dialogue around migration, memory, and cultural fluidity.

How did you work collaboratively with your curatorial team? 

GL: As FAPA’s first art exhibition, it was important from the outset to ensure our team had a shared understanding of the organization’s mission and vision. I led our curatorial team of five, Tzu-Ying (Naomi) Chan, Ping Ho, Yang Hsu, Maggie Wei, and myself, in working to translate FAPA’s advocacy goals into a cohesive curatorial theme. We brought diverse perspectives from artistic practice, design, education, and art history, which expanded both the concept and resources of the exhibition. Curatorial decisions were made collectively through open discussion and critical debate, ensuring that each work was contextualized and resonated with the overarching theme. This collaborative ethos extended into public programming, where we co-developed events that prioritized cultural dialogue and community engagementAbove all, I value the trust, respect, and generosity that working in a team demands. It’s not simply about dividing tasks; it’s about building something together that none of us could have realized alone.

You have curated several exhibitions with Taiwanese artists, a solo show with Guan-hong Lu, and another with Chiao-Han Chueh. Is it happenstance that they were Taiwanese, or did you actively seek them out, and how do you approach curating Taiwanese artists in New York, and how does it make you feel? 

GL: Curating Taiwanese artists has been a conscious and deeply personal throughline in my practice. As someone from Taiwan, I feel a strong sense of responsibility to amplify voices from our region—particularly in contexts like New York, where Taiwanese artists are very underrepresented in the broader contemporary art discourse. Working on Chiao-Han Chueh: Intimate Play and Guang-Hong Lu: View from My Window at Nunu Fine Art, and most recently Between Shores: Reimagining Formosa with FAPA, I’ve been drawn to artists whose practices reflect the nuances of identity, memory, and belonging—ideas I’m also constantly negotiating as a cultural worker in the diaspora.

My approach to curating Taiwanese artists isn’t simply about national or ethnic identity; it’s about engaging with the complexity of their experiences and expressions—be it through material language, historical memory, or political resonance. Curating as a platform for dialogue—between Taiwan and the world, between generations of artists, and between diasporic and local communities—makes me feel connected, not just to my roots, but to a growing transnational community of artists and audiences who are invested in rethinking what it means to be “from” somewhere.

Julia Hung. Wisps and Whispers, 2025. Enameled copper wire. 50x18x20 cm. Courtesy of the artist. 

What is an artwork that has drawn your attention recently, and why? 

GL: Wisps and Whispers by Julia Hung. It is a suspended sculpture made from enameled copper wire that appears almost weightless, like mist or drifting clouds caught mid-transformation. I was drawn to its surreal and ethereal quality, as well as the precision of its craftsmanship, which re-examines female labor through the lens of contemporary sculpture. Through her practice rooted in Taoist philosophy, particularly interdependence and transformation, Hung has managed to achieve a remarkable balance between technical control and poetic ambiguity in this work. Rather than presenting a fixed meaning, she creates an atmosphere, something quiet, contemplative, and deeply resonant.

Hung is—can you guess?—a Taiwanese artist who recently received a grant from the Asian Cultural Council to come to New York. She studied at OCAD University and HEAD – Genève. The work lingered with me after our first encounter.

How does your position at Christie’s inform your curatorial work? Is there an overlap, or do you see a relationship between the material you research there and the artworks you curate? 

My position at Christie’s has sharpened my curatorial practice by deepening my understanding of art historical context, provenance, and market dynamics. Working in the Post-War and Contemporary Art department, I’ve had the opportunity to research blue-chip artists and historically significant works, which has trained me to pay close attention to material detail, narrative framing, and the broader ecosystem that shapes how art is valued and circulated.

While my curatorial work often focuses on emerging and underrepresented voices, particularly within Asian and Asian diasporic contexts, the institutional rigor and methodological discipline required in auction research inform how I construct timelines, write texts, and develop exhibition narratives. Conversely, my curatorial perspective brings a critical and often more experimental lens to how I interpret artistic production, one that’s informed by theory, cultural context, and dialogue with living artists.

In both roles, I’m interested in how stories are told, what gets remembered, what gets omitted, and how meaning shifts across time, space, and audience. Whether working with a historically canonized artist or a younger, emerging practitioner, I approach each project with a sensitivity to context, authorship, and the layered ways art engages with the world.

You are currently working on an exhibition with artist Insoon Ha. Tell me more. 

GL: Yes, it is centered on her immersive installation Dirge. Comprising 100 anonymous faces sculpted from recycled paper, Insoon Ha reimagines a Korean funerary tradition as a collective act of mourning for those forgotten or erased from history. Alongside the installation, we are planning a series of public programs—storytelling sessions, workshops, and conversations—that will transform the gallery into a space of reflection, care, and shared remembrance. We are currently applying for grants to bring this exhibition to life, with the aim to bridge grief, ritual, and collective memory in a meaningful way.The exhibition Between Shores: Reimagining Formosa was curated by Tzu-Ying (Naomi) Chan, Ping Ho, Yang Hsu, Gin Lin, Maggie Wei and featured work by Vanessa Chen, Pin-Hsin (Cynthia) Chu, Ping Ho, John Chia Hsuan Kuo, Ming-Jer Kuo, Ying Chiun Lee, Ingrid Yi-Chen Lu, Chang-Ching (Casper) Su, Hui-Ying Tsai, Calvin Tsai, Rosalie Yu, Yu-Jei Yen, Chin Chih Yang, Chia Yun Wu, Ching-Wei (Way) Wang, and Leigh Wen and on view in June 2025 at One Art Space, 23 Warren Street, NY, NY.