Nunu Fine Art, a Taiwanese-run gallery nestled on the northern border of the Little Italy neighborhood in New York, has a compact layout: a small front gallery room segues into a narrow hallway with bookshelves and a reception desk on the side, opening up to the two-story main gallery in the back. When asked whether the configuration posed a challenge to the installation of her new solo show, “From Rock to Cloud,” Yu-Wen Wu was affirmative but appreciative, as the layout invites viewers to participate in the migratory theme so central to the exhibition. Migration is always on Wu’s mind. Born in Taiwan and based in Boston, Wu moved to the US with her family when she was six years old. The inspirations behind her works are a constellation of her memories in Taiwan, her heritage as an immigrant of East Asian descent, and her living environment in the New England area.
The exhibition is named after a triptych of works on paper, Rock to Cloud (2024), whose vertically elongated forms are reminiscent of scroll paintings. The three works are poetic collages of visual elements that Wu identifies with, from drawings in the style of classical landscape paintings to printed images of tea plants famously grown in Taiwan. The title is a metaphor for the dynamic between security and migratory drift, one that catalyzes the birth of new identities.
Wu further elaborates on the notion of malleable identity through her practice of reimagining cultural iconographies. The Artifact (2026) series, for one, is a response to scholars’ rocks, which are stones with elaborate, naturally eroded forms that were collected by East Asian literati as a source of inspiration. The peculiar appearances of the rocks were stimuli for the literati to expand their imagination of space and form. Some of Wu’s pieces in the series are conventional: Artifact XV (2026), for example, is dark brown and gray in hues with irregular shapes that reflect the forces of nature and time—a microcosm of the environment and its grandeur. The sculptures, along with the accompanying drawings of the rocks in classical ink-wash style, preserve a historical sense that lays the foundation of her works. Building on the tradition, Wu’s practice extends this lineage into a personal dimension. The sculptures’ neat presentation on pedestals is a callback to Wu’s memories of building and displaying her own collection with her grandmother. Wu reinterprets some of the stones using mixed media—ceramic, porcelain, and concrete— occasionally gilding them with gold leaves, as seen in the white glaze and golden brilliance of Artifact XIII (2026). In so doing, Wu’s engagement with historical forms is a renewal of tradition in imaginative ways.
Gold leaves are ubiquitous in Wu’s works. The use of gold is a direct reference to the mid-nineteenth-century Californian Gold Rush that brought an influx of East Asian immigrants to the US. The extravagant tone of the material, beyond its aesthetic value, serves as a continuous reminder of the glamorous American dream that is at times a mere facade. Illustrating this idea is her painting series Accumulation of Dreams (2026), where scraps of gold foil and drawn gold leaves are arranged on paper to form ranges of “gold mountains,” a symbol that would later contribute to the name for San Francisco in Mandarin.
Incorporating the technique of gilding suggests that there is more underneath or within the surface of appearances, creating a visual parallel with a globalized migrational map. The notion of multilayered identity is best exemplified by the centerpiece of the exhibition: an assemblage of bead strands strung together with red cords, draping from the ceiling to the floor. The installation converges three works made at different times from various materials: Porcelain Strand (2026), Lotus Strand (dried lotus leaves, 2026), and Intentions (dried tea leaves, 2024). The piece is once again both personal and collective. While the structure imitates her grandmother’s Buddhist prayer beads, the materials are signature economic goods hailed from East Asia and spread around the globe.
Diasporic storytelling, at its core, is forever grappling with the roots of an identity and the transformation it is bound to experience as that diaspora expands. Acculturation Flow XII (2026), an amalgamation of gilded plants placed at the beginning of the exhibition, perfectly reflects the ever-changing dynamic. Echoing the strands and beads toward the back gallery, the work comprises dried Taiwanese tea leaves and foliage Wu foraged in New England. Underneath the ostensibly uniform golden appearance, each branch and leaf retains its individuality. The clustering volume and proximity imply the potential of hybridization, as through time and cultivation, identities are promised to renew and grow out as migration continues.
“Yu-Wen Wu: From Rock to Cloud” is on view through October 31, 2026, at Nunu Fine Art, 381 Broome Street, New York, NY.
