Evelyn Taocheng Wang
∗1981, China
Evelyn Taocheng Wang (1981, Chengdu, China) lives and works in Rotterdam. In her paintings, Wang draws on classical Chinese techniques and calligraphy, combined with reflections and commentaries about Western culture and art history. After studying traditional Chinese art in Nanjing, Wang completed her studies at the Städelschule in Frankfurt and at De Ateliers in Amsterdam. In her paintings as well as in her spatial installations, videos and performances, the artist reflects on the concept of identity and belonging—cultural, migratory, social class and gender. Wang combines delicate painterly elements, linear geometries, writings, and drawings that on the one hand reference cultural elements from the history of Western and Eastern art, and on the other recall personal memories and autobiographical details.“I see my own ‘Chinese painting’ as a performative association within foundation of language, it could be seen as a metaphor of ‘ink on paper’ and at the same time it also gives a nod to the term ‘Oil on Canvas’; Imitating Agnes Martin’s painting (I call it the appropriation of a beautiful mind) is a critical interaction with art history that involves an understanding of different subjects, for instance innocence, full consciousness, and representation.”
At Hotel Ladinia, Wang presents four new paintings, each measuring 50 x 50 cm, from her ongoing Princess and the Frog series, installed around the bar and lounge as quiet yet persistent companions to everyday encounters. Each scene is held together by the recurring figure of the Frog Princess, who gazes upon recognisable urban backdrops—places filtered through familiar, almost clichéd images of global circulation. These intimate works operate like fragments of a larger, shifting narrative: part diary, part fiction, part cultural translation. The Frog Princess appears as both observer and participant, navigating spaces that feel known yet slightly estranged.
Drawing loosely on the fairy tale, Wang transforms it into a reflection on unstable identity and continuous becoming. Painted with deliberate lightness and subtle awkwardness, the works oscillate between humour and dislocation, suggesting that belonging—like the garden—is never fixed, but always in flux, shaped by memory, projection, and reinvention.
In collaboration with
