Jenny Chen, a Taiwanese painter who first visited New York in 1985, studied at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, and now lives in her studio in Soho, clearly illustrates the dual allegiances of someone who has come to the West from another culture. It is more accurate to say that she has moved to New York, which offers special circumstances as the result of its heavily international population of artists. What Chen calls “a big melting pot” is central to the essentially catholic approach she takes to painting. She is concerned with an abstract style, which, she says, is intended to “transfer my inner sensibility into the real world.” New York, in its rhetoric and practice of personal freedom, has enabled Chen to work out a practice of painting that would transcend the boundaries of a particular style. She has said in conversation, “I do not intend to make a Chinese painting.” New York City has taught her a lot, and a

Fragment of Memory 2001-06 記憶的片斷2001-06, acrylic on canvas, 60×48", 2001

Representation of Phenomenon 2002-05 因子的再現2002-05, acrylic on canvas, 78×240”, 2002

    And yet, and yet. Art necessarily bears the marks of its author; no one is free from the pleasures—and hazards—of style. Chen says of her paintings, “I only use the abstract vocabulary to transfer my inner sensibility to the real world.” She sees her art as a project of self-expression; the issue of influence is secondary to her drive to remain truthful to what she calls instinct: “The important thing is to be honest. If you are yourself you won’t get lost.” Chen’s creativity entails an unusual degree of openness, in which details tend to be sacrificed to the larger vision. Art becomes the transmitter of a greater, more spiritual truth: the purpose of image-making is to reify the intuitive perception that all work is demonstrative of the self, that all expression is inherently exemplary of sensibility. In a sense,...