Even among their multifaceted colleagues, some artists truly stand out. There seems to be that rare talent whose work is equal parts unconventional and brilliant. Cho, Hui-Chin is one of these artists as she works natural materials like fur and leather into metaphoric motifs.
Having attended the Slade School of Fine Art and graduating with first-class honors, this young painter has had impressive training. Equally impressive is that she won both the CASS ART Painting Prize and Steer Prize in 2018. Cho wasn’t quite finished with her education as she completed a Master of Art Degree in Painting at London’s prestigious Royal College of Art.
Cho was raised in Taiwan in a fusion of cultures. She describes herself as being surrounded by Chinese aesthetics and Japanese traditions. Note that art plays a prominent role in both of these cultures, and Cho started painting when she was around 4 years old. Diagnosed with bi-polar disorder around the age of 16, she drew distorted self-portraits to help manage her condition.
She draws her inspiration from her multicultural circumstances which revolves around a Taiwan-born background with lineages to Japan, China, the Netherlands and Uyghur. These contexts have mend the imagination for her practice. Describing herself and her work as grotesque but serene, Cho does not shy away from provocative themes in her work. If anything, this is one of her hallmarks as she wants viewers to be disturbed and fascinated at the same time. Her curiosity about death also manifests itself in her art as she explores the relationship between life and death.