YEH Wei-Li (b.1971)
Yeh Wei-Li was born in Taipei, Taiwan, in 1971, and emigrated to the United States with his family at the age of eleven. As a teenager in Tampa, Florida, Yeh was fascinated by heavy metal music and aspired to be a rock-and-roll photographer. He consequently studied photography at the University of South Florida (BFA 1994) and later received a Master of Fine Arts Degree in Photography from the Rhode Island School of Design (1997). Graduate workshops at Brown University's experimental Literary Arts Program and a three-month visit to Taiwan in 1996 (his first since emigrating), fueled his thesis work on themes of displacement, assimilation, cultural identity and racial politics. Relocating to New York City, Yeh exhibited work at Columbia University, New York University, Bronx Museum of Art and the International Center of Photography. Yeh presented his seminal photography work, Guest: On the Subject of Home, at his "Septemberly" Brooklyn studio in December 2001, shortly after 9/11. Since returning to live permanently in Taiwan in 2002, Yeh has been active as an artist, curator and instigator. Yeh’s work is shown and collected internationally, and his photographic and text-based projects continue to explore the dynamics of the individual within collective practices, centering on both the personal and the socio-political relationships between the self and the city in which he resides. His collective and collaborative-based practice is seen in major projects such as Treasure Hill Tea + Photo (THTP) and the ongoing Antiquity-like Rubbish Research & Development Syndicate. Yeh lives and works in Yangmei, Taiwan and still holds hope of going on a world tour with a rock & roll band.
| 1971 | Born on September 10th in Songshan District, Taipei, Taiwan. |
| 1982 | His mother relocated Yeh and his sister to the U.S. |
| 1990 | Enrolled in the University of South Florida Tampa and majored in photography. |
| 1992 | Attended a 5-week summer photography program in Paris. |
| 1993 | First solo exhibition, Accessories, presented at the university gallery. |
| 1995 | Enrolled in the Department of Photography at the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence, Rhode Island. |
| 1996 | Visited Taiwan for 3 months after having been away for 15 years, and began recalling the memories he had of Taiwan. |
| 1997 | Graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design and moved to Brooklyn, New York. |
| 2001 | Solo exhibition, Guest: On the Subject of Home, presented at Septemberly Studio, New York, and Yeh was subsequently invited to exhibit at Columbia University, New York University, and the Bronx Museum of Arts. |
| 2002 | Left New York and returned to Taiwan, and presented MOCA and I in May at the exhibition, Legends of Chang-an West Road: Street as Plant, Art as Animal, curated by Roan Ching-Yueh, MOCA Taipei. |
| 2003 | Invited to exhibit in the group exhibition, Only Skin Deep: Representation of the American Self, organized by the International Center of Photography, New York. |
| 2003 | Moved to Mucha, Taipei. Received a grant from the Asian Cultural Council and participated in the Gunnery Studios Residency Program, Artspace, Sydney, Australia. |
| 2004 | Invited to exhibit in the 2004 Taipei Biennial Do You Believe in Reality? Presented Treasure Hill Tea + Photo (THTP) / Phase One: The Portrait Project and Phase Two: Delineations |
| 2005 | Received a grant from The 1st National Culture and Arts Foundation Production Grants to Independent Curators in Visual Arts and curated The Lake: Towards a Cross-Cultural Dialogue. Solo exhibition, Three Places, presented at National Central University; presented Treasure Hill Tea + Photo (THTP) / Phase Three: Trash. (WHERE?) |
| 2006 | Treasure Hill Tea + Photo (THTP) / Phase Four: The Archive & the Garden presented at the exhibition Altered States curated by Amy Cheng at the Taipei Fine Arts Museum. |
| 2007 | Left Treasure Hill and participated in a 6-month residency at Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris, France. |
| 2008 | Returned to Taiwan from Paris and began renting an old theater on Rixin Street in Yangmei as his studio. Invited by curator Amy Cheng to present Treasure Hill Tea + Photo (THTP) / Phase Five: Oversight at Centre A, Vancouver International Centre for Contemporary Asian Art. Also invited in the same year to participate in the workshop Unpacking Projects-In-Progress for The 3rd Guangzhou Triennial: Farewell to Post-Colonialism in Guangzhou, China. |
| 2009 | Left Taipei and relocated to Dayuan Township, Taoyuan County, and began Antiquity-Like Rubbish Research & Development Syndicate. |
| 2010 | Invited to exhibit in Taipei Biennial 2010, and began a two-year tenure at Yuan Ze University’s Department of Art and Design, teaching a course on Studio Art Making. |
| 2011 | Owner of the old theater on Rixin Street decided to sell the place, forcing Yeh to relocate his studio. Began Antiquity-Like Rubbish Research & Development Syndicate in Tongluo through the invitation of the Outsiders in Tongluo – Open Community Art Project. Participated in the exhibition Post-Actitud and created on site at Ex Teresa Arte Actual in Mexico. |
| 2012 | Invited to exhibit in Taipei Biennial 2012, and completed the large-scale collective art project, Rubbish Research & Development Syndicate in 206. Married Wu Yu Hsin. Invited to exhibit at the Shanghai Biennale. First son, Laebu Booker Yeh, was born. |
| 2013 | Invited by the Candida Höfer Foundation to participate in a 3-month photography project in Köln, Germany. Began teaching photography at the School of Fine Arts, Taipei National University of the Arts. |
| 2014 | Solo exhibition, “Antiquity-like Rubbish Research & Development Syndicate" Project Selected Photographs & Documents 2010 to 2014 presented at the Fotoaura Institute of Photography in Tainan. Invited to exhibit at the Saatchi Gallery’s exhibition Post Pop: East Meets West in London. |
| 2015 | Began creation of interpretive works on Yeh Shih-Chiang’s paintings and calligraphy in April. |
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