About INes Sun

Ines Sun was born and raised in Taiwan with a strong Chinese heritage. She grew up with Chinese brush paintings of flowers and birds surrounding the household, and her grandfather practiced Chinese calligraphy. Later, her father continued the calligraphy practice after her grandfather passed away. Sun has followed the tradition and made her calligraphy a part of her art practice.

Sun came to New York City for her Master's Degree at NYU in 1992 and enrolled at the Art Students League of New York for Oil Painting in 1995. Later she went to the Chinese Academy of Art to study Chinese calligraphy and brush painting in 2007.

Before the trip to China, she pioneered tea culture in New York City and ran a successful beloved tea business, Wild Lily Tea Room, in Chelsea for ten years. The New York Times food writer Florence Fabricant first introduced Sun's endeavor and called it "a serene oasis."

Sun has practiced Chanoyu, the Japanese Tea Ceremony. Her diligent pursuit of tea and the experience of hosting tea tastings have inspired the TeaHouse Installation, which first appeared in 2011 at the Dumbo Arts Festivals. Sun has exhibited internationally to advocate EQUANIMITY with the TeaHouse Project. The artistically designed tea hut acts as a shelter from the mundane world. In 2020 the TeaHouse joined The Summer Tea at Prospect Park during the Pandemic to heal the worst affected in the city. The next engagement is at the Ceramic Museum in Hoshino, Japan, in 2022.

Sun published her autobiography, 5.4 Luck, in Taiwan in 2015, and her large-format oil works have been exhibited and collected internationally.  She is also the recipient of the Chashama Storefront Grant at 24 Rutger Street, where she runs calligraphy and tea workshops.

The TeaHouse is a multimodal series of works forming a collective installation involving both the artist and the individual participant to complete a tea and calligraphy ritual in silence. It can encapsulate any corner anywhere in the world and collectively create an ephemeral space of retreat, stillness, and awareness where one can do nothing and be nothing. The teahouse and surrounding design are there to serve the viewers' visual and inner peace and lead a path to the zazen practice of releasing one's grip on the world and "opening the hand of thought."

TeaHouse Installation Exhibitions:

2022- "No Name", Hoshino Ceramic Museum, Yame, Japan (Original date 2020)

2020-”Summer Tea” Prospect Park, Brooklyn, New York

2019- "Join Feelings", Suho Paper Museum, Taipei, Taiwan

2018- “Tao of Nature”, Lanyang Museum, Yilan, Taiwan

2016- 16 Minute Silent Retreat, (Im)permanence, Tenri Gallery, NY, NY

2012- "Locating the Sacred", with Asian American Arts Alliances, NY, NY 2011- "Open Hearts", Dumbo Arts Festivals, Brooklyn, NY

2010- "The Mobile Tea Garden", Brooklyn Art Fair, Brooklyn, NY

Solo Exhibitions

2020- Journey—Cielito, Brooklyn, New York USA

2016- Bloom in the Riot--VVG Thinking, Taipei Taiwan

2016- The Flying Brahms--La Foret d'Oliviers, Taipei Taiwan

2015 - The Garden of Perfect Brightness--The Wisteria Tea House Gallery, Taiwan 2014 - "Yue" Pencil Factory, Brooklyn, USA

2013 - The Power of Blossom-- Gallery 1205, Brooklyn USA

2012 - Less is More with Jupiter Symphony, New York, New York

2011- Away From Home, Pencil Factory, Brooklyn, New York

2010 - Wadestown Happiness Collage Installation, Wellington, NZ (Recipient of Creative New Zealand and Wellington City Council grant) 2010 – Private Viewing at Mark Hutchins Gallery Wellington New Zealand

2009 - Soul Soothing @Kocoon, Beijing, China

Museum Exhibition

2019- Suho Paper Museum, Lotus, Taiwan

2018- Lanyang Museum, Ten Fields of Harvest, Taiwan

2008 - Macau Museum of Art, The Contemporary Chinese Abstract Exhibition, 'Beyond the Surface', Macau, China. The work was selected among 500 entries, the only one featured in the museum newsletter announcement.

Education

2008- China Academy of Art, Hangzhou, China

1998- The Art Students League of New York, NY, USA 1993- M.A., New York University, USA

1990- B.A., Chinese Culture University, Taipei, Taiwan

Publication

2015-A memoir, 5.4 luck published in Chinese 2015-2018 Columnist at

Private Collections

U.S., New Zealand, China, Taiwan, Dubai, South Africa, Kazakhstan