Cai Ruei-Heng: Solo Exhibition 2026: Solo Exhibition

BACK_Y is pleased to present a solo exhibition by Taiwanese artist Cai Ruei-Heng from July 16 to August 29, 2026.

Born in Taipei in 1989, Cai Ruei-Heng currently lives and works in Taipei. He received an M.F.A. from the Department of Fine Arts at Taipei National University of the Arts in 2018, following a B.B.A. in Industrial Management from National Formosa University in 2012. This interdisciplinary background, spanning industrial management and artistic practice, has informed his ongoing exploration of the tensions between order and disorder, rationality and absurdity.

Working between humor and melancholy, Cai’s paintings examine the anxieties, uncertainties, and sense of disorientation that permeate contemporary life. Drawing from personal experiences, he develops a metaphorical visual language through which individual narratives become reflections on broader social realities and collective conditions.

Cai is particularly recognized for his distinctive painterly surfaces, where translucency, moisture, and opacity coexist. Layers of diluted pigments, unresolved forms, and freely moving brushstrokes generate an atmosphere that feels both humid and psychologically charged. Within these fluid pictorial spaces, grotesque figures and absurd scenarios emerge and dissolve, oscillating between familiarity and estrangement.

Balancing spontaneity with underlying structural composition, Cai’s works reveal the contradictions, instability, and fragmented logic of contemporary existence. His paintings do not seek to resolve disorder; rather, they embrace it as a condition through which vulnerability, ambiguity, and the complexities of human experience can be more acutely perceived.