ABOUT
Wen-You Cai is an artist, curator, and writer based in New York. As a Chinese, born in Japan, and raised in New York, her cross-cultural identity has been infused in all areas of her creative endeavors. She is a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design and Goldsmiths College.
In 2015, she published her memoir When You Make No Art, about growing up in museums, published as an art book in English and widely distributed in art bookstores. The book has been translated into Chinese as 可不可以不艺术 and published by Imaginst Press in China.
In 2016 she founded Special Special, a shop, gallery, and a creative platform. As the director, she has produced over 40 unique collaborations with artists and makers with projects in New York, Shanghai, Taipei, and Macau. Special Special operated from an East Village storefront from 2016 to 2022, and after the closure of the space, A Small Pond Under the Blue Sky was published to commemorate the projects realized during those years.
In 2024, Special Special launched 4N, a magazine featuring extraordinary foreign talent in America and creative migration around the globe. Special Special continues to develop projects to foster creative communities, and is seeking opportunities for Plant Residencies.
From an early age, photography has been a means to record her existence and relationship to her environment. In 2019, Wen-You exhibited her first solo exhibition Rooster Tiger Sheep by Snake of family photographs spanning twelve years at MGM COTAI, Macau, and was accompanied by a photo book of the same title. In 2024 she published Minnan Exit, an archive of photographs from her family funerals in the Minnan Tradition, published by te editions.
Her artworks have been exhibited at Bonnefantenmuseum, Maastricht, Alisan Fine Arts, Hong Kong, Three Shadows Photography Art Centre, Xiamen, On Sundays at Watarium, Tokyo, Cafe China, NY, de Gournay NY, among other art and cultural institutions.
View featured documentary videos on her work on Nowness, and JNBY.
In 2015, she published her memoir When You Make No Art, about growing up in museums, published as an art book in English and widely distributed in art bookstores. The book has been translated into Chinese as 可不可以不艺术 and published by Imaginst Press in China.
In 2016 she founded Special Special, a shop, gallery, and a creative platform. As the director, she has produced over 40 unique collaborations with artists and makers with projects in New York, Shanghai, Taipei, and Macau. Special Special operated from an East Village storefront from 2016 to 2022, and after the closure of the space, A Small Pond Under the Blue Sky was published to commemorate the projects realized during those years.
In 2024, Special Special launched 4N, a magazine featuring extraordinary foreign talent in America and creative migration around the globe. Special Special continues to develop projects to foster creative communities, and is seeking opportunities for Plant Residencies.
From an early age, photography has been a means to record her existence and relationship to her environment. In 2019, Wen-You exhibited her first solo exhibition Rooster Tiger Sheep by Snake of family photographs spanning twelve years at MGM COTAI, Macau, and was accompanied by a photo book of the same title. In 2024 she published Minnan Exit, an archive of photographs from her family funerals in the Minnan Tradition, published by te editions.
Her artworks have been exhibited at Bonnefantenmuseum, Maastricht, Alisan Fine Arts, Hong Kong, Three Shadows Photography Art Centre, Xiamen, On Sundays at Watarium, Tokyo, Cafe China, NY, de Gournay NY, among other art and cultural institutions.
View featured documentary videos on her work on Nowness, and JNBY.
Photo by Midge Wattles
Nowness: Photographers in Focus