About
Ms. Wen resides in New York City as a full-time artist. She has exhibited nationally and internationally since the early 1980s. She was born in Taipei, Taiwan. She received her BFA from Washington State University, MA, and MFA from the State University of New York at Albany. In 1979, she won the First Prize in Painting in the Ten Outstanding Young Talents Competition in Taiwan. In 1980, she was awarded Outstanding Merit in the Young Artists in Asia Now competition in Hong Kong. In 1995 and 1996, her work was selected in many national and international jury shows including the ninth and tenth Parkside National Small Print Exhibition, Large Small Work ’95 International, Small Works International, First Annual National Juried Small Work Exhibition in New York, NY. These shows are highly competitive and are chosen from thousands of submissions.
Leigh won the SUNY Albany Purchase Award in 1995 the University of Wisconsin Purchase Award in the 1995 Parkside National Small Print Exhibition. She was also awarded an Artist Grant by the National Taiwan Art and Humanity Foundation in support of her solo exhibitions in the Taipei Fine Arts Museum. A catalog entitled The Harbour and the Open Sea was published by the Taipei Fine Arts Museum. Leigh was awarded a 1997 New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship. In 1997 she was honored with “the Artist Award of 1997” by the New York State Assembly.
In 1998, Leigh’s work was selected by juror Linda Weintraub to be included in The New York State Biennale Exhibition at The New York State Museum. Also, Juror Lela Hersh, Director of Exhibitions and Collections at the Chicago Contemporary Museum of Art, selected Leigh’s work for inclusion in the annual Mohawk Hudson Region Juried Exhibition. Leigh received First Prize. Her painting, Untitled #6, was purchased by the Albany Institute of History & Art for the permanent collection.
In 1999 and 2005 she was awarded Artist Grants by the Pollock-Krasner Foundation. Since 1999, her paintings have been selected to be part of the Art in Embassies Program of the United States Department of State and have been exhibited in the U.S. Embassies in Jordan, Singapore, Philippines, Malaysia, Botswana, Barbados, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Namibia, Denmark, and Poland. Over 15 American Embassies around the world. In mid-2019 her works were inquired by US Embassy in Botswana for exhibition and a cultural exchange program with Botswana Culture Bureau is scheduled. In 2019 summer a solo exhibition is invited by Farglory Museum, Taipei, Taiwan. It opens on July 13, 2019. She has a few upcoming international exhibitions in America University Art Museum, Washington D.C., the USA in 2021, and Bangkok Art And Culture Centre, Bangkok, Thailand in 2022.
In 2005, the Art in Embassies Program purchased the three paintings that were exhibited in Barbados Embassy, for their permanent collections. Leigh was awarded a 1997 New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship. And, in 2000, she was honored by both New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship and The Helena Rubinstein Fellowship. In 2013, she won the National Yu-Shang Competition. Recently in 2014 and 2016, her works were included in The National Fine Art Museum Collections in Taiwan.
Hundreds of her works were included in both private and public collections. Her paintings had been featured in many major magazines including Art in America, New American Paintings, Art in Asia, Sotheby’s Auction Magazine, Christy’s Auction Magazine, Better Home and Gardens, Harper’s Bazaar, Architecture, Water Front Home and Design, San Diego Home and Garden and Interior, Art Trade Journal, Marie Claire, Taiwan.