_Art Basel’s ‘Meet the artists’ series presents contemporary creatives shaping today’s cultural landscape_
In his Berlin studio, Taiwanese ceramist Ernie Wang crafts nostalgic worlds addressing the difficulty of making choices, flux, and escapism
Ernie Wang’s studio is a trove of tools, whimsical objects, and free-standing sculptures. His work bursts with color and playful details – slides, turrets, a recurring bean character, and ceramic chains – springing from a yearning for the innocence and unbridled imagination of childhood. But beneath the vibrant surfaces lies a deeper exploration of innocence, imagination, and the ways we navigate reality.
Wang often looks to spaces of escape, like theme parks, video games, and zoos, for inspiration. ‘When I visit a theme park, it’s all about forgetting daily life and giving in to pure entertainment, even if just for a day,’ he says in this episode of ‘Meet the artists’.
His ceramics wrestle with life’s choices. ‘I think a lot about dilemmas, directions, and the flux we live in,’ Wang reflects. By layering forms in surprising collisions, he captures this tension, holding fantasy and reality in balance.
Ernie Wang’s work will be presented by Linseed (Shanghai) in the Discoveries sector at Art Basel Hong Kong.
Production
Director: Marcus Werner
Camera: Marcus Werner & Gerrit Piechowski
Edit: Gerrit Piechowski
Photographer: Eike Walkenhorst
Art Basel
Executive Editor: Coline Milliard
Senior Editor: Alicia Reuter
Video Commissioner: Jeanne-Salomé Rochat
Creative Producer: Akiel Gallina
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