Taiwan’s Gallerists Are Rerouting Their Ambitions Away From the Mainland

September 2, 2026 / Sophie Clearwater /

PALM Gallary in Paris. Courtesy of the gallery

Shifting away from a historical reliance on Mainland China, a wave of Taiwanese galleries is establishing outposts across major Western art capitals from Paris and London to New York and Palm Beach. Historically, cross-border expansion for Taiwanese galleries meant heading to Beijing or Shanghai. Home to one of East Asia’s earliest mature art ecosystems, Taiwan has historically produced dealers who championed mid-century Chinese modern masters like Sanyu and Zao Wou-Ki, figures whose work found ready patronage among Mainland collectors. Coupled with geographic proximity, a shared language and China’s emergence as the world’s third-largest art market, the Mainland long served as the primary growth destination.

Today, however, a younger, internationally minded cohort of art professionals, shaped by their own diaspora experience, is pursuing global integration over regional consolidation. In July, for example, Taipei-founded PALM Gallery inaugurated its new location on 48 Rue Chapon in Paris’s Le Marais district. The opening follows similar moves by Nunu Hung of NuNu Fine Art, which opened in New York in 2023, and Bluerider ART, which opened in London’s Mayfair in 2023 before expanding to Palm Beach in 2025.

Co-founded by coloratura soprano Poya Tsai and engineer Ming Hsu, PALM Gallery built its reputation connecting Parisian galleries with Taiwanese collectors. “Because Poya is based in Paris, we have strong connections there, but we felt direct opportunities for young Taiwanese artists in the Western market remained limited,” Hsu told Observer, noting that while the two hadn’t anticipated opening a second space for five to ten years, an expiring lease in Taipei provided the leeway to pivot. Their Paris programs will present works priced primarily between €6,000 and €30,000.

Woman posing inside a gallery surrounded by colorful abstract wall works in blue, purple, green and orange. — Elsa Wang, founder of BlueRider Art. Courtesy of the gallery

For Elsa Wang, founder of Bluerider ART and a former semiconductor professional, opening outposts in London and Palm Beach—following Taipei and Shanghai—mirrored her own lived experience across those cities. Meanwhile, established dealers like Tina Keng Gallery have adopted a Europe-focused strategy through targeted programming, most notably staging a 2025 pop-up group exhibition of contemporary Taiwanese art at Frieze’s No. 9 Cork Street in London.

“It’s the right place at the right time,” Keng told Observer. “Taiwan built its first contemporary art museum in 1983, and Taiwanese galleries were behind placing the most prominent Chinese modern masters globally. It is time we play a broader role on the world stage.” This westward push coincides with heightened global interest in Taiwanese contemporary art, spurred in part by the island’s tech-driven economic rise and institutional appetite for diverse narratives.

Woman standing outside Nunu Fine Art, framed by the gallery’s concrete facade and large street-facing windows. — Nunu Hung, founder of NuNu Fine Art. Courtesy Nunu Hung and the gallery

Hung noted that Western curators are increasingly looking toward Taiwan. She recently facilitated the Dallas Museum of Art’s acquisition of Mapping Snail by Taiwanese artist En-Man Chang, while also placing five other artists (Guan-Hong Lu and Mimian Hsu among them) into institutions including the Phillips Collection and the Chazen Museum of Art. “Institutions are actively looking to build their global and Indigenous collections, and Taiwan is a region they cannot overlook,” she explained. “When recommending these artists, their identity is part of the story but ultimately, it is the quality of the work that secures their place in these collections.”

State-led initiatives have also played a pivotal role in this international push, seeking to leverage global interest in Taiwan to project soft power and transform the nation’s creative sector into an export-ready powerhouse. Launched in 2024, the T-Content Plan, a $311 million initiative, was created to subsidize a wide spectrum of cultural exports. Through its funding, Tina Keng Gallery mounted its London pop-up on Cork Street, an exhibition that saw works by Ava Hsueh, Chen Chun-Hao and Lee Juo-Me acquired by the British Museum. The initiative also backed the gallery’s presentation at Art Basel in Switzerland, marking a rare instance of state capital directly underwriting commercial gallery activities abroad.

Installation view of a contemporary art exhibition, with circular works on the left wall and a large blue-and-gold landscape painting on the right. — Installation view of Tina Keng Gallery’s exhibition “A Blast of Lyricism: Contemporary Taiwanese Art in London” at No.9 Cork Street. Photo: Mori Wang, courtesy of the gallery

Yet even as international momentum builds for Taiwanese galleries and artists, structural challenges remain. State-aligned support carries its own internal friction. Independent curator Gin Lin, who curated the first art exhibition at the Formosa Association for Public Affairs (FAPA) in New York, notes that politically affiliated organizations often operate with shifting annual mandates and such organizations can also alienate artists wary of overt ideological branding.

More critically, official state visibility frequently triggers diplomatic pushback from Beijing. As China continues to view Taiwan as an inalienable part of its territory that must eventually be reunified with the mainland, it has stepped up efforts to suppress Taiwan’s representation in the international art world.

Recently, the Gwangju Biennale adjusted the designation of the Taiwan Pavilion to the “NTMoFA Pavilion”—referencing the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, a compromise recalling the 2001 Venice Biennale, when diplomatic pressure from Beijing forced Taiwan’s national pavilion to rebrand as a collateral event under the same institutional name. Fearing backlash, some international institutions might exercise caution when programming Taiwanese artists.

Visitors listen during a gallery talk, with a woman in a brown hat at center and artworks visible on the walls behind them. — Tina Keng (second from left) and Gene Chen (third from left). Credit: Tina Keng Gallery

For gallerists like Keng, however, this diplomatic impasse highlights the distinct advantage of private market entities over state-backed cultural diplomacy. “We are currently finalizing a major acquisition of a seminal Taiwanese modern artist by a prominent European museum,” she said. “If this were a state-to-state initiative, it would face immediate political resistance. But as a private commercial gallery, we can navigate those barriers smoothly.”

Gene Chen, who co-curated Tina Keng’s London showcase, also views the geopolitical friction as an unexpected catalyst for global exposure: “Because of geopolitical reasons, some representation of Taiwanese artists has been suppressed, for sure. On the other hand, it has also increased our visibility; we see more Taiwanese artists in biennials worldwide. Now, what matters more is building a true discursive authority by bridging academic recognition with the commercial market.”