The Artist's Profile
Pei Wu’s background in architecture studies gives her a sensitivity to others and her surroundings. Her way of working is relatively intuitive and intimate, intentionally focused on feeling and emotional expression, and yet the rigorous logic and precision in her work are hard to ignore. Personal feelings have been a significant influence and the source of inspiration for her; through collecting more relevant stories from others and going as deep as possible to reach the source, Pei tries to bring her story to a social level, to tell it in a way that could resonate with the public. Her emotion shaped the material, mainly stones, into their specific forms. The quietness in her work comes from a frozen moment of action, a movement.
People often find her work soft and gentle in the beginning, but then the tension and weight come after. The soft touch of the material with the oppressive form; the adorable appearance hides a touch of insecurity. The combination of all senses reflects the state of mind in her story. “We are all very similar,” Pei believes; she communicates with others by expressing her deepest feelings.
Series “孝 Xiao (filial piety)”
Her works often reveal two tightly connected parts, or a third element caught in between. These structures carry a forceful tension that twists the material, leaving irreversible marks. Even when released, the traces remain. Yet within this pressure and distortion, an atmosphere of gentleness and protection persists.
The central theme is “relationships,” especially the parent-child bond—a profound connection that can transform a life. Early childhood, long seen as crucial for shaping personality, makes parents deeply influential. At the same time, an inner will drives our desires, shaping how we relate to others.
In East Asian culture, love and care coexist with values such as filial piety, humility, and harmony, alongside traditional gendered expectations. Children grow up under these pressures, “shaped by hands,” carrying permanent imprints into adulthood. While we long for individuality, the traces of family and society remain inseparable from who we are.
The parent-child relationship thus becomes lifelong, filled with struggle and contradiction, yet always bound by love.
Series “Th3 Tru4h 1s”
Glitch is both a fault and an error, but also a sudden moment of revelation—the realization that an image is, in fact, made up of countless tiny pixels, and that vibrant colors emerge from the overlay of just three tones. When a glitch occurs, it disrupts the illusion of perfection while simultaneously exposing the hidden rules of the system. Through distorted images, error and truth, reality and imagination become intertwined.
The formation of jade can be seen as the earth’s own kind of glitch. Shades of deep green, pale green, or nearly milky white, along with black speckles and diverse inclusions, all point to its complex origins. As bedrock undergoes tectonic pressure, infused with volcanic vapors and underground water, substances are transformed in environments of extreme heat and pressure. Chaos, mystery, and accident converge, yet what emerges is the pristine, gentle beauty of jade. By arranging its varied hues and subjecting the stone to human intervention to create glitch-like imagery, the work reveals a dramatic narrative hidden within the flat, digitized visual effect.
Yael’s Reflection On The Artist
Pei Wu has a special story: she studied architecture in Taiwan, then switched to studying Jewellery in Germany to create and design her work by hand, rather than mostly through digital means.
Perhaps it’s her architectural background that makes her think three-dimensionally, as well as question the relationship of the objects she creates with the human body. She first carves her selected semi-precious gemstones into original mostly rounded forms, projecting softness, and then she creates a fascinating and unusual structural relationship between the gemstone and what holds it, framing it originally, and creating a ring, a brooch, an earring, a neckpiece. An unusual work process, precise and crafty, that leads to a beautiful body of work that is engaged organically and emotionally with people.
CV
Education | |
2020 | MFA Jewellery and Gemstone Campus Idar-Oberstein, Trier University of Applied Arts, Germany |
Prize and Grant | |
2022 | Arts Grants by the National Culture and Arts Foundation, Taiwan |
2021 | Selected in Gioielli in Fermento 2021, Italy |
2021 | Selected in Enjoia’t 2021, A-FAD, Spain |
2020 | Winner of the Marzee International Graduate Award, Netherlands |
2020 | Selected by the Graduate 2020 of Klimt02 |
Public Collection | |
2026 | Landemuseum Koblenz, Germany |
2025 | Museum of Design and Fashion (MUDE), Lisbon, Portugal |
Selected Exhibition | |
2025 | “MAD About Jewelry,” Museum of Arts and Design, New York, USA |
2024 | “All Along the Line,” Handwerk Galerie, Munich, Germany |
2024 | “The Hole“ The Closer Gallery, B-Design Hub, China |
2023 | “Ring“ Contemporary Jewellery Symposium Tokyo (CJST), Japan |
2023 | “In-between” solo exhibition, The Closer Gallery, Beijing, China |
2022 | “Reflecting Within” solo exhibition, Gallery Mano, Taipei, Taiwan |
2022 | “Liquid Modernity,” Gallery RVNHUS, Kolding, Denmark |
2020 | “Marzee Graduate Show 2020” Galerie Marzee, Netherlands |