Rain Wu (* 1987, Tainan) is a Taiwanese artist and architect based in London. Her work is conceptually driven and materialises in different forms and scales from drawing, sculpture, food performance to architectural installation.
She works with the temporality of perishable materials to instigate discussions around our manifold relationships with nature. Following the geographic, political, cosmological and microbial traces of living materials, her work investigates the interconnection between the consumption of food, digestion of cultures, charting of
lands and recalling the myths.
She graduated from Royal College of Art and University College London. Her artwork has been exhibited in Sharjah Biennial (2017), Taipei Biennial (2016), The Palestinian Museum (2017), London Design Biennale (2016), Istanbul Design Biennial (2020), Hong-Gah Museum (2023), Manar Abu Dhabi (2023); she was in residence at the Design Museum London (2016), Fondation Thalie (2018), Jan van Eyck (2018-9) and Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (2024).
She is currently a lecturer at University of the Arts London and Goldsmiths University.
Upcoming
2025, 10 April: The Protagonist / group show at Belmacz (UK)
2025, 23 May: Shoreline / group show at Tube Gallery (ES)
2025, 8 June: Eating Between Tides / Gulbenkian CAM (PT) + Bauhaus of the Seas Sails pilot with Inês Neto dos Santos & Mariana Salvador
2025: Publication: The Shape of a Circle in the Mind of a Fish, edited by Lucia Pietroiusti and Filipa Ramos; published by Hatje Cantz, distributed by Thames & Hudson and DAP. Available May 2025.
2025: Publication: Beyond the Visual: Multisensory Modes of Beholding Art, edited by Ken Wilder and Aaron McPeake; published by UCL Press. Available August 2025.
2025: Publication: Artist Recipe Book with Jule Kurbjeweit. Available June 2025.
Selected Talks & Presentations
2024, 30 October: University of Limerick Architecture School, Artist Talk: Counter Cartographies. Invited by Niamh Schmidtke.
2022, 26 November: The Shape of the Circle in the Dream of the Fish, curated by Lucia Pietroiusti (Serpentine Galleries) & Filipa Ramos (Galeria Municipal do Porto).
2022, 16 November: Food Cosmogonies: Expeditions 2022-23, online course by The Gramounce.
2022, 31 October: Climate Challenge: Creative Collaborations project launch lecture, organised by UAL CCW Design Schools x Design Museum London (UK).
2022, 23-25 October: Abu Dhabi Cultural Summit (AE).
2022, 2 October: Grottesco Torino (IT), in conversation with Federico Campagna, organised by Matt Didemus.
Selected Exhibitions
2024: As Above, So Below / Asia Now Paris Ceremony, curated by Alexander Burenkov & Nicolas Bourriaud (Radicants) (FR).
2024: Taking the Sorbet on a Walk / Gulbenkian Art Foundation (PT), commissioned by TBA21 (ES).
2024: Bat Night Market / Science Gallery London (UK) + Taipei Performing Arts Center (TW).
2024: Antidote / Informality Gallery, Cromwell Place London (UK).
2023: One with the Soil, One with the Cloud / Manar Abu Dhabi (UAE).
2023: As Above, So Below / Taiwan International Video Art Exhibition, Hong-gah Museum, Taipei (TW).
2023: Installation design for Mori by Su Yu Hsin / Paradoks Leipzig (DE).
2023: Simultaneous Melodies / GroundWork Gallery, King’s Lynn (UK).
2022: As Above, So Below / Porto Architecture Film Festival (PT).
2022: Installation design for Mori by Su Yu Hsin / UCCA (CN).
2022: Festa Cipolla / Villa Lena (IT).
2022: Mycelium Pavilion / Cambridge Festival (UK).
2022: Hue / Ecotone of Collective Lives (on Gather.town, KR).
2021: From Nature group exhibition / Informality Gallery (UK).
2020: As Above, So Below / Istanbul Design Biennale (TR).
2020: The New Age Of Humanism / Spazio Nobile Brussels (BE).
2019: The Sea Rises and Totally Still / Sea Views (FI).
2019: Facsimile Of A Breeze / Walk&Talk Azores (PT).
2019: Simultaneous Melodies / Corridor Project Space Amsterdam (NL).
2019: We Move Silently Towards The Far Shore / Van Eyck (NL).
2018: From Strata of Memory to Layers of Rock / Fondation Thalie (BE).
2018: The Tea Set / Asia Now, Paris (FR).
2018: The Tea Set / Woodruff Arts Centre, Atlanta Design Festival (US).
2018: Bread / Van Eyck (NL).
2017: The Rock Nobody Could Lift / Keelung Ciao (TW).
2017: Threshold of Being / The Palestinian Museum (Palestine).
2017: Non-Human Narratives / Van Eyck (NL).
2017: Collectivism / Sharjah Biennial 13 (UAE).
2017: Incarnation, Taiwan Pavilion / Somerset House (UK).
2016: The Tea Set, Designers in Residence 2016 / Design Museum (UK).
2016: Eatopia, Taiwan Pavilion / London Design Biennale (UK).
2016: Collectivism, Taipei Biennial / Taipei Fine Arts Museum (TW).
2015: Agloe / Gallerie Pierre (TW).
2015: Eataipei, Tent London / London Design Festival (UK).
2014: Plastica / Redbull Studios (UK).
2014: Canvas, Shao-Yen SS15 / Platform Theatre (UK).
2014: Ripples, Shao-Yen AW14 / Somerset House (UK).
2013: Fabrica de Sonhos / Lisbon Architecture Triennale (PT).
Awards
2024: Gulbenkian Foundation (PT) x Bauhaus of the Seas Sails
2023: a-n Artist Bursary (UK)
2021: Liverpool Biennial x a-n Artist Bursary (UK)
2018: Artist in Residence / Jan van Eyck Academie, Maastricht (NL)
2016: Designer in Residence / Design Museum, London (UK)
2013: Third Prize, Taipei Fine Arts Museum X-Site 2014 (TW)
2011: Winner, Lisbon Architecture Triennale Universities Award (PT)
Selected Teaching
2017–present: Associate Lecturer, UAL (UK)
2021–present: Lecturer, BA Design, Goldsmiths University, London (UK)
2021–2022: Pathway Leader in Architecture, CSVPA, Cambridge (UK)
2020: Associate Lecturer, Canterbury School of Architecture, UCA (UK)
2019: Architecture tutor, Maastricht Master of Architecture ZUYD (NL)
2018: Architecture studio tutor, Bartlett Summer School (UK)
2017: Malaquais Intensifs, Paris (FR)
2015: Lecturer, National Cheng Kung University (TW)
2013, 2014, 2017: AcrossRCA, SustainRCA, Royal College of Art (UK)
Publications
2018: From Strata of Memory to Layers of Rock (ISBN 9789072076939)
2018: RARA: Speak (ISBN 9789072076915)
Qualifications
2015: RIBA Part III qualified British Architect
2011–2013: Architecture MA, Royal College of Art
2006–2009: Architecture BSc, Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL
Professional Experience in Architecture
2020: Practice Architecture (London, UK)
2011–2015: Carmody Groarke Architects (London, UK)
2012: Sou Fujimoto Architects (Tokyo, Japan)
2010: Metropolitan Workshop (London, UK)
2009: Building Design Partnership (London, UK)
