Biography

Elaine Sheen is a painter and educator originally from Taipei, Taiwan, now living in San Francisco, California. Her artistic practice merges surrealism and abstraction, weaving the imaginary with deep emotions. Through the childhood-adult dichotomy and the immigrant experience, she creates ambiguous landscapes where both suppressed and expressed emotions emerge.

Sheen’s work explores human relationships through social, cultural, and familial dynamics, focusing on the tension between childhood expressiveness and adult repression. She depicts a circular-featured child alongside a voiceless adult figure, symbolizing this contrast as the figures search for belonging. They embody different emotional states and memories, shifting between the past and present. This vulnerable moment allows her to rediscover the duality of her inner child and authentic self. She integrates natural elements and symbolic colors to bridge nature with the human experience.