Pei- Yi Tsai | [insert] curated by Senem Cagla Bilgin-Keys: Pei-Yi Tsai

SLQS Gallery is pleased to present [insert], a solo exhibition by London-based artist Pei-Yi Tsai (b. Taipei, Taiwan) curated by Senem Cagla Bilgin-Keys. Tsai’s work navigates the subtle intersections of visibility, embodied presence, and interiority by tracing the tensions of social expectation, belonging, and queer identity.

Pei-Yi Tsai’s paintings explore the delicate threshold between visibility, somatic presence and identity. Her figures are often partial: faces cropped, gestures suspended, bodies dissolving into shadow. Rather than offering legible, traditional portraits, her works unsettle the conventional promise of representation. Tsai approaches representation not as affirmation but as a structure that can carry the fluidity of identity through colour, gestural expression, and memory. The works create moments in which identity emerges only fragmentarily, revealing how individuals navigate the pressures of social expectation, belonging, queer subjectivity and highlighting the provisional, contingent nature of being seen.

Materially, the works reinforce this sense of provisionality. Working with textile substrates, Tsai mobilises the surface as a site of resistance and inscription. Soft transitions between figure and ground, subtle traces of erasure, and painterly hesitation evoke time and repeated engagement.

[insert] aims to foreground the identity something in flux, emerging, dissolving, overlapping with memory, geography, culture and resisting closure. Her fragmented surfaces suggest that identity is performed, rehearsed, and enacted over time rather than fully present all at once or externally imposed.

This exhibition is curated by Senem Cagla Bilgin-Keys

Pei-Yi Tsai (b. in Taipei, Taiwan) is an artist based in London, UK. She holds an MA in Painting from the Royal College of Art (2024). She is the recipient of Next Art Tainan Award (2022) and was selected for the Art Future Prize of 2021.

Tsai’s inspiration stems from her profound insight into personal identity and individual experiences, as well as her exploration of queer identity. The core of her work lies not only in depicting the exploration and feelings of queer identity in East Asian society but also in exploring the individual’s position and values in a complex social environment. Within the context of representational painting, Pei-Yi Tsai integrates these emotions and struggles into her works, reflecting the challenges individuals face when confronting issues of identity and societal pressure. Additionally, her creations extensively delve into various aspects of personal identity, including gender, culture, family, and self-growth, with these themes running through her body of work.

Recent exhibitions include solo exhibition: The Other, Starting From Me, (Brownie Project Gallery, Shanghai, China, 2025). As well as group exhibitions: the art fair West Bund Art & Design (Shanghai, China, 2025), My Galaxy (Paulina Caspari Gallery, Munich, Germany, 2025), Somatechnics (NoHo Showroom, London, United Kingdom, 2024), Minor Attractions Art Fair (The Mandrake Hotel, London, United Kingdom, 2024), RCA MA Painting Degree Show (Royal College of Art, London, United Kingdom, 2024), Headshot (Stapleford Granary, Cambridge, United Kingdom, 2024), Body as Vessel (Four Corners, London, United Kingdom, 2024), Lawless Imagination (RuptureXIBIT, London, United Kingdom, 2023) and Apocalypse Now (Kuan Art Space, Taichung, Taiwan, 2022).

Senem Cagla Bilgin-Keys is a London-based independent curator, arts advisor, and founder of Art Elsewhere. Her curatorial practice focuses on environmental and social issues, including ecology, migration, and identity. Drawing on her academic background in Art History and Curating, she brings a research-driven and conceptually rigorous approach to both exhibition projects and strategic advisory for galleries, collectors, and artists across Europe and West Asia.

Her curatorial work spans solo and group exhibitions, including Amelia Bowles’ site-responsive installation Komorebi at Sunny Bank Mills Museum & Archive, and the group exhibitions ‘Unity’ in collaboration with Arebyte Gallery and Trinity Buoy Wharf, 'When Is Now?' and 'What Will Not Bend, Will Break' at Vision London. Since 2013, she has worked alongside leading galleries and collectors including Tate Patrons, Lehmann Maupin (London) and Podbielski Contemporary (Milan).

A regular contributor to art publications and participant in international fairs such as London Art Fair 2026 with her platform Art Elsewhere, she works at the intersection of artistic practice and research, fostering dialogues that are artist-centered, generate curatorial projects, and bring fresh perspectives to the creative industry.