Sky, 2015

Born in Taipei in 1985, Una Ursprung (née Hsu Chang-Yu) graduated from the Taipei National University of the Arts in 2007, and Ecole Européenne Supérieure d’Art de Bretagne site Quimper in France in 2011 (from which she received Diplôme National Supérieur d'Expression Plastique, the highest honor awarded by the National Arts Councils and Culture Agencies). Currently, she lives and works in Switzerland. Her works have been exhibited in Taipei, London, and Paris.

Ursprung’s focal theme lies in landscapes, particularly forests and trees. Every forest from different stages echoes her life experiences at the time. From France, Taiwan, to Switzerland, her constant migration brought new scopes to her creative expressions. She utilizes a variety of mediums and techniques to explore the space and visual experiences of painting. Since 2016, Ursprung has been residing in Swiss countryside where she developed new methods of painting. She employs abstract lines to create a vivid contrast through the combination of oil painting and spray painting. The liberating and quick nature of spray paint immediately alter the careful and slow strokes of the original landscape constructed within the atmosphere of the forest. However, the visual message conveyed through the landscape does not collapse with the spray painting process but is rather expressed from the inner instead of the outer intentions. Moreover, brushstrokes that carry the body and subliminal messages float across the surface, transforming and reconstructing the visual message. Her paintings bring their audience into a realistic forest, following the artist. Ursprung fosters a vibrant forest that returns to the essence of nature, lacking the negativity and anxiety of modern civilization.