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 Goldsmiths University of London.
@rainwu_
info@rainwu.net
Upcoming
2026
5 Sep: The Fair-Weather Being / Edible Ecology Walks at Towner Eastbourne
Selected Talks & Presentation
2025
2025
2025
2024
2022
2022
2022
2022
2022
22 October: Maps as Desires, Geomob London
21 October: Dream Maps: A Birthday Party for Ursula K Le Guin / An edible landscape and a convivial act at the Architectural Association, London
8 June: Eating Between Tides / Gulbenkian CAM (PT) + Bauhaus of the Seas Sails pilot with Inês Neto dos Santos & Mariana Salvador
30 October: University of Limerick Architecture School artist talk: Counter Cartographies. Invited by Niamh Schmidtke.
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.
16 November: Food Cosmogonies: Expeditions 2022-23, online course run by The Gramounce (online)
31 October: Climate Challenge: Creative Collaborations project launch lecture, organised by UAL CCW Design Schools x Design Museum London (UK)
23-25 October: Abu Dhabi Cultural Summit (AE)
2 October: Grottesco Torino (IT) In conversation with Federico Campagna, organised by Matt Didemus.
Publications
2025
2025
2025
2018
2018
Publication: The Shape of a Circle in the Mind of a Fish edited by Lucia Pietroiusti and Filipa Ramos, published by Hatje Cantz, distribution by Thames & Hudson and DAP.
Publication: Beyond the Visual: Multisensory Modes of Beholding Art, edited by Ken Wilder and Aaron McPeake, published by UCL Press.
Publication: Edible Ecologies: An Artists’ Recipe Book with Jule Kurbjeweit
From Strata of Memory to Layers of Rock (ISBN 9789072076939)
RARA: Speak (ISBN 9789072076915)
Selected Exhibitions
2026
2025
2025
2025
2025
2025
2024
2024
2024
2024
2023
2023
2023
2023
2022
2022
2022
2022
2022
2021
2020
2020
2019
2019
2019
2019
2018
2018
2018
2018
2017
2017
2017
2017
2017
2016
2016
2016
2015
2015
2014
2014
2014
2013
The Sea Rises and Totally Still / Ecomuseum of Books - Yilan Art Maker Festival (TW)
10 April: The Protagonist / group show at Belmacz (UK)
23 May: Shoreline / group show at Tube Gallery (ES)
18 September: From Taipei to London / curation and set design for London Fashion Week
27 October: The Shape of a Circle in the Mind of a Fish - London Book Launch / Royal College of Art, London
Towards A Sweet Future, As Above, So Below / Ecos of Taiwan group show at Cuartel de Artillería de Murcia curated by la plataforma PROYECTOR (ES)
As Above, So Below / Asia Now Paris Ceremony curated by Alexander Burenkov & Nicolas Bourriaud (Radicants) (FR)
Taking the Sorbet on a Walk / Gulbenkian Art Foundation (PT), commissioned by TBA21 (ES)
Bat Night Market / Science Gallery London (UK) + Taipei Performing Arts Center (TW)
Antidote / Informality Gallery, Cromwell Place London (UK)
One with the Soil, One with the Cloud/ Manar Abu Dhabi (UAE)
As Above, So Below/Taiwan International Video Art exhibition, Hong-gah Museum, Taipei (TW)
Installation design for Mori by Su Yu Hsin/ Paradoks Leipzig (DE)
Simultaneous Melodies/ GroundWork Gallery, King's Lynn (UK)
As Above, So Below/ Porto Architecture Film Festival (PT)
Installation design for Mori by Su Yu Hsin/ UCCA (CN)
Festa Cipolla/ Villa Lena (IT)
Mycelium Pavilion/ Cambridge Festival (UK)
Hue/ Ecotone of Collective Lives (on Gather.town/ KR)
From Nature group exhibition/ Informality Gallery (UK)
As Above, So Below/ Istanbul Design Biennale (TR)
The New Age Of Humanism/ Spazio Nobile Brussels (BE)
The Sea Rises and Totally Still/ Sea Views (FI)
Facsimile Of A Breeze/ Walk&Talk Azores (PT)
Simultaneous Melodies/ Corridor Project Space Amsterdam (NL)
We Move Silently Towards The Far Shore/Van Eyck (NL)
From Strata of Memory to Layers of Rock/Fondation Thalie (BE)
The Tea Set/Asia Now, Paris (FR)
The Tea Set/Woodruff Arts Centre, Atlanta Design Festival (US)
Bread/Van Eyck (NL)
The Rock Nobody Could Lift/Keelung Ciao (TW)
Threshold of Being/The Palestinian Museum (Palestine)
Non-Human Narratives/Van Eyck (NL)
Collectivism/Sharjah Biennial 13 (UAE)
Incarnation, Taiwan Pavilion/Somerset House (UK)
The Tea Set, Designers in Residence 2016/Design Museum (UK)
Eatopia, Taiwan Pavilion /London Design Biennale (UK)
Collectivism, Taipei Biennial /Taipei Fine Arts Museum (TW)
Agloe /Gallerie Pierre (TW)
Eataipei, Tent London /London Design Festival (UK)
Plastica /Redbull Studios (UK)
Canvas, Shao-Yen SS15 /Platform Theatre (UK)
Ripples, Shao-Yen AW14 /Somerset House (UK)
Fabrica de Sonhos /Lisbon Architecture Triennale (PT)
Awards
2023
2021
2018
2016
2013
2011
a-n Artist Bursary (UK)
Liverpool Biennial x a-n Artist Bursary (UK)
Artist in Residence /Jan van Eyck Academie, Maastricht (NL)
Designer in Residence /Design Museum, London (UK)
Third Prize:Taipei Fine Arts Museum X-Site 2014 (TW)
Winner: Lisbon Architecture Triennale Universities Award (PT)
Selected Teaching
2021~
2021~2
2020
2019
2018
2017
2015
2013,4,7
Lecturer, BA Design Goldsmiths University, London (UK)
Pathway Leader in Architecture, CSVPA, Cambridge (UK)
Associate Lecturer, Canterbury School of Architecture, UCA (UK)
Architecture tutor, Maastricht Master of Architecture ZUYD (NL)
Architecture studio tutor, Bartlett Summer School (UK)
Malaquais Intensifs, Paris (FR)
Lecturer, National Cheng Kung University (TW)
AcrossRCA, SustainRCA, Royal College of Art (UK)
Qualifications
2011-13
2006-09
Architecture MA, Royal College of Art
Architecture BSc, Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL
Architecture
2011-15
2012
2010
2009
Carmody Groarke Architects (London, UK)
Sou Fujimoto Architects (Tokyo, Japan)
Metropolitan Workshop (London, UK)
Building Design Partnership (London, UK)
Selected Press and Interviews
2022
2022
2021
2020
2018
2018
2016-18
2017
2017
2016
Inside Art 124
Parole.cc
Ocula Magazine ‘From Nature: The Materials Are the Message’
TLmag 33 ‘To Appear and Disappear with Lightness’
Artnet News- 10 of the Most Exciting Artists to Discover at FIAC and Its Satellite Fairs in Paris
TLmag (Nearch Edition, Interview)
MA! Design Is Human (The Tea Set, Eatopia, Eataipei)
Design Magazine Taiwan (Interview)
Perspective Magazine (Interview)
Frame Magazine (Interview)