Two decades mark a milestone worthy of celebration. Marking its 20th anniversary, CHENHOW MARBLE makes its presence felt at the upcoming ART TAICHUNG at the Taichung International Exhibition Center. Alongside signature collector slabs such as Empress Green and Mont Blanc, CHENHOW has commissioned artist Lee Yao-Cheng to create twenty original sculptures utilizing Amazzonite, Travertine, and Cristallo Pink—transforming exotic natural stone into a vessel for light, memory, and existential experience.

To journey toward the light is an act of conviction—a profound inner dialogue engaged while traversing dark valleys. This philosophy has long served as Lee Yao-Cheng’s creative compass. Within CHENHOW MARBLE, he recognized that same unwavering determination to carve deeply into one's core values.

As CHENHOW brings exotic stone into ART TAICHUNG during its 20th anniversary, CEO Kyle Chen invited Lee Yao-Cheng to conceptualize twenty new sculptures forged from CHENHOW’s curated slabs of Amazzonite, Travertine, and Cristallo Pink. These twenty pieces symbolize CHENHOW’s ambition to evolve from a traditional stone supplier into a co-creative platform for contemporary art.

For Kyle, ART TAICHUNG represents a vital beginning: "We look forward to collaborating with more Taiwanese artists in the future. Stone should not merely serve as a status symbol showcasing a homeowner's taste; through the artist's lens, it unearths entirely new narratives."

At the exhibition, CHENHOW will showcase two iconic luxury stones: Empress Green, celebrated for its deep hue and infinite veining, and Mont Blanc, featuring snow-capped peaks, ink-like striations, and translucent semi-precious minerals. These slabs reflect CHENHOW’s global eye for world-class stone curation. Meanwhile, Lee Yao-Cheng’s sculptures act as a prism—refracting not only the splendor and rarity of exotic stone, but also illuminating life's tribulations, memories, driftings, and inner light.

"Among the numerous galleries at art fairs, CHENHOW stands out as the sole natural stone brand," Lee observed prior to this collaboration. Long before this joint project, he noted CHENHOW’s unique presence at art expositions, treating natural stone as autonomous artistic mediums. Stone is a material Lee knows intimately, yet this cross-disciplinary approach prompted him to ask: CHENHOW is not merely supplying raw materials for interior architects—what internal vision drives them to invest in endeavors whose rewards are not immediately quantifiable?

Lee Yao-Cheng has always gravitated toward forgotten materials cast aside in quiet corners—stones used merely as "stepping stones." He deliberately seeks out overlooked rocks, recognizing that just as humans resist being ignored, stones possess a spirit that sparks a narrative. At the inception of this project, Lee requested to source raw stone blocks directly from their origins. Enabled by CHENHOW’s long-standing friendships with global quarry owners, these raw mineral blocks traveled thousands of miles straight into Lee’s studio.

A brand's or an artist's true stature is revealed in their devotion to detail and long-term commitment to unglamorous processes. Sourcing raw blocks specifically to meet an artist's exact material demands is hardly the most efficient business model for a stone supplier. Yet, it aligns seamlessly with CHENHOW’s ongoing commitment to building enduring brand value.

When stone enters private sanctuaries and living environments, it should exist as more than a high-end finish; it should carry historical depth, emotion, and unspoken stories. For Kyle, such collaborations may not yield immediate commercial sales, but each exchange with visionary creators builds an irreplaceable brand depth—much like water gradually carving through solid stone.

Lee Yao-Cheng’s 20th-anniversary series, 《隨光飄流》(Drifting with Light), comprises twenty sculptures: ten crafted from Amazzonite quartzite, and ten sculpted from Travertine, Cristallo Pink, and native Hualien Serpentinite.

Lee describes the creative process as a high-pressure dialogue with the raw medium. "Travertine is inherently opaque. To achieve the translucency I envisioned, I had to grind the stone down to five millimeters or thinner." Deciding precisely when to stop grinding became a delicate trial. One millimeter less, and the work fails to ignite; one millimeter too far, and the stone shatters entirely. Through these tedious, high-pressure processes, Lee repeatedly reaffirmed his passion for creation.

This self-interrogation mirrors CHENHOW’s pursuit of aesthetic boundaries: choosing a harder, deeper path over mere efficiency, and pushing stone beyond its material limits into the realms of fine art and daily living.

Upon encountering the luminous clarity of Cristallo Pink, its conical form resembling a suspended heart, Lee was filled with boyhood wonder: "Perhaps I can make it levitate; perhaps I can make it glow." He realized the pulsing light mirrored a heartbeat—a reminder that regardless of age or social role, everyone yearns to be seen.

Meanwhile, the Amazzonite quartzite, with its ethereal hue between aqua blue and celadon green, was encapsulated in clear epoxy resin, giving rise to an oceanic landscape of submerged icebergs. Lee deliberately introduced subtle air bubbles around the sculpted figures: "Bubbles represent a form of care and companionship." The figure within is not truly isolated; "he simply needs a space of his own"—a gentle embrace for every individual striving through life.

Among the twenty sculptures, a single work crafted from white stone with black veining stands out: Drifting with Light 6 (23°16'33.1"N 121°11'16.1"E), named after coordinates in the Yuli mountains of Hualien, Taiwan. A slender line of light condenses upon the stone, guiding a solitary traveler forward. Embedding native Taiwanese stone into the piece serves both as an anchor for the artist venturing out into the world and as CHENHOW’s milestone declaration at its 20th anniversary: "This is where we come from."

This evokes the existential inquiry posed over a century ago by Paul Gauguin in his masterpiece Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going? In Lee’s sculpture, the traveler holding a briefcase translates that philosophical question into everyday reality—carrying the weight of existence while walking toward higher, further horizons.

Light is the core vocabulary in Lee Yao-Cheng’s oeuvre. It functions neither as ambient illumination nor as a decorative trick to make stone appealing. Rather, the light emanates from within the figures, symbolizing inner longing and quiet aspirations.

For CHENHOW’s exhibition space at ART TAICHUNG, Lee assisted in designing serpentine and circular display pedestals constructed from eight modular segments. This arrangement guides the audience’s movement through a narrative arc: starting near flat terrain, ascending toward gentle slopes and caves, and ultimately arriving at a levitating sanctuary. As visitors move through the space, what they behold resonates with their own life journeys.

This spatial philosophy reflects CHENHOW MARBLE’s strategic transition from supplying architectural surfaces to curating fine art collections. From stone sourcing and technical fabrication to pedestal engineering, a co-creative partnership flourished between the brand and the artist. Coming from a manufacturing background himself, Lee’s observations of CHENHOW highlight a valuable aspect of industrial transformation—a shared belief in intangible value.

For Kyle, the next chapter for CHENHOW MARBLE lies in broadening these collaborative horizons. He aims to partner with more Taiwanese artists, elevating natural stone from industrial applications into artistic discourse, while allowing artistic perspectives to unlock new facets of the medium. As CHENHOW MARBLE and Lee Yao-Cheng converge at this intersection, time gains a new dimension—illuminated by a light guiding the path forward.

A light that shines brightly toward CHENHOW MARBLE’s next twenty years.