Cupertino artist May Shei brings the history of her native Taiwan to her work, blending traditional Asian techniques with contemporary style. She’ll be sharing her artworks during the final weekend of this year’s Silicon Valley Open Studios (SVOS).
Now an art teacher, Shei graduated from the arts and craft program at Tainan University of Technology and from the department of art at Chinese Culture University with a major in commercial design and a minor on oil and Chinese painting. The Triton Museum of Art in Santa Clara recently added her work to its permanent collection.
In her artist’s statement, Shei says she “often portrays the creatures of her childhood, now endangered and protected species, as well as ancient figures from Taiwan’s past. Her work examines the abstract and the natural, and the ways in which they collide with our modern world.”
Shei is among the more than 370 visual artists participating in Open Studios’ 40th anniversary next month, when artists working in a wide variety of media will invite the public to visit them at more than 100 studios and galleries from South San Francisco to San Jose and Pacifica to Half Moon Bay.
SVOS 2026 will be held the first three weekends in May, highlighting local artists from a different region each weekend. Shei will be showing her work at Obelisk Applied Arts, 1945 Grant St. in Santa Clara, on May 16-17, when South Bay artists will be front and center. The weekend of May 2-3 features sites along the coast and the Northern Peninsula, while the weekend of May 9-10 highlights Midpeninsula artists.
Studios are open on Saturday and Sunday, 11 a.m.-5 p.m. each day. To see an interactive map of the exhibit locations, view a gallery of all the participating artists and learn about their work, visit https://svos.org.