Kuang Yu Lee spent over ten years turning a barren hillside in Xizhi into a lush garden, planting each tree and placing each stone by hand. With its misty mountain views, the garden functions as an outdoor studio and gallery, with many of Lee’s sculptures installed around the property, inspired by the studio-garden of Spanish painter Joaquin Sorolla y Bastida and the Hakone Open-Air Museum in Japan.

In August 2021, this sensorial experience was replicated in a solo exhibition at Singapore’s Gardens by the Bay Cloud Forest, where 16 of his works were placed along the Cloud Forest’s verdant sites. Lee studied Western sculptural technique and theory in Spain and came back to Taiwan to teach art at the university. His style and themes are informed by Buddhism, tai chi, calligraphy, and nature, which in later years have achieved more lightness and agility. His public artworks can be seen at MRT stations, on roads, and at schools.