Komi Chen is a Taiwanese artist born into an artistic family in Taipei. She was trained in classical Chinese painting and calligraphy by her father, a renowned visual artist. Chen attended Taiwan Normal University where she studied traditional Chinese fine arts and was exposed to Western styles. After moving to the United States in the 1960s, Chen's early paintings featured traditional Chinese landscapes and still lifes, but she later incorporated more colorful, dramatic works reflecting diverse cultures from around the world. Chen creates paintings using gouache, a painting medium made from glue, mineral pigments, and water applied with brushes.