Underhill Chen is an independent art critic based in Taipei. His writings on the history of Taiwanese Art, with a particular emphasis on the role of artworks and artists in Taiwanese society, can be found in Humanistic Education Journal (column articles), Artist Magazine, and other art magazines.

Chen's research combines document analysis and theoretical reflection to formulate a more adequate explanation for art and its social context. His initial writing was the thesis for an MA degree on still-life paintings in the Japanese colonial period of Taiwan(1895-1945). In this topic, he discussed how art education and cultural differences were actively embedded in objects, which served both as carriers of knowledge and as artistic motifs.

Later, he started his independent career as an art critic in 2009 and focused on the state of artistic autonomy in Taiwan's martial law period (1949-1987), examining artists such as Li Tsai-Chien, Richard Lin, Hung Tung, and Pu Tien-sheng. Instead of a general formalism perspective, he wrote these articles on the hypothesis that there is no artistic autonomy in the period and thus frankly included social aspects in his research.