Taiwan Creative Arts & Culture Expo Step into Taichung’s Hall of Creative Art

By the MOOK Scenic Spots Editorial Team

Liu Guosong’s Ink Art Imagination

This edition of the Creative Arts & Culture Expo invited Taiwanese neo-ink painting master Liu Guosong to serve as the art ambassador. Known as a “pioneer of Chinese painting,” Liu has since the 1970s advocated for the modernization of Chinese painting. Using diverse techniques and materials, he broke through the conventions of traditional ink art, navigating between realism and freehand styles to offer new possibilities for Chinese ink painting. His works are collected by museums and galleries around the world, making him the most widely collected living Chinese artist.

Liu Guosong said, “Eastern and Western ink paintings can engage in dialogue and develop a new tradition.” He perfectly blends the cosmic vision of traditional Chinese landscape painting with the abstract concepts of Western art. The expo displayed works by him and his students, including the highly sought-after “Space Paintings” series, which uses simplified abstract lines to depict the relationships and rhythms of the heavens, earth, sun, and moon. Through a cosmic perspective and space-inspired thinking, these pieces reflect the inner world of Liu’s neo-landscape style. Among the exhibited works, extends the imagination through the trajectory of the moon’s movement, with dreamlike colors and a sense of radiance, as if cosmic light is emanating from the paper. Gazing quietly at the moon’s rise and fall, one seems to merge with the shifting time and space of landscapes, conveying a majestic poetic energy through motion and stillness.

Since the influx of Western influence in the 20th century, many painters have continuously explored the possibilities of traditional ink painting. Through active dialogue with Western aesthetics, Chinese painting has achieved constant innovation and breakthroughs in form and expression, developing works that better reflect the aesthetics of the times. This process of transformation aligns perfectly with the spirit of the Creative Arts & Culture Expo. This edition’s “Masters Invitation Exhibition” specially features works by two greats from China and Taiwan: Wu Guanzhong and Zhang Daqian. Wu, who bridged East and West, pioneered a new path for traditional painting with his unique color-ink style, while Zhang gained worldwide fame for his splashed-ink landscapes infused with Western abstractism. Works by these two late masters are often snapped up by collectors at high prices upon release. At this expo, every visitor can feast their eyes and appreciate the extraordinary aesthetic worlds of these masters up close.

A Forest of Art by International Masters

In recent years, many Taiwanese artists have stepped onto the global stage, with their works making waves in the international art market. Through the Taiwan Creative Arts & Culture Expo, internationally renowned masterpieces come together, showcasing the spectrum of creative talent in Taiwan and the world of contemporary art. For painting, artists such as Liu Chiwei, Ding Xiongquan, Xiao Yuzhen, and Yang Sanlang were invited, along with Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama, who exhibited her series. Liu Chiwei’s self-portrait uses his signature rendering and paper-blending techniques to sketch his own character and traits, with symbolic signatures and dates set against the background.