Preface
Since its inception, the Taipei Art Awards has always been a benchmark for Taiwan's new generation of artists every year. Owing to recent year’s adjustments, the Awards extends to include mid-career artists, creating a broader platform of artistic eco-spectrum. In 2011, the Awards began an opportunity of solo show in the museum for the first-prize winners. It is an open invitation, where the winners can choose to present an exhibition proposal whenever they see fit. The exhibition could be a retrospective or a showcase of a new focus in their creative cycle. The TFAM is keen to observe and care for the future development of these promising winners. Taking the public showing as a platform, the TFAM seeks
to inspire and encourage these outstanding artists to remain steadfast to their belief and to plow on the idiosyncratic paths they have chosen.
This year, Taipei Art Awards' first-prize winner solo exhibition presents winner of 2016, Tang Jo-Hung. Being a painter, Tang is a rare scene in the Awards recent stage. Three years after his award, Tang returns with a vengeance. Though OLD MAN • FAIRY • AND A BIT OF EVERYTHING has its origin in the award-winning piece Little God, in this exhibition Tang explores dialogues between paintings and the space by tapping into the installation concept. A total of 53 oil-onmasonite paintings hanged or suspended in space, with a few ready-made objects and a corner of his studio added, creates an ensemble of life in his recent years.
As a painter, Tang’s creation is not all two-dimensional. He creates an arena where the paintings speak to themselves among the void of space. While the interplay involves the painting and the object, the viewer also takes on a role. As traversing through the spaces, viewers begin to perceive the matrix of images, the virtual and the physical, as the thread of meanings accumulates in layers. His engaging mind with the space and the innovative approach to the installation strike into the core of contemporary painting.
Tang lost his hearing in 2015. Nevertheless, this irreversible life experience has imbued his works with even a stronger sense of body and creative intensity. The title of this exhibition, whether it is old man or little fairy, is a multidimensional self-projection of his. The TFAM is delighted to collaborate with Tang to comb through his works over the years and finally present a mid-career retrospective. I am utmost happy for Tang, and I sincerely hope that the resolute vigor of an artist and his capacity in execution of idea demonstrated in this exhibition can bring great encouragement and inspiration to emerging contemporary artists in Taiwan.
Director Ping LIN
Preface
Essays
└ Lives of Figure / Patrick D. Flores
└ An Urban Insider: Tang Jo-Hung’s Exploration of Poetic Becoming / Chen Shui-Tsai
└ OLD MAN.FAIRY.AND A BIT OF EVERYTHING: Rising to the Heavens Just by Playing Flute / Tang Jo-Hung
Plates
└ Old Man
└ Youth
└ Lottery
└ Flower
└ XX
└ Wardrobe
└ Fairy
Resume
Index of Works