Weak Painting

While images and media art come to the center stage of contemporary art in Taiwan, what should the relatively old and conventional art medium of painting respond to this trend, and how should we see a painting?

“Weak Painting” is an exhibition presenting fifteen artists whose works reveal their perspectives on contemporary painting. Curated by Chang Ching-wen and Su Yu-an, this exhibition featuring a selection of works created in the last decade will be shown at Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts, August 14-September 20, 2009.

Artists included in this exhibition are Wang Liang-yin, Huang Chia-ning, Fan Yang-tsung, Chiu Chien-jen, Tian Bao-chang, Huang Hai-hsin , Tsai Yi-ting, Wang Tzu-ting, Huang Hua-chen, Hsu Yin-ling, Yuhi Hasegawa, Choi Nari, Samuel T. Adams, Rob James Kolomyski and Benjamin Swallow Duke. Their works demonstrate how they see themselves, people they encounter and the world.


One of the curators, Su Yu-an, indicated that at present, painting has become marginalized in the realm of contemporary art in Taiwan due to the fact that photographic image and installation art have become the mainstream of many important official exhibitions, such as the Taipei Biennale, and that the number of painting instructors in art schools and critics on painting keeps decreasing. However, against all odds, a group of young artists born in the ’70s and ’80s chose painting as their creative medium after they have experienced the trends of installation and video art. They present paintings with different perspectives through their own practices and explorations.

The other curator of this exhibition, Chang Ching-wen considers the idea of “Weak Painting” in terms of the interiority of painting. She uses the term “Weak Painting” to describe the attitude towards art making of the new generation artists. They use brushes and paint to give subtle insight into ordinary life and convey the happiness and absurdity of this age on the picture plane. Therefore, the word “weak” in “Weak Painting” alludes to the delicate perception and emotions of real life. Although their paintings may lack the “grand narrative” of the historical painting, they enchant the viewers with personal explorations and viewpoints. In contemporary painting, the artists find their each individual expression to turn ordinary days into works of art and offer them a more vivid existence.