Modern Art Talk
The Feminine Contemporary: Hong Mei-Ling, Po Ying Ping, Emily Shih-chih Yang
Time: December 7th, 2024 (Sat.) 14:00－16:00
Place: Library and Archive, Basement of the Taipei Fine Arts Museum
Moderators:
Yi-ting Lei｜Editor-in-chief of Modern Art journal issue 212
Kat Siao｜Curator of “Enclave: An Autobiography”
Speakers:
Hong Mei-Ling｜Artist
Po Ying Ping｜Artist
Emily Shih-chih Yang｜Artist
Brief Introduction
This talk is jointly hosted by Yi-ting Lei, editor-in-chief of Modern Art journal issue 212, and Kat Shiao, curator of “Enclave: An Autobiography,” and features the artists Hong Mei-Ling, Emily Shih-chih Yang, and Po Ying Ping, who was interviewed for the magazine’s special topic “The Feminine Contemporary.” These three artists of similar ages are close friends, and here they take the opportunity to talk about the art of previous decades, looking back on Taiwan’s artistic revolution in the 1960s and 1970s, their experiences studying art in the United States in the 1970s and 1980s, and their artistic growth and achievements from the 1990s to the present.
Artist Introductions
Hong Mei-Ling was born in 1940 in Guangdong, China, and grew up in Hualien, Taiwan. After graduating from Hualien Teachers’ College in 1959, she served as an elementary school teacher for more than a decade. In 1977 she began studying Western painting at the National Taiwan Academy of Arts. After graduation, she was determined to keep improving as an artist and resigned from her stable teaching position, moving to California to study painting at the San Francisco Art Institute. There, she earned a master’s degree in 1984. After returning to Taiwan, she became a founding member of Space II. In 1983 Hong began creating her Looking for Tao series. Each of her oil paintings is titled with a serial number, symbolizing that each one is a movement in the artist’s life symphony. Over the course of her 40-year artistic career, she has completed over 150 works. Her paintings of the “Tao” are landscapes and also images of the artist’s mind.
Po Ying Ping was born in 1943 in Shandong, China, and moved with her family to Taiwan to escape the travails of war. After graduating from the National Taiwan Academy of Arts Western painting program in 1974, she had a solo exhibition at the American Cultural Center in Taipei in 1976. Moving to New York in 1978, where in addition to working and raising three children, she studied printing at the Graphic Center at the Pratt Institute of Arts. In 1989 she won the gold medal at the 100th Annual Exhibition of the National Association of Women Artists. After returning to Taiwan in 1987, she held her first solo exhibition at Taipei Fine Arts Museum. Around 1990 she took charge of operations at Din Dian Art Center, promoting the works of overseas-Chinese and Taiwanese artists. Later, she taught at Sheltering Sky artist village, and beginning in 2000 she became involved in community renewal through public art made from ceramic tile mosaics. A surreal style has been present throughout all her works, which she has created in such media as print, oil painting, pencil drawing, and installations of iron/steel and wood.
Emily Shih-chih Yang was born in 1949 in Shandong, China, moving with her parents to Taiwan before the age of one. She has loved to draw and paint since she was a child. In 1970 she studied for a year in the Department of Fine Art, Academy of Art College, San Francisco, USA. After returning to Taiwan, she did office work for a time, then married Yu Chao-ching and returned to the United States with her husband for further studies in 1975. Graduating from the San Francisco State University department of art in 1979, she continued to study in the department’s graduate program from 1982 to 1983. Returning to Taiwan in 1983, she held her first solo exhibition at Spring Gallery in 1987, and in 1989 she took part in a series of group exhibitions at Space II. Since then, she has held several solo exhibitions at IT Park and Red Gold Fine Art galleries. Early on, she worked primarily in oil paint, acrylic, and mixed media. Since 2002, she has created “ink landscapes” formed by collages of ink painting.
*Online registration opens on 11/25 (Monday) at 10:00, with limited on-site seating available for the waiting list.