For more than a thousand years, ink painting has been a venerable practice, conveying people’s deepest beliefs and highest aspirations. Ink art has expressed complex, evolving ideas about aesthetics, spirituality, and the nature of the human condition. In today’s world, the range of visual and cultural concerns at the heart of ink art—first established in China during the Tang dynasty (618–907)—now informs a wide range of art, including painting, sculpture, video, photography, animation, and more.
Ink Shower focuses on dynamic works of art in this vein produced by twelve Taiwanese artists. While the cultural fabric of Taiwan has been shaped by waves of colonialism, modernization, and globalization, the tradition of ink art in Taiwan has never been a mere continuation of history. Instead, it has evolved through a process of cultural bricolage—appropriating and transforming elements to create new meanings.
Rooted in the genealogy of Chinese ink traditions, ink art in Taiwan has been deeply intertwined with local artistic developments since the mid-twentieth century. Over time, the singular path of “ink as tradition” has been gradually dismantled through movements such as modern ink painting, nativist realism, and conceptual art. Taiwanese artists have come to regard ink not merely as a medium, but as a conceptual device and cultural signifier—shifting from medium to spirit, and from spirit to a renewed engagement with diverse media. Ink Shower does not assert a direct narrative. Rather, it adopts an oblique, mobile, and peripheral strategy—entering from the margins, unfolding from dim light, and transforming “ink” into a cultural tool for understanding identity, reimagining history, and envisioning the future.
Situating “ink” as a mixture of aesthetic and cultural concerns rather than simply a medium, the exhibition incorporates a range of media to celebrate several distinctively Taiwanese contributions to this enduring and malleable tradition.
Featured artists include Li An-Chen, Aig Chen, Wu Chi-Tsung, Hua Chien-Chiang, Zheng Chong-Xiao, Chen Chun-Hao, Lin Chun-Pin, Lin Jiun-Ting, Yao Jui-Chung, Lee Ming-Tse, Wu Tsan-Cheng, and Chien Yu-Jen.
Curated by Kai-Ching Hsiao, PhD Candidate, Department of Art History and Art Criticism, Tainan National University of the Arts, and Maureen Warren, Curator of European and American Art, Krannert Art Museum.
Produced in collaboration with the Center for East Asian and Pacific Studies at the University of Illinois, with special thanks to Director Matt Winters and Associate Director Yuchia Chang.
Ink Shower is organized by InART Space and Krannert Art Museum. Advised by Jamie Tu, Rita Chang, Chien-Hui Kao, Yu-Chia Chang.
Made possible with grant support from the Ministry of Culture, Taiwan; Center for Advanced Study MillerComm Lecture Series; and Illinois Arts Council. Additional funding is provided by the J. Fred and Donna Giertz Exhibition Support Fund.
