Liao Shiou-Ping: The Pioneer of Modern Printmaking in Taiwan, features the development of Modern Prtintmaking in Taiwan, now invites you to his solo exhibition"Interface, Imprint".
Liao Shiou Ping has been the primary force behind the advancement of printmaking in Taiwan for the last several decades and is widely considered Taiwan’s “Father of Modern Print-Making.” Full of personal symbols and rich in the colors and sentiments of Eastern art, his works describe the longing for harmony, balance and beauty. He found a way to bridge Eastern and Western ideas, techniques, and formats, creating a series of works that are both poignant and universal.
Liao developed a highly individual style using mixed media built upon incredible technical precision. Double Happiness, which features the artist’s trademark “gate” symbol, refers to the classical beauty of a Taiwanese temple with its use of the Chinese “gate” character, or “門” as a symbol of connection between the secular and the divine. His use of auspicious colors like red, gold, black and white exudes a festive and celebratory energy associated with temple festivals. The Life Series, which consists of geometric compositions that symbolize home life, draws upon his childhood memories of time spent in a Buddhist temple near where he grew up.
As Petra ten-Doesschate Chu, Professor of Art History and Museum Studies, Seton Hall University wrote “Liao Shiou-Ping was a pioneer in the creation of an Asian Modernism, anticipating in many ways the work of contemporary celebrated artists like Cai Guo-Qiang or Ai Weiwei. Working as a printmaker, in a different medium and on a smaller scale than those artists, he nonetheless realized that the future of East Asian art lay in a successful merger of Eastern and Western ideas. His inspiration to do so came from the advice of Roger Chastel, Professor of Oil Painting at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris.
Born in Taiwan and educated there and in Japan, France, and the U.S., Liao is internationally known for the inventiveness and technical expertise he uses in his work. He has been the master teacher of many young printmakers. The lively colors of the rainbow spectrum can be found in almost all of his works as well as the background grid pattern. The artist enjoys portraying the simple things of life such as leaves, chestnuts, rocks, flowers, vegetables or fruits. He wants to convey the warmth and intimacy of the homely things all around us, symbols of friendship and congeniality. Liao is especially known for his collagraphic technique, in which he builds up an object on a copper plate, usually out of a thin piece of plastic which is glued to the plate, and then proceeds to print it.
