KUO-HSING LIU（1960- ）
Born in Hsinchu in 1960, Kuo-Hsing Liu graduated from the Chinese Painting Program of Chinese Culture University Fine Art Department as valedictorian, and later graduated from the Ink Painting Program in College of Arts, Taiwan Normal University in 2012. He has served as Fine Art Director of Film and Media Department in Han-sheng Publishing Co. and the Secretary-general of 21st Century Modern Ink Painting Association; currently he is the Managing Editor of Tai-Hwa Pottery Co. and a professional artist.
With his New vision Shan-Shui series , Liu won the TFAM Modern Ink Painting Innovation Award in 1992; by 1997 he had developed a new realm for ink painting in the 21st century by his creations of Digital Ink Painting. Liu is skilled in creating a space full of movements via a neat, delicate style; he was awarded the National Culture and Arts Foundation’s Project Grant in 2002, and in 2004 he was invited to join 1st Chinese Christian Art Festival. In 2006 his work was displayed at The First Taipei Contemporary Ink Painting Biennale, in 2008 he was awarded the Liu Guo-sung Grant in The 2nd Taipei Contemporary Ink Painting Biennale, in 2009 he was invited to join the First International Art Workshop at Club Med Guilin, and in 2011 he was invited to participate in the 100th of ROC: Contemporary Taiwanese Artists Invitational Group Exhibition in Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall, Taipei, the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Art in Taichung and the Cultural Affairs Bureau, Tainan City Government. In 2014 he joined The 2nd Xi’an and Taipei Art Exchange Exhibition at Xi’an Academy of Fine Arts and Tension of White Line: Chinese Modern Ink Art Group Exhibition in Jinan, Weifang, Yantai, Jining and Qingdao Municipal Museum, in 2015 he took place in the group exhibition Good Idea Art Spring Festival at Yosifu Gallery in Taipei, Taiwan, and afterwards he joined the 2016 Good Idea Art Festival at Songshan Cultural and Creative Park as well as the 2016 Taiwan International Orchid Show at Taiwan Orchid Plantation Area, Tainan.
Liu’s art has been displayed publicly by 8 solo exhibitions and more than a hundred group exhibitions—his works have been seen in Taiwan, the United States, Malaysia, Singapore, Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, France, Poland, Russia, and major cities in China including Beijing.
Kuo-Hsing Lius’s modern ink painting works
Kuo-Hsing Lius’s modern ink painting works can be divided into 2 major series:
1. The New Vision Shan-Shui series
Before I became a Christian, I was very keen on Karesansui from Zen religious tradition. During the creation process of this series, I applied the techniques of meticulous brushwork(Gongbi) and tinting with ink in order to create a gradation in the mountains, waters, trees and rocks. I planned out its compositions in a way similar to Landscape Architecture designs and thus interpreted the relations between men and nature, with the hope to evoke contemplation and reflections in the audience—on conflict versus harmony, to deprive vs. to cherish, and destruction vs. life.
2. The Digital Ink Painting series
This first blossomed in 1994, while I was still an art designer at Han-sheng, and I used computer software as an auxiliary tool. To continue the imagery in The New Vision Shan-Shui works, I combined ink painting and digital tools in my experimental attempts and thus created a new, expressive art form which has the characters of modern age as well as those of classic humanism.
In him was life, and the life was the light of men. ——John 1:4
The main motifs/themes in my works derive from imagery of the Light, which signifies the dawn and the state of first light—all creatures awake as the dark, chaotic earth is illuminated to brightness, an allegory of Hope and Light together. For the Lord is the Light of the world, as it is said in John 8:12:
I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. (ESV)
The Digital Ink Painting series
I often pondered how I could interweave [the capabilities] of the traditional media of ink with the modern creation, digital software, and create a method of expression via a new form.
I used/applied the unpredictable outcome created by digital software as a technique, and found order in the seemingly irregular chaos. During this preparatory process, as the digital images evoked my own intuitive reactions, I supplied them with associations to shapes and colors.
Eventually I began to work on paper—according to the shapes and colors in the picture, I chose the necessary ink brushwork techniques “outlining” and “tinting”, and gradually expressed my subconscious thoughts to completion, and hence reached the state of “making a form without intentions”.
Colored Ceramics series:
This series extracts and reinterprets the elements of flower—not merely its forms and appearance but also the symbolization that lies within flower. With an undertone of the creator’s artistic conviction and his spiritual faith, the aesthetic symbol/sign of flower is rearranged, its contours and shapes now simplified and presented on chinaware by printmaking, glazing and craftsmanly techniques of ceramic kiln.
The shining, translucent glaze coat accentuates the variety in forms of flower and the orderly image of flower petals, altogether in an arrangement alternating layers of light and shade—it is like a ray of eternal light from the magnificent, faraway core of the universe that brings forth an aura of calmness and warmth—in the holiness of light and the beauty of flowers.
Prosperous with Gold and Jade No. 2
2020
Ink and Mixed Media
150×150cm
