Taiwan’s LIAO SHIOU-PING : Where East Meets West

LIAO SHIOU-PING was born in Taiwan in 1936, the son of a civil engineer. As a child, he would often study architectural blueprints spread across his father’s desk. His family lived near Taipei’s famous Longshan Temple and it helped formed strong influences upon his artwork.

The name Shiou-Ping Liao is practically synonymous with printmaking in Taiwan. Dedicated to promoting modern Taiwanese printmaking, Liao has made significant contributions to the development of modern printmaking in Taiwan and China. Liao’s art education started at the National Taiwan Normal University. In 1959, he moved to Tokyo, Japan to study at the Tokyo University of Education (now the University of Tsukuba), and then moved to paris France to study at the Fine Arts Institute of Paris, and Atelier 17. He studied painting, graphic design and printmaking. When he was in Paris, one of his instructors pushed him to find his own style, and he began to explore his Asian roots as a source of inspiration. He drew on memories of the candles, incense and ghost money from Longshan Temple for much of his later work. In the late 1960s he loved to New York where he developed his Symbols series, inspired by Taiwanese culture. Liao believed that “an artist’s style reflects the rhythms of the society that he lives in.”

Liao has devoted himself to creative expression and exploration, developing visual art to express the character, customs, faith, and lifestyles of his people. Liao’s work incorporates Asian sensibilities with a strong graphic design. It is work full of personal symbols and rich in Eastern art colors like red, gold and black; describing a longing for harmony, balance and beauty. He has found a way to bridge Eastern and Western ideas, techniques, and formats, creating a series of works of unique symbols which derive from inscriptions on ancient bronze, drawings of antique ceramics, and Chinese religious, folklore art and gates which reflect secular and divine connections.

In the mid 1970s, Liao returned to Taiwan where he bagan to teach at the National Taiwan Normal University. He developed a textbook on printmaking, The Art of Printmaking, which is still the Bible of printmaking techniques in Asia. He later taught in Tokyo and the US. In the 1990s, he spent time in mainland China teaching western printmaking techniques and spreading an enthusiasm for the medium. Liao’s wife unforeseen death in 2002 inspired his Dreams series where he conveys the duality of yin and yang, life and death, through images of outstretched hands and ghost money.

During his career, Liao Shiou-ping has held more than 70 solo exhibitions in New York, Paris, Tokyo and many other cities around the world. His work can be found in the following permanent collections:
The British Museum
The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York
the National Museum of Modern Art(Tokyo)
Taipei Fine Arts Museum
The Shanghai Museum

Awards:
Recipient of the Nation Cultural Award and National Award for Arts, earning the title of “father of modern Taiwanese printmaking” for his outstanding artistic achievements.
Co-Founder of the Prix de Paris fund to provide support for young artists to study abroad.