“2021 Chungshan Youth Art Awards Exhibition,” organized by National Dr. Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall, Ministry of Culture, will be grandly held at Bo-ai Gallery from November 26 to December 6. The award-giving and opening ceremony was held at 10:30PM today (Nov. 27).
The competition of “Chungshan Youth Art Awards” has come to the sixth year. It encourages the young artists aged from 20 to 45 to develop their creation. The submitted works are categorized into three groups, ink art, calligraphy, and oil painting. After the initial and final reviews, the 42 winners were selected including 15 in the ink art group, 13 in the calligraphy group, and 14 in the oil painting group.
Director-general of National Dr. Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall, Wang Lan-sheng, expressed his gratitude to the judges of Chungshan Youth Art Awards for their devotion at the opening and award-giving ceremony. He said this year the past winners of Chungshan Awards were specially invited to be the judges to pass on their personal experience across generations, and the story was made into a documentary and played on multimedia. In the future, National Dr. Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall will also stick to the original intention and continue to cultivate young artists by providing them with the platform to show their talent. Besides the exhibition at the hall, the selected and winning works this year will also be exhibited at Mei-Ling Fine Arts Museum of Chiayi Performing Arts Center and Art Museum of Cultural Affairs Bureau of Hsinchu County Government. The hall will also recommend the winners of Chungshan Awards to cooperate with Taiwan Art Gallery Association and participate in ART Taipei so that the outstanding works will be promoted to the art market. Finally, he encouraged all young artists to keep creating new works and show their talent.
In his speech, the judge of the ink art group, Lee Cheng-ming, said National Dr. Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall has been the important venue for him to participate in art and cultural activities since he was in school. There are numerous exhibitions and performances held here. Chungshan Youth Art Awards started six years ago. The prize has been raised year by year to encourage young artists to engage in art creation. In terms of the ink art creation this year, we hope the young artists’ works to stand out and expect the awards to represent the spirit to move forward. The winners not only put into practice their creative thoughts but also show their solid foundation in skills and make innovative breakthrough, becoming the models for the new ink artists in Taiwan to learn from.
In his speech, the judge of the calligraphy group, Tu Chung-kao, said he participated in the calligraphy and painting competitions organized by National Dr. Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall since young and the prize used to be the allowance in his life. Therefore, he deeply understood how important it is for the young artists to win the awards. He congratulated on all winners and encouraged those who haven’t won the ideal awards to keep creating and never give up.
In his speech, the judge of the oil painting group, Pan Fan, said besides the skills, the features of the participating works this time can be categorized into three issues. First is to discuss and think about life. Second is about environmental protection and global sustainability. Last is about ultimate concern of religion. As the Nobel Prize is given to the ultimate thinkers of humanity, Chungshan Youth Art Awards also expects young men to propose their perspectives from a grand view. It is noteworthy that National Dr. Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall not only provides young men with the platform of art creation but also keeps supporting them and giving the opportunities of art creation by collaborating with Taiwan Art Gallery Association.
The three Chungshan Award winners this year are Wu Shang-wei for the ink art group, Wu Hong-jun for the calligraphy group, and Hu Xian-wen for the oil painting group. Each winner will be given the prize of NT$300,000 and one trophy. The second place and third place of each group will respectively win NT$100,000 and NT$50,000. Each group has five honorable mention award winners, and each of them can win the prize of NT$10,000. There are also 18 winners of judges’ awards, and each of them can win the prize of NT$5,000.
It is noteworthy that Wu Jun-hong, the Chungshan Award winner of the calligraphy group used to win Chungshan Award of the ink art group in 2019. He is the first young artist with the honor of Chungshan Awards in two groups. Since the first year of “Chungshan Youth Art Awards,” he has had won awards with the outstanding performance every year, fully displaying the ambition and talent for art creation.