Lee Chun-Yi

1965, Kaohsiung, Taiwan

Introduction

The cosmopolitan Taiwanese artist Lee Chun-Yi moved to Hong Kong at the age of five. Lee’s formative years, spent in Hong Kong, saw him study art under the great master Liu Kuo-Sung at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Lee then pursued doctoral studies at Arizona State University in the United States before returning to Taiwan to embark on an artistic career. With a revolutionary method departing from the conventional use of a paintbrush, Lee Chun-Yi employs calligraphy through the use of Chinese seals and ink rubbings. He carves Chinese characters into pieces of softwood to form chops, then stamps them repetitively on the paper to form a semi-photographic image. Literally building up a visual composition through words, his paintings function as symbolic poems, with the strength of the stamp indicating the intended tone of expression.
 
Lee has participated in over 30 group and solo exhibitions internationally. His works have been collected by the Ashmolean Museum of Oxford University, the Arthur M. Sackler Museum of Harvard University, the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, the Phoenix Art Museum, USA; the Jiangsu Art Museum, the Qingdao Art Museum, China; the National Arts Education Institute, Taipei; the Hong Kong Museum of Art, and other public and private collections.


BIOGRAPHY
1965    Born in Kaohsiung, Taiwan
1970    Moved to Hong Kong
1988    BA, major in Fine Arts, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong; studied painting with Liu Kuo-Sung
1997    MFA, Tunghai University, Taichung, Taiwan
2004    MA, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona, USA
2009    PhD in Chinese Art History, Arizona State University, Tempe, USA
Post-doctoral fellow, Phoenix Art Museum, Phoenix, USA
2011    Associate Professor, Department of Fine Arts, National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei, Taiwan
2015    Published An Artistic Exploration of Postcolonialism: The Creative Concept of Lee Chun-Yi’s Modern Ink Painting, Yuan-Liou Press, Taipei, Taiwan
2019    Published Within and Beyond the Shores: Lee Chun-Yi’s Postcolonial Cultural Analysis of Contemporary Ink Art, Yuan Liou Press, Taipei, Taiwan
Participated in a Dialogue between Liu Kuo-Sung and Lee Chun-Yi: The Cultural Inheritance of Contemporary Ink Art, Ink Asia, Hong Kong
2021     Published Heartprints of Taiwan: Lee Chun-Yi’s Contemporary Ink Art, Artist Publishing Co., Taipei, Taiwan
2022    Became a professional artist
Present    Lives and works in Taoyuan, Taiwan


SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2024   

  • Mountain Moved Heart Moved: The Art of Lee Chun-Yi, Mingshan Art, Taipei, Taiwan

2021   

  • Heartprints of Taiwan: Lee Chun-Yi's Contemporary Ink Art, Mingshan Art, Taipei, Taiwan

2019   

2018   

  • Between and Beyond the Shores: The Art of Lee Chun-Yi, Mingshan Art, Taipei, Taiwan

2015   

  • Ink Re-Form: The Art of Lee Chun-Yi, Mingshan Art, Taipei, Taiwan

2014   

  • Squaring Things: Ink Paintings by Lee Chun-Yi, National Taiwan Arts Education Centre, Taipei, Taiwan

2010   

  • Whispering Pines, Soaring Mountains: Ink Paintings by Lee Chun-Yi, Chinese Porcelain Company, New York, USA

1999   

  • The Four Seasons Paintings by Lee Chun-Yi, Exhibition Galleries of Shatin and Tuen Mun Town Halls, Hong Kong

1997   

  • Crying Mountains: Paintings by Lee Chun-Yi, Yi Zhi Tang Gallery, Taipei, Taiwan

 

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2024   

2023   

2022-2023   

  • By the People: Creative Chinese Characters, Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong

2022   

2021   

  • Art Taipei, Taipei World Trade Center, Taipei, Taiwan

2020   

2019   

2018   

2017   

  • Memories Interwoven and Overlapped: Post-Martial Law Era Ink Painting in Taiwan, National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Taichung, Taiwan
  • Corner & Field: Shenzhen Art Museum Contemporary Art Exhibition 2017, Shenzhen Art Museum, Shenzhen, China

2016   

  • The Literati Within, Sotheby’s S|2 Gallery, New York, USA

2015   

  • Anti-Grand: Contemporary Perspectives on Landscape, Joel and Lila Harnett Museum of Art, Richmond, USA

2014    

  • Visions of the Present: Chinese Contemporary Ink, Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, Hong Kong

2013   

  • Exhibition of Taiwan Artists Originally from Shandong, Shandong Museum, Jinan, China
  • Noirs d’Encre. Regards Croisés, Fondation Baur, Musée des Arts d’Extrême Orient, Geneva, Switzerland

2012   

  • Ink: The Art of China, Saatchi Gallery, London, UK
  • International Ink Painting Exhibition, Chung Shan National Gallery, National Dr. Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall, Taipei, Taiwan

2011   

  • International Paper Art Exhibition, Chung Shan National Gallery, National Dr. Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall, Taipei, Taiwan
  • 7th International Ink Painting Biennial of Shenzhen, Guan Shangyue Art Museum, Shenzhen, China

2010

  • Legacy and Creations: Ink Art vs Ink Art, Shanghai Art Museum, Shanghai, China
  • Brush and Ink Reconsidered: Contemporary Chinese Landscapes, Arthur M Sackler Museum, Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, USA

2009    

  • Mountains of the Mind: Classic Chinese Stones as Muse for Modern and Contemporary Landscapes, Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach, USA

2008   

2007 

  • 3rd Chengdu Biennial: New Trend of Contemporary Ink Painting · Ink Works from Taiwan, Chengdu Contemporary Art Museum, Chengdu, China
  • The New Face of Ink Paintings: Modern Ink Painting Group Exhibition, Central Plaza, Hong Kong

2006 

  • The New Chinese Landscapes, Arthur M Sackler Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge, USA


SELECTED PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
Arthur M Sackler Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge, USA
Asian Art Museum, San Francisco, USA
Phoenix Art Museum, Phoenix, USA
Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach, USA
Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, Eugene, USA
Denver Art Museum, Denver, USA
Jiangsu Provincial Art Museum, Nanjing, China
Qingdao Art Museum, Qingdao, China
Shandong Museum, Jinan, China
National Arts Education Institute, Taipei, Taiwan
Tainan Art Museum, Tainan, Taiwan
Taoyuan Museum of Fine Arts, Taoyuan, Taiwan
Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong