It was in the late 1960s when Director Alice King first saw Chuang Che’s works in the home of a friend in New York. Painted in the style of Western Abstract Expressionism, the image remained vividly in her mind, and in 1982 the gallery began exhibiting his works. Born in 1934 in Beijing, China, Chuang’s early education was steeped in classical Chinese painting and calligraphy. His father, Chuang Shangyen, was the Vice-Director of the National Palace Museum in Beijing and so Chuang Che had many opportunities to see the museum’s collection first-hand.
In 1949, he immigrated to Taiwan with his family and graduated with a Fine Arts degree from the Taiwan Normal University in 1957 having studied drawing under Chu Teh-Chun. It was during this period that Chuang co-founded the Fifth Moon Group, which advocated that Chinese artists experiment with traditional Chinese art and Western avant-garde art – in particular Abstract Expressionism. The art historian Michael Sullivan wrote that Chuang Che artwork ”rejected the tien (dots) and ts’un (texture strokes) altogether” creating “[Franz] Kline-like gestures”. (The Meeting of Eastern and Western Art, pg. 199). In 1966, having won an Asian Cultural Council Fellowship to study in the United States, he began travelling to Europe and the United States in 1968. In 1973 he settled in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and in 1988 moved to New York where he continues to work. Since the 1960s, he has made a concerted attempt to revolutionise Chinese landscape painting, incorporating abstract elements in acrylic and oil.
Since 1982, Alisan Fine Arts has held five solo exhibitions for the artist. His works have also been included in several of the gallery’s important group exhibitions, such as Abstraction and Beyond held in 1997 at Hong Kong Arts Centre, and in the same year Shanghai Art Museum The Chinese Root: Works by Mainland and Overseas Chinese Artists. In 2024, the National Museum of History in Taipei hosted a significant group exhibition titled Fifth Moon and Ton-Fan while Alisan Fine Arts showcased Chuang Che's early oil paintings at a booth themed Classic Masterpieces in Art Basel Hong Kong. Both exhibitions captured significant attention from the art community.
His works have been collected by Cleveland Museum of Art; Detroit Institute of Art; Cornell University; Flint Institute of Arts, Michigan; National Museum of History, Taipei; Taipei Fine Arts Museum; Central Academy of Fine Art, Beijing; Shanghai Art Museum; Guangdong Museum of Art; Hong Kong Museum of Art, and M+, Hong Kong.
BIOGRAPHY
1934 Born in Beijing, to Chuang Shang-Yen, a scholar and calligrapher who worked at the National Palace Museum, Beijing, China
1948 Moved to Taiwan
1954 Studied under Chu Teh-Chun (1920-2014) at Fine Arts Department, National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei, Taiwan
1958 Graduated from Fine Arts Department, National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei, Taiwan
Co-founder of Fifth Moon Group, Taiwan
Exhibited in Premiere Biennale de Paris, and Biennial de Sao Paulo, Brazil
1960-64 Travelled Europe, met Zao Wou-ki (1920-2013) and Chu Teh-Chun in Paris, and met Antonio Tapis (1923-2012) in Spain
1962 Exhibited in International Painting Salon in Hong Kong
1963-73 Professor of Art, Tunghai University, Taichung, Taiwan
1965 Solo exhibitions in USA, Canada, Germany, Singapore, Taiwan, and Hong Kong
1966 Awarded John D. Rockefeller III Foundation Fellowship (Visual Art) to study in USA
Artist-in-residence at University of Iowa, Iowa, USA
Became assistant of American Abstract sculptor Seymour Lipton (1903-1986), New York, USA
1967 Solo show, Ann Arbor, Michigan; travelled to Europe
1968 Observed contemporary art developments in USA and Europe; Spent six months in Paris, France
1972 Received award to study Art History in University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA
1973 Moved to Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA
1985 Fulbright Fellow as Visiting Professor, National Arts Institute, Taipei, Taiwan
1986 Travelled to China; exhibited in Beijing, China
1988 Moved to New York, USA
1992 Set up studio in Manhattan, New York, USA
Present Lives in New York, USA
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2023
2022
2020
2015
2007-08
2005
2002
1999
1998
1993
1992
1989
1986
1982
1980
1977
1974
1972
1970
1965
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2024
Asian-American Abstraction: Historic to Contemporary, Hollis Taggart, New York, USA
Art Basel Hong Kong, Alisan Fine Arts, Hong Kong Convention & Exhibition Centre, Hong Kong
Fifth Moon and Ton-Fan: The Birth of Modernist Art Movement in Taiwan, National Taiwan Arts Education Centre, National Museum of History, Taipei, Taiwan
2022-2023
Ink in Motion: A History of Chinese Painting in the 20th Century, Cernuschi Museum, Paris, France
2021-2022
Individuals, Networks, Expressions, South Galleries, M+, Hong Kong
2018
2017
2016
2006
2005
2004
2003
2002
2000
1998
1997-9
1997
1996
1995
1994-5
1994
1992
1991
1990
Forum of Hamburg International Art Festival, Hamburg, Germany
1989
The Progressional Exhibition of Contemporary Art, National Museum of History, Taipei, Taiwan
1987
The Progressional Arts Exhibitions in the Republic of China, Taipei Provincial Art Museum, Taichung, Taiwan
1986
1985
1983
1982
1981
1979
1976
1975
1973
1970
1969
1966-68
1965
1963
1962
1961
1959
1958-63
1958
SELECTED PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
Cleveland Art Museum, Cleveland, Ohio, USA
Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA
Spencer Museum of Art, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas, USA
University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA
Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, Michigan, USA
Flint Institute of Arts, Flint, Michigan, USA
Saginaw Art Museum, Saginaw, Michigan, USA
Lehman Brothers, New York, USA
Taipei Museum of Fine Arts, Taipei, Taiwan
National Museum of History, Taipei, Taiwan
Central Academy of Fine Art, Beijing, China
Shanghai Art Museum, Shanghai, China
Guangdong Museum of Art, Guangzhou, China
Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong
M+, Hong Kong
