A major annual event in central Taiwan’s art scene has begun! The 2025 Taichung City Contemporary Artists Invitational Exhibition, now in its 27th edition, opened on 17th at Taichung City Dadun Cultural Center, bringing together 362 contemporary artists from Taichung in the largest edition to date. Speaking on behalf of Mayor Lu Shiow-Yen at the opening ceremony, Deputy Mayor Huang Kuo-Jung noted that Taichung will inaugurate its new cultural landmark, the Green Museumbrary, at the end of the year. He expressed gratitude to Taichung’s contemporary artists for their longstanding dedication to artistic creation, which has not only enriched the city’s cultural foundation but also infused it with creativity and vitality for future development. He emphasized that art continues to play a key role in shaping Taichung as a happy city, and looked forward to working hand in hand with artists to open a new chapter in urban aesthetics within Taichung’s increasingly vibrant cultural environment.
The Cultural Affairs Bureau stated that the Taichung Contemporary Artists Invitational Exhibition is the largest publicly organized exhibition in Taiwan in terms of participating artists, and stands as one of the most significant events in the country’s arts and culture community. Each summer, artists from Taichung gather at the Dadun Cultural Center to present works across 11 major categories—ink painting, calligraphy, seal engraving, oil painting, gouache painting, watercolor painting, prints, sculpture, crafts, photography, and mixed media—offering profound artistic responses and creative interpretations of life, culture, and faith.
This year, 18 artists are making their debut in the exhibition. Their diverse backgrounds include 7 creators featured in the Taichung Artist’s Relay Exhibition, 8 former top-three prizewinners of the Da Dun Fine Arts Exhibition, as well as emerging contemporary artists who have received distinctions such as the Taiwan Provincial Fine Arts Exhibition Gold Medal, the Taiwan Emerging Art Awards, and academic appointments as assistant professors. Despite the variety of mediums employed, their works share a common thread of meticulous observation and rich perspectives, portraying themes of daily life, nature, and culture, and infusing the exhibition with fresh vitality.
Among the first-time participating artists, Xie, Xiu-Fei presents A Suite of Cat-titude, a delicate depiction of cats’ expressions that conveys tender yet humorous sentiments of everyday life. Zhang Wei-Ling’s Twilight Union combines traditional gongbi techniques with gold leaf to reinterpret of folk rituals. Cai Ting-Huan, through her print Fortune Arrives with the Snake, Fruitful Abundance Follows, incorporates the symbolic meanings of the snake and the Garden of Eden to convey blessings and hope. In addition, at just 20 years old, Chen Ming-Ying is the youngest artist participating this year. He won Second Place in the watercolor category at last year’s Da Dun Fine Arts Exhibition, and his work Beach Boy captures a fleeting moment of youth immersed in a beach ball game, imbued with the vigor of adolescence and a dynamic interplay of light and shadow.
According to Taichung City Dadun Cultural Center, since its inception in 1999, the Taichung City Contemporary Artists Invitational Exhibition—now in its 27th year—has consistently served as a platform for cross-generational artistic exchange. Through its annual showcases, the exhibition continues to advance the development of urban aesthetics, guiding Taichung toward becoming a city of art with international influence. The exhibition runs from today through September 3, and the public is warmly invited to visit. Further information is available on the Dadun Cultural Center website (www.dadun.culture.taichung.gov.tw).