Contemporary Taiwanese Art Showcased With New Exhibition In QPAC's Gallery

Queensland Performing Arts Centre (QPAC) has announced its latest exhibition in QPAC's Tony Gould Gallery running to 23 February 2019, Winds of Poetic Mountain: Dreams and Voices from Tunghai University, Taiwan.

Presented for the first time outside of Taiwan, the free exhibition features a unique opportunity to view an extraordinary collection of contemporary artworks by professors and students of the Tunghai University Department of Fine Arts, Taiwan.

Tunghai University is located in Taichung City, Taiwan. Its Department of Fine Arts, established in 1983, was the first of its kind in South and Central Taiwan. Over the past twenty years, a multi-faceted curriculum has encouraged a deeper understanding of contemporary art and culture.

Credited for its humanistic spirit, Tunghai's University is known for nourishing young talent, allowing for education in traditional art forms and creative exploration of new directions.

QPAC Chief Executive John Kotzas said QPAC is proud to host this significant exhibition of contemporary art from Tunghai University Department of Fine Arts.

"David Yang of the Buddhist temple in Brisbane, has been instrumental in bringing this exhibition to fruition. He is a great champion for the Queensland Asian community and has been a friend and colleague of QPAC over the years.

"It is through cultural exchanges like this one between QPAC and Tunghai University Department of Fine Arts that we further progress Australia's relationship with arts and cultural practices from neighbouring countries.

"We trust that this exhibition will be the first of many such cultural exchanges with Taiwan and our other Asia Pacific neighbours and hope many Queenslanders and visitors take in this free exhibition this summer at QPAC," said Mr Kotzas.

Exhibition Curator, Assistant Professor, Tuan, Tsu-Chen gave detail on the inspiration for the Department of Fine Arts and the Wings of Poetic Mountain exhibition.

"Tai Tunghai University is located at Mt DaDu, Taichung. A vast fertile red land where the red soil feeds the trees and the community of people living in the mountains. It is this very poetic mountain that has cultivated the University's Department of Fine Arts," he said.

"Here, we paint, sculpt and photograph. We write one poem after another. What is expressed in these poems is not the grace of the literati, but delicate experiences of life, captured in warm and sincere artistic language.

"The exhibition Winds of Poetic Mountain brings together artworks by professors and students of the Department of Fine Arts. Artistic creation is not only a means of self-expression; it is also a form of communication.

"It serves as a bridge between different cultures, allowing people to understand each other without being confined by tangible or intangible barriers.

"With this exhibition, we look forward to showing the unique artistic sense of Tunghai Fine Arts in Australia, a country with an inherently different cultural system, where the artworks can be appreciated, read, and felt from a completely different point of view. This is just the beginning. I believe that in future, there will be more and more exciting cultural exchanges between Australia and Taiwan," said Mr Tuan.