2024 Taiwan International Print Biennial

Exhibition Period│2024/07/27－10/13

Opening Hours│Tue. ~ Fri. 09:00 ~17:00；Sat. &Sun. 09:00 ~18:00 (Closed on Mon.)

Venue │Gallery 201-202, National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts

Email │print21@art.ntmofa.gov.tw

“Taiwan International Print Biennial” is supervised by Ministry of Culture and organized by National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, and aims to promote printmaking art and facilitate international cultural exchange, jointly enriching the diverse development of printmaking art in the future. Since its inauguration in 1983, the biennial has become one of the longest-running international print biennials in the world after striving relentlessly forward for 40 years, welcoming the 21st edition this year.

This year’s Taiwan International Print Biennial received a total of 1215 submissions from 82 countries. Nearly half of the submissions were from Asia, with the highest numbers of submissions coming from Taiwan, Japan, Thailand, and India; European submissions accounted for 40%, and, with 131 submissions, Poland became the country with the highest number of submissions this year. Preliminary selection was conducted by jurors online, selecting 173 entries. The selected entries that were promptly delivered to the Museum and met the Biennial’s requirements would enter the final selection, where an international jury selected a total of 163 brilliant works from 38 countries, including 15 prize-winning works: one for each of the Gold, Silver, and Bronze prizes, two for the Special Jury Prize, five for the Merit Prize, and five for Honorable Mention.

Most notably, due to the COVID-19 pandemic that broke out in 2019 and the Russo-Ukrainian War that started in 2022, many artists coincidentally questioned and focused on the dialectics of war and disaster, portrayed and translated their feelings regarding instability, turmoil, decline and death, and fused creative vocabularies with personal feelings and observations to weave their insights on society and human nature. On one hand, they explored the tragic nature of recurring conflicts and disasters in human civilization; on the other, through profound resonances triggered by these challenges, they still had a glimmer of hope and vision for future despite the sighs, regrets, or helplessness.

In addition to themes of war and disaster, the Biennial also gathered diverse viewpoints on various topics, such as society, life, spacetime, and nature, from different cultures. From unique personal perspectives and experiences, the artists sparked rich expressions of artistic vocabularies through collision of imaginations, thoughts, and emotions, presenting diverse and inclusive reflections, as well as pursuits of pure aesthetics. The diverse topics, wide range of techniques, inclusiveness of and balance between both traditions and innovations, as well as the abundant creative energy of the artists, further enhanced the Biennial’s diversity as an international exchange platform for printmaking.

Finally, I’d like to express my utmost gratitude for this year’s advisors and preliminary and final selection jurors: David ARTEAGOITIA, Luckana KUNAVICHAYANONT, Nils KARSTEN, Yen-Ching LU, Shih-Heng KAO, Cheng-Jen CHANG, Chia-Yu CHANG, Dean-E MEI, Shiau-Peng CHEN, Chun-Yuan HUANG, Ming-Dye YANG, and Pao-Hsia HSUEH. Thank you for your dedication and hard work. I’d also like to thank participants from all countries for continued support for and participation in the Biennial, and congratulate all prize-winning artists. I look forward to “Taiwan International Print Biennial” further expanding its breadth and depth in the future, continually enriching the diverse looks of printmaking as an exchange and dialogue platform for global printmakers.

◆ The "2024 Taiwan International Print Biennial" official website https://printbiennial.ntmofa.gov.tw/