TANG Jo-Hung

TANG Jo-Hung was born in 1975 in Taipei City. He graduated with a B.A. from the Department of Fine Arts of Tunghai University in 1998, and in 2002, he received his M.F.A. from the University of Salamanca in Spain. His paintings are mostly about the events and people in his surroundings. Between 2002 and 2004, TANG made several portraits of himself and of his dog “Cookey” that stand out due to their life-like colors and energetic lines. The paintings were exhibited in several museums in Taiwan and in Spain, and won him the prestigious Premio San Marco prize as well as the top prize at the 22nd Kaohsiung Awards in 2005. Tang won the Liao Chi-Chun Oil Painting Award in 2008 and the First Prize of the coveted Taipei Arts Awards in 2016. In 2023, his “Tang Jo-Hung: As You Sleep Worry-Free – From Pandemic to War: About disaster crisis like a celebration in one or two different cook methods” won the Grand Prize at the 22nd Taishin Arts Award. This makes Tang the first-ever artist to win the Grand Prize with two-dimensional painting in the award’s history. Tang’s work has been collected by the Museo de Salamanca in Spain, the Taipei Fine Arts Museum, the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, the Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts, the National Museum of History, the CMC Art Museum, and by many domestic and foreign collectors. TANG has become a shining example for young artists born after 1970.

TANG’s choice for painting medium is quite unique: He prefers to paint on Masonite over canvas as it allows him better control of his oil paint. TANG also uses a lot of varnish in the painting process, often in-between the many layers of paint. The finish is sometimes glossy and sometimes matte. In the early phase of his career, TANG mostly painted self-portraits and portraits of dogs. In recent years, he took inspiration from personal experience and key events in his surroundings, which have imbued his work with new subjects and energy. The paintings in “Old Man. Fairy. and a bit of everything” are inspired by his experience seeking help from fold medicine for his progressive hearing loss. The works in “As You Sleep Worry-Free” are his reflection on the many social and political incidents that took place during the pandemic. They have allowed TANG to explore the culture and time he’s living in, and how it affects each and every individual. His paintings transport the viewers into different scenarios in which they can explore the dynamics between his characters. The works are also a showcase of his painting language, a visual structure that consists of dots, lines and surfaces and enriched by various techniques, such as outlines, scratches, thinning and spreading of color patches. TANG aims to convey a simple visual pleasure to his viewers, one that requires no explanation, as he once said, “Art doesn’t have to be serious. It should take no more than our eyes to appreciate it.