At the exhibition’s opening talk, the featured artists personally guided visitors through their works, responding to a wide range of thought-provoking questions from the audience.

Wu Yih-Han’s awarded piece Madonna and the Whore is the only portrait among this year’s selected works. Known for her delicate and realistic brushwork, Wu draws inspiration from the book A History of the Breast, using the symbolic meanings of “the Madonna” and “the breast” to explore roles constrained by patriarchal structures and misogyny. Wu shared that after failing to win in the inaugural edition of the competition, she was determined to try again. She expressed her joy that a gender-themed piece like hers was recognized by a major award.

Hung Hsuan’s winning piece Breaking Through integrates poetry, calligraphy, and painting. Unlike traditional ink works, she combines silk with a modified transparent mounting technique, showcasing the versatility of ink art in contemporary contexts. Hung explained that the inspiration came from construction scenes—steel bars and chiseling walls—common in Nanzi, Kaohsiung. Using the game of Go to symbolize shifting dynamics, and a dove entangled in ropes to represent her continuous search for breakthroughs, she noted:
“As an artist, capturing the spirit of the time in one’s work ultimately becomes a personal expression—an embodiment of cultural depth.”

The Treasure Boat series by Hsiao Pei-I began with a simple observation: stray cats and dogs seeking warmth inside tarp bags on rainy days near her home—reminiscent of Noah’s Ark. After surviving a fatal car accident, Hsiao reevaluated the relationship between death and existence. Her award-winning piece Treasure Boat II explores how to co-exist with the deformities of disaster. She often incorporates mixed media like gold foil and silkscreening in her works, and remarked that it’s usually hard to find fitting award categories in Taiwan for such pieces. She praised the openness of the CTBC Painting Prize, which gave her the space to truly express herself.

Artist Luo Jr-Shin received a Merit Award for Paint Snails With Snail Paint, a work made from snail shells, animal glue, and red earth. Through painting, he explores the abstract concept of transformation: how a snail becomes pigment, and how that pigment then paints another snail. Intrigued viewers frequently asked, “Where did you get all those snail shells?” Lo responded with a laugh, “I bought them at a farm in Hualien.” Fascinated by crafting unique materials, he remarked, “In a way, artists are magicians, chemists, and even alchemists.”

Tseng Ting-Yu, who has been teaching in Shandong since 2018, returned to Taipei specifically for the award ceremony. His winning piece 23 Lao Geng-Sky View uses a “one river, two shores” composition to reflect the geographic and bodily mobility that concerns the contemporary Chinese-speaking world. Drawing from daily life, his work features natural landscapes, drones, and cinema viewers—symbols repeatedly replicated and mimicked to express the trajectory of this era and the evolving relationship between humans and nature.