The 3rd CTBC Painting Prize
Exhibition Statement
The CTBC Painting Prize is a biennial initiative dedicated to nurturing innovative young and mid-career artists and fostering contemporary painting practice. Embracing an open-ended ethos, the award imposes no restrictions on theme, medium, or scale, encouraging artists to venture into experimental territories and challenge the possibilities of the painted form. From a competitive pool of 632 submissions, the jury has selected 19 exceptional works to be exhibited at the Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts. Among these, one First Prize and three Merit Prizes will enter the permanent collection of the CTBC Foundation for Arts and Culture, utilizing corporate resources to sustain the long-term development of contemporary painting.
The selected works of this edition illustrate the multifaceted trajectories of contemporary painting in terms of form, medium, and ways of seeing. Adopting a more casual and everyday posture, these practices engage with daily experience and the essence of perception, dismantling traditional definitions to unveil the liberating potential of painting. Broadly speaking, three primary creative inclinations emerge: Firstly, through experiments with materials and techniques, artists explore the spatial, luminous, and material extensions of painting, thereby redefining the relationship between the painted form and the viewer. Secondly, the works engage with contemporary visual contexts and the intersections of media—encompassing digital platforms, social media imagery, and the resignification of historical texts—to manifest the fluidity in image generation, reconfiguration, and interpretation. Finally, artists provoke a critical reflection of the act of viewing and perceptual experience. Through the ambiguity of imagery, shifting forms, and the intervention of the gaze, viewers are encouraged to recalibrate their perception of painting, time, and the everyday.
Through these intersecting threads, the exhibition not only showcases diverse creative explorations but also highlights the sensitivity of contemporary art towards society, history, and daily life. Together, they form an open and fluid field of observation, demonstrating the contemporary expressive vocabulary and enduring value of painting.
2025 CTBC Painting Prize
Open Call: 2025/6/1 - 7/31
Exhibition: 2026/3/13 - 6/14
Prize winners and exhibitioners (names in Mandarin alphabetical order):
