October 24, 2019
Taipei 11494
Taiwan
Hosted by the Lih Pao Cultural Arts Foundation, in cooperation with Taiwan philharmonic (NSO), the awarding ceremony of 4th Lih Pao International Sculpture Biennial Awards was held at the Taipei National Concert Hall on October 24. After a rigorous evaluation by the professional jury, the First Prize went to Time/Space by Shi-Wei Dai from Taiwan. The TsaiYun Prize was conferred to Squeez ING 17 by Zhi-Hang Lin from Taiwan. The three winners of Prize for Excellence were Da-zhou Zhang and Lei Liu from China and Guillaume La Brie from Canada. In support of the artists, Bao-Tien Wu, Chairman of Lih Pao Group, announced to add one more prize, namely “Lih Pao Group Enterprise Award,” which went to Part of an Endless Frieze sculpted by Zdravko Zdravkov from Bulgaria.
The masterpiece presented by this year's First Prize winner Shi-Wei DAI is called Time/Space, which is a block of marble weighing over 500 kilograms carved into a piece of cloth on an invisible but precise line, whose craftsmanship is so superb that all the judges cast their votes in favor. The SqueezING 17 by Zhi-Hang Lin, winner of the TsaiYun Prize, is a wood sculpture in the form of a squashed easy-open can, which appeals to the public for environmental protection. In addition, the Physiognomy from Heart by Da-zhou Zhang, also a winner of Prize for Excellence, is a granite-based sculpture, which is so attractive that no viewers can hold themselves back from touching it. Lei Liu's "Dream-making Series" is an iron sculpture showcasing Egyptian-looking characters in a dramatic way. Meanwhile, the George Washington who wasn't there by Guillaume La Brie, also a Prize for Excellence winner, is a wooden sculpture, which is crafted by deconstructing and reorganizing Ikea's furniture to explore the relationships between the viewers and the environment in which they are living. The theme of the 4th Lih Pao International Sculpture Biennial Awards is Harmony. Its call for entries lasted for 8 months and was successful in receiving from 28 countries 200 entries, of which the jury screened and selected 20 in the first evaluation and then classified them in the second evaluation into 15 Honorable Mention pieces and 5 Prize for Excellence pieces (including First Prize and TsaiYun Prize). The top five semi-finalists were exhibited at the National Concert Hall in the hope that through the art activities, not only could the artists express their own styles, but the language of sculpture could be used to conduct dialogues between different media, different nationalities, regions, races, and even different generations to create harmony in human civilization.
It was a great honor for this Foundation to have invited well-known sculptors, critics and artists from Japan, China and Taiwan to serve as judges for the 4th Lih Pao International Sculpture Biennial Awards. Included in the jury were Takamichi ITO (nicknamed as father of Japanese power sculpture), Mitsuyuki Takeda and Izumi Hatano (both known as Japanese sculpture authorities) from Japan; Guang-yu Lee, Chi-Man Lai, Hsu-Tung Han (sculptors from Taiwan); Jiang-Guo Sui, Zhen-Hua Sun and Xing-Tao Jiao (heavyweight sculpture authorities from China); and Taiwan's famous critic—Professor Chong-Ray Hsiao of the History Department of National Cheng Kung University. This Foundation was also very honored to have invited the following co-organizers, namely the Department of Sculpture of National Taiwan University of Arts, the Okinawa Prefectural University of Arts in Japan and the Sculpture Department of Sichuan Fine Arts Institute in China. Moreover, this Foundation has been cooperating with the British Council and the Japan-Taiwan Exchange Association at all levels of activities, so as to make Taiwanese local art more visible in the world, let Taiwan keep breast with the world, and let the world see Taiwan!
Bao-Tien Wu, Chairman of Lih Pao Group, also announced Infinity as the theme for the fifth term, which will begin to call for entry at the end of April 2020 in a hope that artists from all over the world will exert infinite creativity in their artworks.
