One of Spain’s premier printmaking events, the International Printmaking and Paper Art Festival (FIG Bilbao), was held from November 27 to 30 at the Palacio Euskalduna Bilbao. This year’s festival spotlighted creative energy from Asia, inviting several Taiwanese artists to participate. Among them, the team from the Department of Visual Arts, National Chiayi University (NCYU) stood out prominently. The team, comprising Prof. Hsieh Chi-Chang, Assistant Prof. Chang Chingyu, and four emerging alumni – Lin Ting-Hsun, Chen Hsin, Chu Fang-Ying, and Yu Chih-Yu – presented in one of the festival’s flagship programs, "The Cubes of Temptations." Through cross-cultural dialogue with young artists from Spain’s Basque region, along with exhibitions, sharing of techniques, and interactive sessions, they jointly explored new possibilities for extending printmaking within contemporary art.
During their studies, the four alumni honed their skills in printmaking, paper-based media, and interdisciplinary creation, building a robust artistic vocabulary. Standing on the international stage, these young Taiwanese artists, fluent in English and confident in their artistic vision, clearly conveyed their creative concepts to a professional audience, showcasing their professionalism and maturity. Assistant Prof. Chang Chingyu expressed gratitude to the National Culture and Arts Foundation for its support, which enabled emerging creators to engage internationally and communicate with audiences from diverse cultural backgrounds, thereby enhancing the visibility of Taiwanese printmaking within the global art network.
During the exhibition, international audiences highly praised the works of these young Taiwanese artists, recognizing their nuanced cultural expression and keen observational insight. These qualities reveal the depth of Taiwan’s local culture, as well as its strong potential to engage with the global art scene. The artists also engaged in exchanges with students in the Basque region, sharing their creative journeys, approaches to paper as a medium, and the layered vocabulary of printmaking, highlighting the new generation’s agility in cross-cultural understanding and international artistic discourse.
Alumna Chen Hsin achieved double honors at this exhibition, receiving both the Emerging Artist Grant and a two-month residency scholarship at the International Center for Contemporary Printmaking in Betanzos, Galicia, Spain. Her achievements exemplify the Department of Visual Arts at NCYU and its long-standing commitment to creative practice, technical refinement, and international mobility. They also bear witness to how Taiwan’s artistic vitality continues to shine on the global stage.
Photo 1: Faculty and students from NCYU’s Department of Visual Arts at FIG Bilbao, highlighting the international visibility of Taiwanese printmaking.
Photo 2: Artwork by Chen Hsin,
alumna of the Department of Visual Arts, NCYU.
Photo 3: Group photo of NCYU faculty and alumni in front of the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao (from left to right: Assistant Prof. Chang Chingyu, alumni Lin Ting-Hsun, Chen Hsin, Chu Fang-Ying, and Yu Chih-Yu).