The cloudy and foggy mountains are the hair and skinof this beautiful island. Here we stand, no longer shivering,welcoming the first sunshine that visits Taiwanwhile she is waking up. The morning sun will rise overthe eastern ocean.
                                             -- Xiang Yang, “Homeland of the Clouds”

As we read this short passage by the Taiwanesepoet Xiang Yang describing the scene hesaw at dawn on the top of Yushan—the highest mountain in Taiwan—it is as if we could see with our own eyes the untouched mountains and seas. We feel tempted to be surrounded by them and bathed in the morning sun. Taiwan is endowed with a unique natural environment of mountains, oceans, and islands. Taiwanese people's life and livelihood are closely linked with the geography of where they live, which has shaped local cultures and people's respect and affection for nature.
In this land that Taiwanese people call home, there are 268 mountain peaks over 3,000 meters high. With a sense of social mission as an artist, Hsin-yueh Lin paints the island's natural features. Skillfully capturing the changing light and shades, his "Valley" portrays the unique colors of a stream in a shaded valley, creating a fascinating wonderland in a gentle and realistic approach. The rich forest ecosystems in Taiwan's mountains are precious natural resources. An assortment of such natural endowments can be found in Huey-chih Ho's "Yushan," which vividly depicts the peak of Yushan—a symbol of the Taiwan spirit—and the diverse species on the mountain. Meanwhile, mountains can signify spiritual elevation. The dense mountain forest and ascending mist in Chia-wei Liu's "Wandering I" remind viewers of the sense of the freedom a carefree wanderer feels when traveling in nature. Without land, crops cannot grow. Ming-chang Huang's detailed and skillful depictions of waves of rice in fields denote the untouched beauty of the island. The artist started to develop his "Rice Field Series" in 1986 and has since been an observer of the botanical and geographical landscapes of Taiwan and Southeast Asian countries. Etan Pavavalung pays homage to lilies and the ancestral spirits of his people in "Lilies That Look at Distant Place," an artwork that celebrates the reverence for mountains and land. Yu-ting Su's copperplate engravings, on the other hand, put together the ecological and socio-cultural features of several places in northern Taiwan, combining them with her imagination to create landscapes that cannot be found elsewhere. Coastal residents on this island surrounded by waters live off the sea. Stones and sand on the coasts of southern and eastern Taiwan have long been the focus of Chu-wang Chou's artworks. On sandy beaches and estuaries that lie between the land and the sea, the painter details the gravels that form the unique face of each coast. Iyo Kacaw uses driftwood as the medium for his art pieces, assembling these woodblocks collected from nature to rebuild the energy of life from the oceans. The scenery of the island's coasts and seas is rendered in bright colors in Yu-chen Li's carving and printing experiments, in which she attempts to preserve the geographical features along the coasts and the changing colors of the seas she saw while traveling across Taiwan.
The exhibition includes works by artists of different generations, presenting their interpretations of Taiwan that range from detailed depictions of its mountains, fields, coasts, and seas to their respect and love for the land. The vitality of the landscapes shines through in their creative works, which are also expressions of people's love for this place (and its locality).


SUPERVISOR：Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Republic of China (Taiwan),Ministry of Culture, Republic of China (Taiwan)
ORGANIZERS：Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the United States;Taiwan Art Bank, National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts
COMMISSIONER：Bi-khim Hsiao, Yung-fei Liang
EXHIBITION SUPERVISOR：Yung-fei Liang
CURATOR：Yan-huei Chen
EXHIBITION COORDINATION：Tsung-chi Lee, Yan-huei Chen
ARTISTS：Hsin-yueh Lin,Ming-chang Huang,Etan Pavavalung,Huey-chih Ho, Chu-wang Chou,Iyo Kacaw,Chia-wei Liu,Yu-chen Li,Yu-ting Su
2020.12.16-2021.11.30
Twin Oaks Estate(3225 Woodley Rd NW, Washington, DC 20008, United States)

Before Twin Oaks is re-opened to the public following the covid-19 pandemic, a detail booklet is available on TECRO’s web site at https://www.taiwanembassy.org/us_en/index.html for a preview. TECRO welcomes the public to pay a visit to Twin Oaks to view the exhibition in person when the post-pandemic situation permits.

Exhibition Brochure Download