2026 Open Call Exhibition for Taiwan Artists Born After 1985

Bluerider ART Taipei · Dunhua presents Song of Youth: Brushing the Sun, an open call exhibition for Taiwan artists born after 1985. Following Hope is the thing with feathers (2024) and The Aura River — We Will Eventually Reach the Sea (2025), both open call exhibitions for young Chinese artists, this marks the first edition of the open call program held in Taiwan. Selected from 2,000 works submitted by 500 competing artists, the exhibition presents 60 works by 21 young artists, spanning painting, ink, gouache, mixed media, fiber, sculpture, and animation — a curated reflection of this generation’s diverse perspectives.

The title Song of Youth: Brushing the Sun points to a spirit of ongoing exploration among young creators today. “Song of Youth” is a yuefu title from the Tang dynasty, used by poets Wang Wei and Li Bai to capture the unworn spirit and outward-bound vitality of youth. “Brushing the Sun” draws from the most romantic line in the Li Sao: Ruo Mu, the divine tree growing at the far western edge of heaven and earth — reaching to break off its branch, to brush against the setting sun. The youth of the East ride toward the horizon, break the branch, and reach to catch the falling sun, contending with the impossible for a single ray of light.

The Austrian poet Rainer Maria Rilke (1875–1926) once wrote to young men: “Live the questions now...Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.” The youth of the West cultivate a kind of patience — not demanding answers from life, but learning to dwell with uncertainty, letting the question grow quietly within.

East and West approach the young creator’s stance toward the future from opposite ends. In Taiwan, declining birth rates have steadily shrunk enrollment in fine arts programs; for a young artist to be seen often requires effort far deeper than the work itself. Song of Youth: Brushing the Sun is more than a beautiful line of poetry — those who step through the door of this open call all carry the same unyielding spirit of youth, and the light they reach for now is the next horizon of contemporary Taiwanese art.

This exhibition presents nearly 60 works by 21 young artists, most born in the 1990s, each trained through a complete academic art education and now at the height of creative energy. Wu Shang Wei, Lin Bo Young, Chen Nien Ying, Chen Hong Hsin, Chen Kuang Jui, Yang Chih Han, Pan Yu Yang, Liu Zheng Rong, and Liu Wei Chun work in oil, acrylic, and mineral pigment to express individual existence and cultural symbolism, moving between figuration and abstraction, reality and the virtual. Lee Hsiao Sheng, Lin Yi Ju, Chen Yi An, Chen Tzu Yu, Yeh Ting Hsuan, and Tsai Ming Tsan break through traditional ink conventions, weaving together nature, dreams, feminine experience, and the subconscious to extend Eastern aesthetics with new vocabulary. Yu Chia Hsin and Hou Guan Ting layer emotion and memory through weaving, textile, and embroidery. Weng Huai I, Liao Pai Hsien, Ku Cheng Yang, and Chen Yan Ni work respectively in gouache, mixed media, sculpture, and animation, exploring the body, space, memory, and experience — together forming a cross-medium practice that captures the diverse, vital face of contemporary Taiwanese art.

Song of Youth: Brushing the Sun is more than an open call exhibition — it is an East-West meditation on how youth confronts the unknown. The youth of the East ride toward the horizon, reaching to break the branch of Ruo Mu to brush the falling sun, hurling their spirit at the question itself; the youth of the West learn to dwell with uncertainty, letting the question quietly grow into its own answer within them. One rushes forward, one waits with patience; one reaches outward for the light, one grows inward toward it — yet both point toward that same purest light of creation, still to come. Bluerider ART stands ready to prepare the stage for that light, just before it rises above the horizon.

Participating Artists:
Wu Shang Wei, Yu Chia Hsin, Lee Hsiao Sheng, Lin Yi Ju, Lin Bo Young, Hou Guan Ting, Weng Huai I, Chen Yan Ni, Chen Yi An, Chen Nien Ying, Chen Hong Hsin, Chen Tzu Yu, Chen Kuang Jui, Yang Chih Han, Yeh Ting Hsuan, Liao Pai Hsien, Tsai Ming Tsan, Pan Yu Yang, Liu Zheng Rong, Liu Wei Chun, Ku Cheng Yang.