(Taiwan, b. 1983)
Tseng Ting Yu received his Ph.D. from the Graduate Institute of Fine Arts at National Taiwan Normal University, where he currently teaches in the Department of Fine Arts. His research and practice centre on what he terms “ink beyond ink painting,” deconstructing the ways in which brush, ink, paper, and inkstone are conventionally perceived, while exploring the interrelationship between selfhood, ink, and land. He was awarded an Honorable Mention at the Second CTBC Contemporary Painting Prize. His works exhibited at the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum in Japan and the Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts, and in collections including CTBC and the Zhongshan Youth Art Award Collection.
Tseng’s artistic foundation is deeply informed by the natural landscape and industrial ecology of his hometown, Yunlin, Taiwan. Growing up in a coastal aquaculture region, he developed an acute sensitivity to colour and light shaped by the shimmer of water surfaces. This environment cultivated an aesthetic marked by immediacy and elemental vitality. At the same time, witnessing the environmental consequences of groundwater extraction for aquaculture made him acutely aware of the tension between economic survival and ecological sustainability. With empathy and a multifaceted perspective, he integrates social concerns into his ink-based practice.
While Tseng is drawn to the immediacy and contingency intrinsic to ink, he recognises the contextual limits of traditional ink techniques. He therefore turns toward investigating “ink beyond ink painting,” seeking new modes of expression from within the medium’s own material logic. By re-examining how brush, ink, paper, and inkstone are seen and understood, he expands the conceptual framework of contemporary ink. His work moves fluidly between classical iconography and contemporary issues.
In one notable body of work, Tseng reinterprets the Yuan dynasty painter Ni Zan’s compositional motif of “one river, two banks.” Drawing upon his embodied experience of displacement between homeland and elsewhere, he inserts pure gold leaf as the water surface dividing the two shores, symbolising an unresolved boundary between “us” and “ourselves.” This golden expanse may appear mirror-still or violently turbulent; the opposing banks gaze toward each other beneath shifting skies, charged with layered emotion and imagination. Tseng further introduces elements of local folk culture into traditional imagery, employing fluorescent pigments and coloured foils to infuse ink painting with a striking vernacular visuality. Through the motif of the “seascape,” he transforms island topography into a visual metaphor, incorporating coastal scenes or maritime-inflected bonsai into the “one river, two banks” structure. He also reinterprets classical themes such as Maodie Tu (Cat and Butterfly Painting, symbolising longevity and auspiciousness), or depicts fleeting moments such as the brief blooming of an epiphyllum beneath a violet firmament, using these motifs to reflect on the beauty and transience of encounters in life.
Education
Current – Faculty, Department of Fine Arts, National Taiwan Normal University.
2018–2025 – Lecturer, School of Fine Arts, Shandong University of Technology, China.
2017 – PhD in Fine Arts (Art Creation and Theory), Graduate Institute of Fine Arts, National Taiwan Normal University. Research focused on classical Chinese painting aesthetics and the localisation of ink art.
Awards
2023 Excellence Award, 2nd CTBC Contemporary Painting Award; work included in the collection
2023 First Prize, Zhongshan Prize, Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall Zhongshan Youth Art Award; work included in the collection
2023 Third Prize, Taoyuan Art Exhibition, Photography & Video Category; work: “Local Chronicles in Ink – Fengshan”
2022 Annual Special Award, Taoyuan Art Exhibition, Painting Category; work “22 Old Themes – Missing One”; work included in the collection
2022 Excellence Award, 26th Nanying Award
2021 Excellence Award, 2nd Liu Guosong Ink Art Award
Solo Exhibitions
2024 Floral Islets & Coastal Scenes, Zeng Ting-Yu Solo Exhibition, Ruo-Mu Gallery, Taipei
2024 Local Chronicles in Ink – Jinhu, Zeng Ting-Yu Solo Exhibition, Jinhu Village, Yunlin
2023 Local Chronicles in Ink – Fengshan: Offering Thanks to the Deities – Birthday of Guanyin Buddha, Zeng Ting-Yu Solo Exhibition, Fengshan Village, Nantou
2022 Motion—Between Transitions, Contemporary Ink Painting Solo Exhibition by Zeng Ting-Yu, Wistaria Tea House, Taipei
Group Exhibitions
2026 “Ink Flux - Seven Narratives of Contemporary Chinese Ink”, Bluerider ART, London
2025 Taichung Art Fair, Millennium Hotel, Taichung
2024 Taipei Art Fair, Taipei World Trade Center, Taipei
2024 Everyone Paints Kinmen (Seven-Person Group Exhibition), Taiwan Art Institute, Taipei
2022 Seeking the Way, Forgetting Distance – Contemporary Ink Exchange Across the Taiwan Strait, Dashin Art Museum, Guangzhou
2021 Lineage Outside the System – Phenomena of Taiwanese Contemporary Ink Across Institutions, Hong Genshen Art Museum, Penghu
2021 THE FUNINK – Youmo, Taoyuan Museum of Fine Arts, Taoyuan
2021 2nd Liu Guosong Ink Art Award, Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, Hong Kong
Collection
2023 Excellence Award, 2nd CTBC Contemporary Painting Award; work included in the collection
2023 First Prize, Zhongshan Prize, Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall Zhongshan Youth Art Award; work included in the collection
2023 “21 Old Themes: Dance Partner / Flying Companion”, collected by the Ministry of Culture Art Bank
2022 Annual Special Award, Taoyuan Art Exhibition, Painting Category; work “22 Old Themes – Missing One”; work included in the collection
2022 “21 Old Themes: Night Emptiness / Riding the Qilin / Inner Drama”, collected by the Ministry of Culture Art Bank
Research Projects
2025 Ministry of Culture, Cultural Heritage Academy Funded Project: “Digital Archiving and Applications of Hand-Painted Sets for Taiwanese Wild Stage Performances”
2024 “On the Aesthetic Foundations and Local Engagement in the Works of Li Zhenming”, published in Only When Leaving the Academy Does Creation Begin – Li Zhenming Exhibition
2023 Ministry of Culture Young Artist Development Support Project: “Writing and Uploading Local Culture”
2022 National Culture and Arts Foundation Project: “Ink Chronicles of Place – Zeng Ting-Yu Creative Project”
Publications
2024 “The Contemporary Interpenetration of Ink and Image and Their Aesthetic Convergence”, preface in the catalogue Local Chronicles in Ink 2022–2024
2024 “Practising Flowers and the Margins of the Sea”, preface in the catalogue Floral Islets & Coastal Scenes: Zeng Ting-Yu Painting Collection
2024 Floral Islets & Coastal Scenes: Contemporary Ink Painting Collection by Tseng Ting Yu
2024 Local Chronicles in Ink 2022–2024: Ink and Video Works by Tseng Ting Yu
2022 “The Other in the Echo Chamber”, preface in the catalogue Motion—Between Transitions: Contemporary Ink Painting Collection by Zeng Ting-Yu
2022 Motion—Between Transitions: Contemporary Ink Painting Collection by Tseng Ting Yu
2022 Included in China Ink Yearbook 2022, edited by China Central Academy of Fine Arts