Curatorial team | WU Hui-fang, TSUI Tsai-Shan

This year marks the 30th anniversary of the Kaohsiung Award. As one of the most prominent art awards in southern Taiwan, the Kaohsiung Award is not simply a competition system but also a continually evolving cultural space that reflects the profound transformations of Taiwan’s contemporary art across institutional frameworks, creative vocabularies, and social relations. Over the past three decades, the Kaohsiung Award has recognized a total of 128 winners. This exhibition is organized into three chapters, each representing a decade: “The Era of Form Creation,” “Fluid Boundaries,” and “Visions for the Future,” featuring selected works by 47 awardees. Using a chronological approach and phased observations, the exhibition illustrates how art shifts its focus and forms of expression across different social conditions and institutional contexts. 30 Years of the Kaohsiung Award is both a retrospective exhibition and a starting point for inquiry. While honoring its history, it also opens up space for the future, allowing art to renew itself in this unfinished journey.
 

2026.6.13~2026.11.29 ：Gallery 301-305
2026.5.23~2026.8.30  ：Gallery 401-402

 

---

Text | Wu Hui-fang (Senior Curator, Exhibition Department, Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts
 
Since the Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts (KMFA) officially took over in 1997, the Kaohsiung Award has celebrated its thirtieth anniversary. As the leading art award in southern Taiwan, the Kaohsiung Award is more than just a competition; it represents a continuously evolving cultural space that reflects significant changes in Taiwan’s contemporary art, including its institutions, creative vocabularies, and social dynamics. Over these thirty years, artists, jurors, observers, and the museum have come together, making the Kaohsiung Award a visible and traceable artistic path that continues to progress.  
 
Titled “The Unfinished and Renewed Journey of Art,” this exhibition goes beyond simply reviewing and displaying past winners or marking an institutional milestone. It aims to explore, from a historical perspective, how the Kaohsiung Award functions as a public platform that continuously evolves with changing times and shifts in artistic practices. The word “unfinished” refers to the open-ended, ongoing nature of artistic creation and the institution itself, while “renewed” signifies a restart rooted in retrospection, revealing new possibilities for artistic imagination in the future.  
 
Over the past three decades, the Kaohsiung Award has recognized 128 winners. This exhibition’s curatorial framework is organized into three chapters, each representing “a decade,” and features works from 47 of these awardees. By observing different phases, the exhibition showcases how art evolves in its focus and forms of expression across various social and institutional contexts. Titled “The Era of Form Creation,” the first chapter, from 1997 to 2006, examines the increasing emphasis on local awareness and individual subjectivity. Artists during this period often draw from their personal lives, local environments, and social realities, using tangible, perceptual forms to address themes of identity and memory. Works from this era emphasize materiality, handcrafted qualities, and the development of form. They also reflect the institutional adaptability of the Kaohsiung Award in its earlier period, which allowed diverse creative vocabularies to coexist.
 
The second chapter, covering 2007 to 2016 and titled “Fluid Boundaries,” discusses the development of digital technology, the acceleration of global exchange, and the conceptual turn in contemporary art. Image-based art, new media, and installation became prominent forms, with artists exploring themes such as viewing mechanisms, body politics, gender issues, and urban structures. The focus of creation shifted from simply producing finished artworks to prioritizing research processes, systematic thinking, and interdisciplinary collaboration. During this period, the Kaohsiung Award gradually established its observer system, transforming the competition platform into a space dedicated to dialogue and experimentation.
 
The third chapter, titled “Visions for the Future,” covers the years from 2017 to 2026. It highlights artists’ strong focus on social empathy and cultural sustainability. Confronted with global issues like ecological crises, social inequalities, and cultural disruptions, art has become increasingly participatory, action-oriented, and research-based. Artists respond to these challenges not only by addressing them but also by building connections with communities, environments, and histories through their work. In this context, the Kaohsiung Award introduces interdisciplinary and sustainability-focused honors, showing the institution’s commitment to the changing roles of artists.
 
Through these three chapters, the exhibition shows how the Kaohsiung Award, as an “unfinished system,” has continually developed alongside changing historical conditions. Featuring past award-winning works, documentary archives, and images, the exhibition seeks to foster dialogue among artworks, the institution, artists, and the museum. This approach promotes a reconsideration of the role and possibilities of art awards in contemporary society.
 
30 Years of the Kaohsiung Award is, therefore, both a retrospective exhibition and a starting point for inquiry. As the art scene faces a world of rapid change, the exhibition prompts reflection on how the Kaohsiung Award remains a vital cultural platform that supports creative expression and fosters public discourse. While honoring its history, the exhibition also opens up space for the future, allowing art to renew itself in this unfinished journey. 
 


 

---

Consciousness

From 1997 to 2006, this period marked the initial stage of the Kaohsiung Award as a platform for a museum-based public competition, and a time when local awareness and individual subjectivity gradually developed. The social atmosphere after the lifting of martial law encouraged artists to reconnect with their own life experiences and the land they inhabit, responding to issues of identity, memory, and real-life circumstances through their work.
 
Works from this period often showed a strong sense of materiality and handcrafted qualities, with media and forms closely associated with local environments and daily labor. Artists embedded “form” with life experiences, transforming personal narratives into perceptible visual language. Creation was not only about self-expression but also a means to assert a voice in the public sphere.
 
During this stage, before the institution was fully established, the Kaohsiung Award provided a relatively open space for experimentation, allowing diverse creative vocabularies to coexist. The works created during this decade reflect the initial convergence of contemporary artistic energy in the south and lay the groundwork for the development of local writing and subjective consciousness for future generations.
 
Artists
Lo Pin-ho, Wu Song-ming, Chen Shang-ping, Huang Chin-fu, Wang Kuo-yi, Cheng Cheng-huang, Tsai Ying-chieh, Wu Meng-chang, Chen Chien-jung, Hsiao Wen-hsin, Liang Jen-hung, Abugy (Chan Hsien-kun), Liu Yu-ming, Chou Chu-wang, Huang Hui-hsin, Wang Chih-wen, Huang Sheng-yen, Sheu Jer Yu, Lai Yi-chih





Chapter II (2007–2016)
Fluid Boundaries: Technological Interventions, Conceptual Turn, and Interdisciplinary Practices 
 
From 2007 to 2016, the Kaohsiung Award’s creative landscape underwent a significant transformation, propelled by advancements in digital technology and increased global exchange. Image-based art, installation, and new media became crucial forms of expression. Art gradually moved away from an object-focused approach toward exploring ideas, structures, and perception.
 
Artists utilized technology both as a tool and as a subject, addressing contemporary themes such as viewing mechanisms, body politics, gender issues, and urban structures. Their works no longer just showcased finished results but instead revealed the thinking and research behind their creative processes, transforming exhibition spaces into sites for intervention and reflection. 
 
At this stage, the Kaohsiung Award gradually clarified its selection process, expanded international perspectives, and fostered professional dialogue. Artists’ roles began to transcend traditional boundaries, blending the roles of creator, researcher, and activist, while demonstrating the fluidity and openness of Taiwan’s contemporary art in both form and concept.
 
Artists
Su Yu-hsien, Shi Jin-hua, Chang En-tzu, Chen Ching-yuan, Chang Li-ren, Lu Yu-jui, Hsu Che-yu, Yung Simon Chang, Tsai Shih-hung, Chen Ying-ting, Chiu Kuo-Chun, Chi Chien, Liao Chao-hao, Po Chiao-Ling, Chang Ching-yi
 



Chapter III (2017–2026)
Visions for the Future: Imagining Social Perception, Collective Response, and Cultural Sustainability
 
From 2017 to 2026, the Kaohsiung Award has reflected the deep engagement of a new generation of artists with the future of society, the environment, and culture. Amid ecological crises, social inequalities, and identity issues, art has increasingly shifted toward participatory, research-based, and action-oriented practices.
 
Creations from this period have often involved field research, community collaboration, and long-term projects, emphasizing reinterpretations of local culture, ecological systems, and historical memories. Art extends beyond simply representing problems and seeks to establish connections in reality and to bring about possibilities for “empathy” and “symbiosis.”
 
Following the establishment of more awards focused on interdisciplinary practices and sustainability themes, the Kaohsiung Award also responds to the changing role of art, emphasizing creation as a way to collaboratively envision the future with society. This chapter does not offer a final answer but instead explores visions for the future that continue to unfold.
 
Artists
Chen Shao-yen, Hsu Ching-yuan, Yang Shun-fa, Hsiao Sheng-chien, Chen Yuyu, Li Yi-fan, Li Kuei-Pi, Tsai Pou-Ching, Hung Hsuan, Jhen-Ling Weng, Ali Istanda, Wang Chung-ping, Lin Yi-hsuan

 

---

Supervisor | Ministry of Culture, Bureau of Cultural Affairs, Bureau of Cultural Affairs, Kaohsiung City Government
Organizer | Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts
Support｜Advanced International Multitech Co., Ltd.