•Publication Date：12/13/2013
•Source： Taiwan Today
Three Taiwan potters were elected to UNESCO’s International Academy of Ceramics, bringing the nation’s total membership in the body to nine, the ROC Ministry of Culture said Dec. 12.
The artists are Samuel Shih Hsuan-yu, Chu Fang-yi and Hwang Jeng-daw, all recognized as Taiwanese Craft Masters by the Nantou County-based National Taiwan Craft Research and Development Institute, the MOC said. Taiwan also has two institutional members of the IAC: New Taipei City Yingge Ceramics Museum and Shuili Snake Kiln Ceramics Cultural Park in Nantou County.
The strict selection process makes it tough to become an IAC member, the MOC said. An individual or organization wishing to join the IAC must be proposed by at least three members from different countries. Existing members are only allowed to nominate one candidate every two years. The review of nominees is also only held biennially, and consists of a rigorous review by all members of the artist’s qualifications and body of work.
Shih has been working as a potter for more than 25 years, the MOC said. He won prizes in 2009 and 2011 at the Premio Faenza International Competition of Contemporary Ceramic Art, International Museum of Ceramics, Faenza, Italy, one of the ceramics world’s four major international competitions. In 2011, Shih was an international artist in residence at Escuela Oficial de Ceramica in Madrid, Spain. He was the first Asian artist to hold a solo exhibition in Faenza’s Pinacoteca Comunale art gallery. He has also created works, exhibited, lectured or been an artist in residence in Italy, Japan and the U.S.
According to the MOC, Chu uses pottery’s sculptural forms to deliver personal statements on current issues. His work won top prize at the Taiwan Ceramics Biennale, and entered the permanent collections of such institutions as National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Yingge Ceramics Museum, Daum Museum of Contemporary Art, Sedalia, Missouri, and Springfield Art Museum, Springfield, Missouri. Chu has also been invited to sit as a judge at the Biennale de la Ceramique International in Belgium.
Hwang’s teapots have won him international renown and a peripatetic lifestyle, the MOC said, with residencies at universities, museums and cities in places as varied as France, New Zealand, Norway, South Korea, the U.K., U.S. and mainland China. Hwang said drinking tea is not just part of daily life, but an art of living. His ability to endow teapots with distinctive personal characteristics earned him wide popularity among collectors.
Taiwan has won the right to host the IAC Assembly in 2018, the MOC said. The country’s total membership is low compared to other countries. The government is thus encouraging more famous potters and ceramics bodies to seek membership, in order to boost Taiwan pottery’s visibility in the international arena.
Geneva-based IAC, founded in 1952, has more than 600 members from over 50 countries.
