Person
Artist
Chung Shun-Wen
鍾舜文
Date of birth
1978
Place Of birth
Meinong, Kaohsiung, Taiwan, Asia
Biography
Chung Shun-Wen was born into a distinguished lineage of scholars, artists, politicians and poets in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. She studied initially at Changhua Normal University, majoring in the Taiwanese tradition of ‘glue painting’, a laborious practice involving the use of ground natural mineral pigments mixed with a binder. In 2006 Chung was awarded an MFA from Tunghai University, Taichung, Taiwan. Chung Shun-Wen’s family are the wellsprings of her work. Her grandfather, Chung Li-Ho, was a famous novelist, her father, Chung Tieh-Min, an award-winning writer. The artist lives in the important Hakka village of Meinong, with its memorial to her grandfather, whose life was the subject of a 1980 film directed by Li Hsing, ‘China, My Native Land.’ Chung Li-Ho died of tuberculosis in 1960 at the age of forty-four, and his widow then raised their four children alone. This extraordinary and resilient woman, Chung Tai-Mei, lived to be ninety-seven, and the artist has fond memories of a strong character who coped courageously with repeated hardships and tragedies. She now features in many paintings from a series of works made between 2008 – 2009. Chung Shun-Wen’s work has been exhibited in private galleries in Kaohsiung, Taipei and Taichung, Taiwan; in the Sun Yat-sen Museum, Kaohsiung, Taiwan; Kaohsiung Hakka Cultural Museum, Kaohsiung, Taiwan; Changhua County Cultural Affairs Bureau, Changhua, Taiwan; and the Providence University Art Center, Taichung, Taiwan.
