Person

Chang Ling was born in Hualien, Taiwan, in 1975. When he was three years old he moved to Tamsui in Taiwan’s far north as his parents, the esteemed modernist painter and teacher, Yang Wei-Chung and musician Chen Shuhua, were teaching at Tamkang High School. Always encouraged to express himself through painting and drawing, Chang learned painting in his father’s studio from the age of twelve until he graduated high school at eighteen. Apart from drawing, oil and watercolour painting, and sculpture, he also studied photography with his father’s studio friend, Wu Zhihua. After his compulsory military service, his father suggested that he consider studying painting in Paris; in 1997 he went to France, firstly to Tours to learn French and then to École nationale supérieure d'art de Bourges. In 2000 he gained admittance to the prestigious École Nationale Superieure des Beaux-Arts, in Paris, where he studied under Christian Boltanski, Jean-Luc Vilmouth and Jean-Marc Bustamante. Chang Ling graduated in 2004 with the award of the Diplome National Superieur d’Arts Plastiques (DNSAP). He returned to Taiwan and established his studio in Tamsui, where he still lives and works. Chang’s work has been exhibited widely in group and solo exhibitions in Taiwan, Mainland China, Korea, France, Italy, Portugal, Spain and the USA. Chang Ling is a member of the Hantoo Art Group, comprising 14 significant Taiwanese contemporary artists with distinct individual practices but yet who are concerned with aspects of Taiwanese identity and with the promotion of painting as a still-vital artform.