Preface from Art Center

Giovanni Boccaccio, the great humanist in the early Renaissance, argued for the importance of humanity and the value of art in his theory. He supposed that humans were inseparable from nature and that both had remarkable influence on each other through their interaction. “The Flowing Warmth: Joint Exhibition from Ko Ying-Hui, Lai Jen-Huei, and Hung Hao-Lun,” held by the Art Center of National Chin-Yi University of Technology, displays the humanistic concern about and artistic metaphor of the relation between nature and life. As the important German idealist Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel says, “artistic beauty reveals absolute truth through perception.” Hegel’s aesthetic idea is exactly proved by the creations by the three artists we invited for our exhibition.

Regarding the topics and creativity shown in the three artists’ paintings, their works coincidentally include their
respective concerns with nature, life, and sustainability, in addition to the artistic beauty represented in their paintings. Their artistic engagement in nature is the environmental education that National Chin-Yi University of Technology endeavors to give our students. This is why our Art Center eagerly invited these artists and held this exhibition.

Ko Ying-Hui’s recent works focus on the tie between global warming and lives of flora and fauna. Her works reveal her worry and care about the deteriorating environment, in which humans would need to seek survival. Lai Jen-Huei mostly paints humans, and he likes to depict family rapport and their love toward each other. Hung Hao-Lun uses self-made pigments in his paintings, and his special pigments are all made of natural substances in Taiwan. Through making and using those pigments, he shows his care about ecological sustainability and acknowledges the local culture that has been developing from its idiosyncratic natural environment.

We hope the creations in “The Flowing Warmth: Joint Exhibition from Ko Ying-Hui, Lai Jen-Huei, and Hung Hao-Lun” will inspire our students and faculty members in rethinking the aesthetical beauty and the livability of our environment. We believe in what Neoplatonism asserts: People can practice the principles to achieve universe harmony via contemplation and meditation. We intend to cast light on the fundamentals of “how to live a good life,” in relation to our natural environment, for all visitors coming to this exhibition.

 Director of the Art Center of National Chin-Yi University of Technology

Xian-Lian Chen,