Light Space & Time Online Art Gallery is extremely pleased to announce that Jason Shih has been named as the Gallery’s new featured artist and he will now be promoted by the gallery for the next 14 days in the gallery’s Artist Showcase.
Jason is an internationally acclaimed, award-winning sculptor based in Taiwan. He was selected as 1 of the top twelve finalists in the gallery’s 31st Solo Art Exhibition Series. The placement in this competition qualified his artwork to be showcased in this feature.
His Artist Showcase feature will be promoted to hundreds of major news outlets. In addition, the gallery will also be featuring and promoting his artwork in the gallery’s various social media networks for further exposure.
Below are Jason’s Artist Biography, Artist Statement and 5 of his artworks submitted to this competition.
Jason Shih was born in 1972 in Lukang Town, Taiwan, renowned for its traditional crafts. He relocated to Taipei City during his school years and attended art classes at Minzu Elementary School, Minglun Junior High School, and Zhongzheng High School. In 1991, Jason enrolled in the Fine Arts Department of National Taipei University of the Arts, studying sculpture under Professor Lee Kuang-yu and graduating in 1996.
Following his military service, he pursued further education at the Rochester Institute of Technology in New York, USA, studying metal sculpture under Leonard A. Urso at the School for American Crafts, where he earned his MFA degree in 2001. Subsequently, he served as an assistant to renowned New York metal sculptor Albert Paley, gaining valuable experience in metal crafts and large-scale public arts.
Returning to Taiwan in 2002, Jason embarked on a prolific career in public art. Over the next two decades, he completed over 80 large-scale public art projects in Taiwan. His international engagements included residencies at the Wangsan Kaitian Festival in South Korea (2003), JamFactory Contemporary Craft and Design in Adelaide, Australia (2004), and as the inaugural artist-in-residence at the New Taipei City Gold Museum (2008).
Alongside his creative endeavors, Jason pursued advanced studies in art theory, earning his Ph.D. from the China Academy of Art in 2015 and an MBA from National Taiwan Normal University in 2022. With a diverse cultural background spanning Taiwan, the United States, and mainland China, and extensive professional training in fine arts, crafts, public art, and management, Jason decided in 2022 to refocus on his sculpture creations. He currently resides in Taoyuan City, Taiwan, continuing to explore the diverse realms of sculpture and public art.
Sculpture, to me, is about interpreting the beauty of light and shadow, rhythm and volume through the visual techniques of color, shape, and texture. The qualities I pursue as a sculptor—those that touch people's hearts—are actually as abstract as temperature and smell, yet rich in profound penetrating power. This aura that directly points to people's hearts, and the aesthetic sense that makes people enter the drama in resonance, may also be like nostalgia, embodied in the longing of seeing things and thinking about them, and the timid expectation of being close to home.
Sea breeze, mountain mist, morning sun, sunset—in addition to shape and color, there is also the memory of temperature. Cooking smoke, hot soup, wooden tables, pottery cups—the echo of smell is the gradual tone of nostalgia. In our daily aesthetic experience, the memory of temperature and smell accompanied by touch often becomes a kind of fuse to revisit the journey of old dreams. My work in sculpture creation is to "condense" and record all kinds of beautiful presence in this beautiful time and space in an appropriate way and with true emotions.
My artistic vision is shaped by a diverse array of influences, from contemporary dance to avant-garde fashion. I cite German choreographer Pina Bausch and British designer Alexander McQueen as significant inspirations. Bausch's explorations of time and space resonate with my interest in sculpture's capacity to embody kinetic energy and spatial imagination. McQueen's innovative approach to contemporary imagery and themes provides me with a broad canvas for creative expression.
My work is also influenced by the aesthetic principles of Futurism and Constructivism, movements that emphasize dynamic energy and continuous motion. These influences are evident in my pursuit of capturing the beauty of movement and the elegant restraint of natural forces. My sculptures often depict moments of defying gravity, capturing the fleeting beauty of motion in a static form.
As a professional sculptor, I like to experience the taste of life with perceptual observation in subtle moments, and I also enjoy the ever-changing situation of game shapes in poetic imaginary space. For me, art creation is about sharing various moods and stories in daily life.
To learn more about Jason and to see more of his sculptures, please visit his website.
Click the Thumbnail to See the Artwork in a Lightbox
