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Line Journeys: Where Eastern and Western Classics Meet the Contemporary Mind
HSIA Yan’s artistic path embodies an ongoing dialogue between his personal visual language and the shifting currents of contemporary art.
This exhibition traces that life journey through a carefully curated body of work that goes beyond temporal and spatial confines. During his time in Paris in the 1960s, he forged his signature Mao Mao Ren (fuzzy people) visual vocabulary, exemplified in Factory (1967), where flickering lines pulse with the rhythm of the time. In the summer of 1968, HSIA Yan relocated to New York City to further his artistic career. Influenced by hyperrealism, he turned to depicting blurred, motion-filled images of hurried figures that reflect the alienation of urban life. His iconic work The Businessman (1988) powerfully conveys an individual’s restless and wavering state of mind.
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Beyond his observation of contemporary civilization, HSIA from the 1990s onwards also revisited and reinterpreted Eastern and Western art classics. He reimagined Jean-François Millet’s The Gleaners with trembling lines, transforming the original’s solid essence into a scene of light and graceful charm. On the other hand, he entered into dialogue with Fan Kuan’s Travelers Among Mountains and Streams through the integration of paper cutting and collage, converting its rigorous textural brushwork into casual, graffiti-like lines. These works reveal a childlike playfulness and a spirit of self-amusement that emerges after the full mastery of sophisticated techniques.
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夏陽 HSIA Yan
拾穗 The Gleaner, 1998壓克力顏料／畫布 Acrylic on canvas
130 x 194 cm -
Cultural Return: Divine Doors, Hundred Faces—Watching Over the Human World
In the summer of 1992, HSIA Yan moved to Taipei, after which his work began to engage more deeply with traditional Chinese culture.
Under the theme Divine Doors, Hundred Faces, this exhibition constructs a visual dialogue between the divine realm and the human world. The monumental Divine Guardian of Doors and Gates is presented in conversation with the artist’s iconic Hundred Faces series, which is being shown in its entirety in Taipei for the first time in seven years. Regarding the series composed of one hundred small canvases that together form a constellation of portraits, HSIA offers a candid and magnanimous interpretation: “Although each of the hundred faces harbors its own hidden intentions, they all carry a hint of humor, because they don’t resemble real people.” This sagacious observation of the myriad facets of human life also outlines a tranquil vision in which the deities guard the doors, and people dwell at ease within.
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夏陽 HSIA Yan
百顏聯作 Hundred Faces, 1994 - 1996壓克力顏料、剪紙／畫布 Acrylic and cut paper on canvas
60.5 x 45.5 cm/ each, set of 100
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夏陽 HSIA Yan
獅子啣劍之十 Sword in Lion's Mouth # 10, 1995壓克力顏料／畫布 Acrylic on canvas
170 x 170 cm -
Artist Interview, HSIA Yan Studio, Shanghai, January 2026
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Taiwan Premiere: The Joy of Life in the Artistic Realm of a Nonagenarian
After settling in Shanghai in 2002, HSIA Yan’s brushwork evolved toward a quieter, inward-focused calm.
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夏陽 HSIA Yan
梅花 Plum Blossoms, 2006壓克力顏料、剪紙／紙 Acrylic and cut paper on paper
121.5 x 214.5 cm -
夏陽 HSIA Yan
項羽烏江自刎 Xiang Yu Commits Suicide by the Wu River, 2006壓克力顏料、剪紙／畫布 Acrylic and cut paper on canvas
200 x 380.5 cm -
Making its Taiwan debut, this exhibition features HSIA’s latest 2024 creation, Men, No Hat-Adjusting under Plums—Yet Women May Primp. The title is drawn from the ancient proverb, “Do not adjust your shoelaces in a melon field, nor straighten your hat beneath a plum tree.” Through his distinctive perspective, HSIA translates this solemn moral maxim into a scene imbued with everyday delight.
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夏陽 HSIA Yan
李下，男不整冠，女可搔首 Men, No Hat-Adjusting under Plums—Yet Women May Primp, 2024壓克力顏料／畫布 Acrylic on canvas
138 x 98 cm -
The exhibition also highlights the diversity of HSIA’s practice, including the 2010 brass-sheet sculpture Bufflao, formed by bending brass into a dynamic shape, which epitomizes his unbounded creative energy.
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夏陽 HSIA Yan
牛 Buffalo, 2010黃銅片 Brass sheet
320 x 150 x 120 cm -
Installation views
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Art Preservation—The Concurrent Release of Limited-Edition Divine Guardian of Doors and Gates Prints
Coinciding with the Lunar New Year, the exhibition also introduces limited-edition, exquisite prints of Divine Guardian of Doors and Gates.
The artwork merges HSIA Yan’s signature fuzzy people lines with traditional deities, infusing classical imagery with a contemporary sensibility. In Eastern culture, door deities symbolize protection and blessings. Available in two sizes, the limited-edition prints are designed to seamlessly bring auspicious blessings—rooted in both folk heritage and artistic mastery—into living spaces, transforming them into collectible works of enduring artistic value.
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On the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the Ton-Fan Art Group, ESLITE GALLERY invites viewers to step once more into the vibrant, amusing, yet profound world of HSIA Yan, and witness the extraordinary artistic journey of a legendary artist who has continually transcended his own boundaries.
DIVINE DOORS, HUNDRED FACES - HSIA YAN’S 70-YEAR TON-FAN LEGEND
- Date: February 7 to April 4 2026
- Address: ESLITE GALLERY∣B1, No. 88, Yanchang Rd., Xinyi Dist., Taipei City 110055, Taiwan (eslite spectrum Songyan)
- Opening Hours: 11am-7pm, Tuesday – Saturday
