Review of ART TAICHUNG 2026
Organised by Taiwan Art Gallery Association
ART TAICHUNG 2026. Image courtesy of Taiwan Art Gallery Association.
For the first time, ART TAICHUNG moved away from its hotel format, and took place at the newly opened Taichung International Convention and Exhibition Center (TICEC). Altogether, 63 galleries participated, including 48 local galleries. The 14th edition ran from 5 to 7 June. Both the number of attendees on VIP preview day and the ticket sales for the public days was four times that of the previous year. ART TAICHUNG is organised by the Taiwan Art Gallery Association (TAGA), which is also responsible for ART TAIPEI and ART TAINAN.
Claudia Chen Ching-Ying speaking at the opening ceremony of ART TAICHUNG. Image courtesy of Taiwan Art Gallery Association.
There have been a number of changes to both ART TAIPEI and ART TAICHUNG under the leadership of Claudia Chen Ching-Ying, Chairperson of TAGA. She brings to the role her experience as the co-founder of Liang Gallery, which began operations in 1993. “I have personally participated in many art fairs abroad,” says Chen. “I realised that some of their methods are actually quite suitable for Taiwan. When I decided to take on this chairperson position, I hoped to bring the experience I gained over the past decade or so at international art fairs, and use it to serve and give back to Taiwan.”
Chen became the chairperson of TAGA in late 2023, and set to work elevating the art fairs it organises: ART TAINAN in March, ART TAICHUNG in June and ART TAIPEI in October. In 2024, she introduced Taipei Art Week to complement ART TAIPEI. She explains, “Throughout my term so far, what I have been pushing for is internationalisation.” She elaborates, “For our annual Taipei Art Week lectures, international forums, and also the lectures within ART TAIPEI, we emphasise international exchange. We hope that the topics discussed are not just local topics; what we want to address are international ones, through conversations that involve both local and foreign speakers.” These conversations are recorded and available for revisiting online.
Chen has deep faith in Taiwanese collectors, having interacted with them for more than 30 years as a gallerist. Together with the association, she felt that besides ART TAIPEI and Taipei Art Week, Taichung could also benefit from an international art fair. “Taiwan’s collector base is a wealthy one that we want to influence to buy art,” says Chen. “We need to get them to experience, appreciate and feel art, and we must do so through physical art fairs. This is the best way to cultivate collectors. It is not possible to push everything online, because online platforms cannot fully engender the actual experiences and emotions for full art appreciation.” The result is the first ART TAICHUNG at TICEC.
ART TAICHUNG 2026 Opening Ceremony. From left: Former Legislator Huang Kuo-Shu; Hong Wei, Vice President of Marketing at Pan German Motors (BMW General Agent); Lin Yi-Chun, Senior Specialist of the Department of Arts Development, Ministry of Culture; Johnny Chiang, Vice President of the Legislative Yuan; Claudia Chen Ching-Ying, Chairperson of the Taiwan Art Gallery Association; Taichung City Government. Image courtesy of Taiwan Art Gallery Association.
On the VIP preview day, the official opening ceremony saw multiple spokespersons take to the stage to speak about the positive impact of the fair’s move to TICEC, including Chen, Johnny Chiang, Vice President of the Legislative Yuan and more. They unanimously expressed their hopes for the fair’s continued growth and its contributions to the vibrancy of the Taichung art landscape in the years to come.
TICEC and Taichung Green Museumbrary, made up of the Taichung Art Museum and the Taichung Public Library, are built on the grounds of the former Shuinan Airport in the Xitun District. It is designed by the Pritzker Prize-winning firm SANAA, run by Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa in Tokyo, in collaboration with Taiwanese firm Ricky Liu and Associates. The proximity of the TICEC to the Museumbrary provided an itinerary of immersion in art, culture, nature and technology, and greatly enhanced and impressed first-time and returning visitors to the new version of ART TAICHUNG.
ART TAICHUNG 2026. Image courtesy of Taiwan Art Gallery Association.
In an open hall on the fourth floor of the TICEC, the white, sprawling space provided an excellent backdrop for the participating galleries to present their artworks with plenty of breathing room. The large-scale works were particularly impressive to encounter, and there was an air of excitement as visitors entered the hall to browse the artworks on display, and speak with the galleries to learn more about what was for sale. There were also anecdotes of art collectors and business owners in conversation with the galleries to purchase works of art to integrate into their living and work spaces.
There were numerous highlights among the galleries’ presentations. Hanart TZ Gallery, founded in Hong Kong in 1983, exhibited Taiwanese artist Yeh Wei-li’s Beitou Copybook photography series. International gallery Bluerider ART, which opened its first space in Taipei in 2013, featured works by Spanish artist Josep Riera i Arago. Aside from the participating galleries, ART TAICHUNG continued their long-time collaboration with three awards, The Young Voices, Luminous Art Marketing and NTUA Young Talent Awards, to give support to the new generation of artists. ART BANK TAIWAN also organised a special themed exhibition towards expanding the circulation of art in corporate and public spaces to further promote the display and collection of artworks.
Sales were reportedly brisk on opening day. Among the local galleries, Liang Gallery sold seven oil paintings, with artist Wang Chien-Wen delivering the strongest sales performance, while Wu De-Chun’s iron sculptures also garnered immense attention. East Gallery sold a set of four prints by Liao Shiou-Ping, who is known as the “Father of Modern Taiwanese Printmaking”.
Li Chen, Optical Fibre (I), 2012, hemp rope, clay, wood, fibre resin, 135 x 116 x 220cm. Image courtesy of Asia Art Center.
Asia Art Center, founded in Taipei in 1982, took part in ART TAICHUNG for the first time, motivated by the new format–and venue–of the fair that offered 3.6-metre-high standard booths, to showcase the works of Li Chen. “Li Chen is already a highly recognised Taiwanese artist on the international stage, and Taichung has long been the place where he lives and works,” says Rongda Wei, Project Manager, Exhibition Department. “That makes this exhibition particularly meaningful to us. Although his work has been exhibited at many important international venues and has attracted a strong following among collectors in Taichung, there has never been an opportunity to present a more comprehensive selection of his work in his hometown. As Art Taichung is being held for the first time in a booth-based fair format, we see it as an ideal opportunity to create a meaningful connection between Li Chen and audiences in Taichung through this focused solo presentation.”
Asia Art Center booth at ART TAICHUNG 2026. Image courtesy of Asia Art Center.
Speaking about the Asia Art Center team’s overall impression of the fair, Wei says, “As the first booth-based art fair to be held in Taichung, it was naturally exploratory in many ways, which also affects the speed at which collectors make purchasing decisions. Nevertheless, it is clear that the organiser has invested considerable effort into the event.” He adds, “Taichung already has a strong artistic environment and collector base, and the new venue has attracted not only experienced collectors but also many younger visitors. The audience has been remarkably diverse. We look forward to seeing the fair gradually develop its own identity in the years ahead, and overall our impression has been very positive.”
Yi Yun Art booth at ART TAICHUNG 2026. Image courtesy of Taiwan Art Gallery Association.
For this edition of ART TAICHUNG, experienced collectors returned, with more than half of the visitors having attended art fairs for more than three years. Encouragingly, visitors aged 25 to 44 emerged as the primary collecting force, accounting for close to 70% of the attendees. A spokesperson from Yi Yun Art noted, “Taichung collectors turned out in full force this time, and the fair's mobilisation power is incredibly strong.”
ART TAICHUNG 2026. Image courtesy of Taiwan Art Gallery Association.
Chen shed more light on the strong social network of art collectors in Taichung, explaining that they frequently get together to appreciate art and culture, put in motion by prominent art collectors such as Leo Shih and Chang Qiu Dun. “This kind of atmosphere is more unique to Taichung,” she reveals. “This is because the pace of life in Taichung is just right, and there is a dedicated group of people coming together for the appreciation of art. Taichung collectors possess a culture of generational inheritance and mutual exchange as part of their collecting habits.”
The author was invited on a press trip to ART TAICHUNG.
ART TAIPEI will take place at Hall 1 of Taipei World Trade Center from 30 October to 2 November 2026. Visit the official ART TAICHUNG website for more information.
