Hung-Chih Peng

Hung-Chih Peng is a multidisciplinary artist active in both Taiwan and the international contemporary art scene. Born in Taipei in 1969, with ancestral roots in Yangmei, Taoyuan, he received his BFA from National Taiwan Normal University in 1992 and his MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute in 1997. Since then, he has developed an extensive artistic and exhibition practice spanning video, installation, sculpture, ink painting, oil painting, and 3D printing.

Peng’s work centers on the intersections of religion, culture, power, and identity. He frequently employs humor and symbolic strategies to challenge established perceptions of social structures and belief systems. In his well-known Canine Monk Series, he uses canine figures to inscribe religious scriptures, exploring the shifting boundary between the sacred and the animal. His practice integrates elements from both Eastern and Western traditions, and through the interplay of multiple media and symbolic forms, offers a critical reflection on contemporary society and the human condition.

In his recent project Psychic Theatre, Peng takes as his point of departure the “unfinished” works left behind by prematurely deceased figures in Taiwanese theatre history, transforming them into a methodological approach to artistic creation. Through ritual structures such as mediumistic interviews and guan-luo-yin practices, he seeks to establish a dialogic relationship across the boundary between life and death. This process is translated into a composite creative framework encompassing video, installation, and performance. By incorporating vernacular religious practices and cross-disciplinary collaboration, the project enables absent creators to re-enter the contemporary artistic field through mediation and re-narration, while further examining questions of authorship, memory, and the continuity of creative practice. The project is supported by the National Culture and Arts Foundation.

Peng’s work has been presented in biennials in Istanbul, Gwangju, Busan, Fukuoka, and Taipei, and he has exhibited widely in Europe, the United States, and China. He received the Grand Prize in the Visual Arts category at the 5th Taishin Arts Award, and his works are held in the collections of numerous museums and art institutions in Taiwan and internationally..

攝影: 一布伊 Portrait by Ibuyi