CHENG Tsai-Tung
鄭在東Lives and works in Shanghai and Taipei (b. 1953, Taipei)
Cheng Tsai-Tung is one of an important group of Taiwan artists who first made their mark during the late 1970s and early 1980s by contemporising literati aesthetics via a unique mode of Expressionism, blended with subtly surrealist imagery. Cheng creates compositions of Taiwan quotidian life into which he inserts a version of himself as the loitering intellectual—a personal statement of engagement with his own time. He also has a strong grasp of two elements that most contemporary artists interested in the literati mode have neglected: an authentic use of colour and an understanding of the aesthetics of you, an interior/exterior quality of dimness and quietude. Cheng’s spirit of literati leisure is a form of wisdom, because an easy heart is not restricted by historical space-time. Whether at work or play, he treads lightly and leaves no traces. He partakes equally of the pleasures of antiquity and the engagements of contemporary life, but he carries no baggage with him.
In recent years,Cheng Tsai-Tung has increasingly shifted to a state of solitude in which his interlocutors remain the ancients alone. Through classical poetry, he has slowly found ways to crystallize these complex sentiments into a faint melancholy. He condenses his personal tales and sensibility into the mise-en-scène of colourful moonlight, and at the same time morphs himself into a sentient being within the stream of history.
Cheng Tsai-Tung’s contemplative anxiety about the passing of time, and the fragility and preciousness of life drive him on the path of creation. His pursuit of archaic style is a testament to his many years of research travels around China. Although Cheng Tsai-Tung refuses the traditional paths of ink painting, his persistent search for the archaic spirit has opened a personal approach. In these paintings, we can see his engaged interest in ink and brush, his relish in the charm of awkwardness and playfulness, as well as the inner reserve of his personality that flashes out of the silence.
| 1953 | Born in Taipei |
| Present | Lives and works in Shanghai and Taipei |
| Selected Solo Exhibition | |
| 2024 | Clouds Over the Mountains, LIANG PROJECT, Shanghai |
| 2022 | The Realm of Dreamland: ZHENG ZAIDONG Solo Exhibition, Aurora Museum, Shanghai |
| 2021 | Literati’s Peach Blossom Spring: ZHENG ZAIDONG Solo Exhibition, Powerlong Museum, Shanghai |
| 2019 | Such Fellowship Shall Endure Despite Our Parted Ways: ZHENG ZAIDONG Solo Exhibition, Tofukuji Temple, Kyoto, Japan |
| 2017 | Flower Series, LIANG PROJECT, Shanghai |
| 2014 | Refulgence of Solitude, Long Museum, Shanghai |
| 2013 | My Mind in Unsullied Languor: Revisiting then and there, ARTMIA Foundation, Beijing |
| 2012 | A Journey from the Song Dynasty Tradition to the 21st Century Modernity, Kwai Fung Hin, Hong Kong |
| Majestic Landscape: Retreat from the Avant-garde, Gallery HYUNDAI, Seoul, Korea | |
| 2011 | ZHENG ZAIDONG: Majestic Landscape, ARTMIA Gallery, Beijing |
| 2010 | Landscape Painting by ZHENG ZAIDONG, Yard Gallery, Shanghai |
| 2007 | Ranging in France: ZHENG ZAIDONG’s Solo Exhibition, Red Bridge Gallery, Shanghai |
| 2006 | Moon and Shadow Cheer Me Through, Shang Gallery of Art, Shanghai |
| 2005 | Ink Paintings by Cheng Tsai-Tung, Hanart TZ Gallery, Hong Kong |
| 2003 | Verdant Hills Semi-veiled, Lin and Keng Gallery, Taipei |
| 2002 | Raises Glass Invites the Bright Moonlight, Fubang Plaza, Taipei |
| 2001 | Cheng Tsai-Tung, Hanart TZ Gallery, Hong Kong |
| 2000 | The Toys Become Dispirited, Lin and Keng Gallery, Taipei |
| Why Not Holds the Candle to Tour, Lin and Keng Gallery, Taipei | |
| 1997 | Return to Taiwan, Hanart (Taipei) Gallery, Taipei |
| 1996 | Personal History Retrospect, Hanart (Taipei) Gallery, Taipei |
| 1994 | Beauty Life, Crown Art Centre, Taipei |
| Until the End of Time, Hanart (Taipei) Gallery, Taipei | |
| 1993 | Scented Moon, Lion Art Gallery, Taipei |
| A Sailor’s Trunk, Hanart (Taipei) Gallery, Taipei | |
| 1992 | Taipei Oblivion, Lion Art Gallery, Taipei |
| 1991 | Individual Movement, Hong Kong Arts Centre, Hong Kong |
| 1990 | Man with No Face, Hanart TZ Gallery, Hong Kong |
| 1986 | The Empty House, Taichung City Cultural Centre, Taipei |
| 1981 | Solo Exhibition, American culture centre , Taipei |
| 1980 | Solo Exhibition, American culture centre , Taipei, China |
Selected Joint Exhibition
| 2024 | Blossom Splendour, Powerlong Museum, Shanghai |
| 2022 | Cheng Tsai-Tung / Chen Heng, Hanart TZ Gallery, Hong Kong |
| 2013 | Hui Aggregation: Cross-Strait Contemporary Art ExchangeShanghai Xuhui Art Museum, Shanghai; Cheng Shiu University Art Center, Kaohsiung; Cultural Affairs Bureau of Taoyuan County, Taoyuan; Luodong Cultural Working House of Cultural Affairs Bureau of Yilan County, Luodong |
| 2012 | Four Contemporary Painters – Deconstructing Traditional InkXuhui Art Museum, Shanghai |
| 2012 | Time Games: Contemporary Appropriations of the PastTaipei Fine Arts Museum, Taipei |
| 2010 | In Distant Mountains, Beijing Center for the Arts, Beijing |
| 2009 | Unnatural, Beijing Center for the Arts, Beijing |
| 2008 | Return to Reclusion-Zheng Zaidong and Yu Peng, Zhangjiang Contemporary Art Museum, Shanghai |
| 2004 | High Mountains, Flowing Water, Shanghai Art Museum, Shanghai |
| Zheng Zaidong, Zhou Chunya & Liu Wei, Space Gallery Association, Shanghai | |
| Transcending Boundaries, Space Gallery Association, Shanghai | |
| 2002 | Paris/Peking, Pierre Cardin Art Centre, Paris, France |
| 2001 | New Image – Twenty Years of Contemporary Chinese Painting, National Art Museum of China, Beijing; Sichuan Art Museum, Chengdu; Guangdong Museum of Art, Guangzhou |
| 1997 | Faces and Bodies from China – Contemporary Chinese Art, Galerie Rudolfinum, Prague, Czech Republic |
| 1996 | Tracing the Past – Chinese Contemporary Art, Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK |
| 1994 | Era of Openness, Hanart TZ Gallery, Hong Kong |
| Korea Art Festival, Busan Museum of Contemporary Art, Busan, South Korea | |
| 1993 | Taiwan 90’s Avant-Garde, Hanart TZ Gallery, Hong Kong |
| 1992 | Dis/Continuity, Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taipei |
| 1991 | Personal Sport – Taiwan Artist Group Show, Hong Kong Arts Centre, Hong Kong |
| 1989 | Contemporary Art Exhibition, National Museum of History, Taipei |
| 1988 | Modern Ink Exhibition, National Museum of History, Taipei |
| 1986 | Sino-Korean Exchange Exhibition, National Museum of History, Taipei |
| 1985 | New Painting in Taiwan, National Museum of Taiwan History, Taipei |
| 1984 | New Painting in Taiwan, Hanart TZ Gallery, Hong Kong |
