2019 Life in Color
Hsinchu Exhibition
Life in Color Returns to the Windy City
Life in Color
The international artist Stephen Peng was born in Hsinchu and left his hometown in his youth for northern Taiwan. With his arduous work ethic, he started his own business to trade with Europeans while only in his twenties. He became a pioneer of the luggage trade in Taiwan during the 1980s, creating the legend of the luggage king as the exclusive authorized chief designer of Benetton. After more than 40 years in trade, Peng decided to pick up painting again. In 2008 he embarked on a new creative journey and has been producing dynamic artwork ever since. The artist has held countless exhibitions in Taiwan, Singapore, and Italy, and participated in many international art fairs. Stephen Peng's positive and "never give up" attitude in every endeavor has helped him manifest an extraordinary life story, one of rags to riches.
Returning to the Windy City
Having led a remarkable and prosperous life, 75 year old Stephen Peng is utterly thankful for his humble beginnings in his beloved hometown, Hsinchu. Looking back after settling down in life, the hometown he left decades ago became a haunting nostalgia. Beautiful childhood memories of the entire family living together in spite of their poverty kept echoing in his mind. Peng's father always took him around Hsinchu to sketch and paint in the field. The reminiscence of his adolescent self under the East Gate, studying English by loudly reciting on field ridges, as well as stopping by the house of Lee Tze-fan, another Hsinchu painter, observing his portrayal of every detail of Hsinchu, has sowed the seeds of his aspiration for art.
Stephen Peng returned to the Windy City in 2019 with not only his artworks created over the years, but also his long-standing devotion to children's art education. In 2014, he held a charity exhibition jointly with the CommonWealth Magazine Foundation to encourage elementary school children to express their artistic talent by making art with them. In 2017, the collaboration with Big Green Team led parents and children to experience the fun of artistic creativity while camping in Nantou. In 2019, Peng teamed up with Social Entertainment Enterprise to help kids from rural areas discover the joy or painting. Partnering again with the CW Magazine Foundation and the Big Green Team, this exhibition aims to arouse the pleasure of painting in Hsinchu's children.
The Cultural Affairs Bureau of Hsinchu City co-hosts this exhibition, and Mayor Lin Chih-Chien of Hsinchu City, was specially invited to give the opening speech. The opening reception saw fervent coverage by several news outlets. The five-day exhibition attracted many Hsinchu citizens to visit and appreciate the paintings. Stephen Peng's paintings are abstract and diverse. Each painting tells its own life story, with jubilant images expounding all sorts of life experiences. Illustrations of traveling, hometown, cities, and natural landscapes all merge into the prismatic paintings.
Two art charity events were also held to guide Hsinchu's children to experience the joy of artistic activities. The Fun with Art Together children's artistic creative workshop co-hosted with the CW Magazine Foundation and the Big Green Team also received positive feedback from local schools. During the creative processes, the children's smiles from opening up their cautious minds and from exploring the delight in painting were contagious to all participants in the events.
A child's gaze is the purest. Stephen Peng did not return to creating art with technical finesse. Instead, he watches the world with his genuine, child-like heart and curious eyes to perceive his inner clarity and then paint his unbridled happiness in rich colors.
