Poetry in Painting:
Scenes from Fort Wayne’s Sister City Taizhou, China

July 22, 2023 - September 17, 2023

Fort Wayne Museum of Art

Fort Wayne, IN​

 

Created in partnership with the Taizhou Jiufeng Landscape Painting Academy in Fort Wayne's sister city of Taizhou, China and Sister Cities International, this exhibition was purposed to boost mutual understanding and cultural communication between Chinese and Western cultures through art.

 

Jiufeng Landscape Painting Academy is a nonprofit public culture and art group, named after the local Jiufeng Mountain in Taizhou, China. Six members from the group—Chen Rongjun, Chen Tianye, Tao Ji, Chen Jiali, Xin Yunying, Dai Xuezhao—presented a collection of stunning landscapes in their debut show in the United States. In each brushstroke, they incorporate their pursuit of poetic and spiritual needs, emphasize their interest in nature, pursue ancient and secluded beauty, and express their wish for harmonious coexistence between humanity and nature through various artistic styles. Their paintings pay homage to the majestic mountains and seas in Taizhou and the Road of Tang Poetry in Eastern Zhejiang, a scenic cultural route that once drew the nation’s most prominent poets to the area.

 

The featured artists participated in a cross-cultural exchange, organized by myself and other Sister Cities Taizhou Committee members. In the summer of 2023, Chinese artists visited Fort Wayne and led an in-gallery painting demonstration and conversation and tabled at the annual Taste of the Arts Festival. In the summer of 2025, Fort Wayne artist Peter Lupkin completed the exchange by holding a solo exhibition in Taizhou, China.