Shi Jin-Hua ©Shi Jin-Hua Estate
Shi Jin-Hua (1964–2024)
Shi Jin-Hua was a leading figure in Taiwanese conceptual and performance art. Using the body as an instrument of measurement, he transformed walking, expenditure, and repetition into modes of writing. This approach arose from a specific physiological condition: after being diagnosed with diabetes at the age of seventeen, his blood glucose levels, insulin dosages, and food intake became data that had to be recorded each day, reducing the body to a series of readable parameters.
“Measurement” consequently formed the central vocabulary of his practice—measuring blood glucose, measuring footsteps, and measuring the lifespan of a pencil. Whether working with performance, drawing, installation, or documentation, Shi constructed each work according to a self-imposed system of rules: predetermined areas, durations, and numbers of repetitions. Rather than allowing inspiration or form to determine the appearance of a work, he first established a mechanism and then enacted it bodily over an extended period, allowing the outcome to emerge on its own. His works are therefore simultaneously performances, records, and documents, resisting classification within any single medium.
Through this mechanism, Shi redefined two fundamental premises of writing. First, writing was no longer performed solely by the hand, but enacted by the entire body—movement replaced the motion of the pen, freeing his practice from the formal frameworks of calligraphy and painting and returning it to the act itself. Second, the weight of the work lay not in the completed image, but in the totality of what had been expended: how much time, how much of the body, and how much material had truly been exhausted. The wall grew darker with every passage; the pencil became shorter with every line, until ultimately nothing remained—and that state of nothing remaining was precisely the content of the work.
The repetition of rules also brought Shi’s practice into close alignment with religious discipline. By silently reciting Buddhist scriptures as he walked, he imbued repetitive labour with the dual nature of artistic performance and spiritual cultivation; the meaning of the action lay not in arriving at a destination, but in the act of concentration itself. Much of his work was similarly structured around continuity, unfolding across years or even decades. Pencil Walker, the Pen Walking Series, the X Bodhi Trees project, Insulin Journal, and One Thousand Days together constitute a mode of practice measured in units of a lifetime. In an era governed by efficiency and productivity, his work proposed a value that runs counter to the prevailing logic of reality: exchanging the finitude of the body for the infinitude of the spirit.
Born in Penghu, Taiwan, Shi graduated from the Department of Fine Arts at National Taiwan Normal University before receiving an MFA in Studio Art from the University of California, Irvine. During the 1990s, when political critique dominated Taiwanese performance and conceptual art, he transformed his most intimate bodily experiences and religious practice into a creative methodology that could be sustained over time, introducing dimensions of inwardness and spirituality into Taiwanese conceptual art. His decades-long projects further demonstrated that artistic practice need not be structured around exhibitions or oriented toward completion, but could instead take the continuity of life itself as its measure.
Shi’s works were exhibited at the Taipei Biennial, the Asian Art Biennial, MoMA PS1 in New York, the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art at Cornell University, and the Macao Museum of Art, among other institutions. His works are held in the collections of the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts, and White Rabbit Gallery. In 2007, he received the grand prizes of the Taipei Arts Award, the Kaohsiung Award, and the Li Chun-Shan Foundation Visual Arts Award. Shi passed away in 2024, leaving behind an exceptionally rare example of sustained, long-term practice within Taiwanese conceptual and performance art.
｜Collections｜
White Rabbit Gallery, Sydney, Australia
National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Taichung, Taiwan
Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taipei, Taiwan
Taichung Art Museum, Taichung, Taiwan
Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
Art Bank Taiwan, Taichung, Taiwan
Fidelity International
｜Solo Exhibitions｜
2025, Shi Jin-Hua, Mind Set Art Center, Taipei, Taiwan
2022, A Drop from the Caoxi River: Shi Jin-Hua—2022 Buddha’s Birthday Special Exhibition, Fo Guang Yuan Art Gallery Headquarters, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
2021, The Rock Returns to the Soil Where the Heart Belongs—Shi Jin-Hua Solo Exhibition, Taitung Art Museum, Taitung, Taiwan
2019, Homage to the Masters, Mind Set Art Center, Taipei, Taiwan
2017, LINES—Shi Jin-Hua’s Contemporary Religious Art, curated by Chen Hung-Hsing, Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
2017, Two Trees and a Mountain, TKG+ Projects, Taipei, Taiwan
2016, I Try: A Performance by Shi Jin-Hua, Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
2015, Pencil Walker, Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
2015, Clothing Project, Photo Shanghai, Shanghai Exhibition Center, Shanghai, China
2014, Life Fleets On, Little Gallery, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
2013, Indexing the Moon, Mind Set Art Center, Taipei, Taiwan
2013, Shi Jin-Hua: Thirty Years of Works and the Presentation of the New Work Art Today, Mind Set Art Center, Taipei, Taiwan
2012, Bodhi Project: A Stop along the Way—Documentary Exhibition of Shi Jin-Hua’s X Bodhi Trees, Providence University, Taichung; National Changhua University of Education, Changhua, Taiwan
2011, Pass Through a Year—Shi Jin-Hua Solo Exhibition, Mind Set Art Center, Taipei, Taiwan
2010, The Trilogy of Contemporary Art Alchemy, InArt Space, Tainan, Taiwan
2008, Pen Walking, Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taipei, Taiwan
2008, Living Beyond Measurement, Taipei Artist Village, Taipei, Taiwan
2005, Joke Project, Art Center, Providence University, Taichung, Taiwan
2000, Pencil Walker—The Performance and Documentation of Shi Jin-Hua, Huashan Arts District, Taipei, Taiwan
1996, Watch Steps, University Art Gallery, University of California, Irvine, California, USA
1993, Xiong-Shi Project, IT PARK, Taipei, Taiwan
1993, The Age of Disturbance, Doors Art Space, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
1992, Money for Nothing, Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taipei, Taiwan
｜Group Exhibitions｜
2026
Kaohsiung Awards at 30: Art’s Unfinished Endeavours and New Beginnings, Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
Stories · Collections: Tales from the Museum Collection, Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
2025
Land and Floating Clouds—A Decade of the Artist-in-Residence Collection, Chishang Barn Art Museum, Taitung, Taiwan
Stories · Collections: Tales from the Museum Collection, Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
2024
Gazing at the Self: Multiple Reflections of Selfhood, National Center of Photography and Images, Taipei, Taiwan
If You Hear It Before I Do, Chishang Barn Art Museum, Taitung, Taiwan
2023
Sightlines: Concealment and Expansion of Reality, Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
Concrete Abstraction: Contemporary Art Exhibition, Mind Set Art Center, Taipei, Taiwan
2023 Hengshan Calligraphy Art Biennial: Era of Principle and No Principle Interwoven—Calligraphy as a Visual Form, Hengshan Calligraphy Art Center, Taoyuan, Taiwan
The Multitudes of Time: A Landscape of Years for Everyone, Tainan Art Museum, Tainan, Taiwan
Memories of an Era: Highlights from the NTMoFA Collection at 35, National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Taichung, Taiwan
2022
Walking through the Cracks, Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taipei, Taiwan
Adapter, Museum of Contemporary Art Taipei, Taipei, Taiwan
Variations: Contemporary Art Group Exhibition, Mind Set Art Center, Taipei, Taiwan
Flowing Light: Contemporary Art Group Exhibition, Mind Set Art Center, Taipei, Taiwan
Small Is Bountiful: The Lili Dey Collection of Taiwanese Contemporary Art, Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taipei, Taiwan
2021
Post-Experimental Ink Painting—How We Create Art, Art Museum of Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing, China
Collecting the Classics—When Eternity Transcends Time and Space, Ching Feng Art, Taichung, Taiwan
2020
Nothing Beyond, Infinite and Boundless—Riding on the Wings of the Breeze, Ching Feng Art, Taichung, Taiwan
Rebirth: Marina Cruz, Fu Rao, and Shi Jin-Hua, Mind Set Art Center, Taipei, Taiwan
Janus: Art Basel Hong Kong Project Exhibition, Mind Set Art Center, Taipei, Taiwan
2019
Beyond Awareness: Art of Awareness—Discourses on Being and Temporality, Shanghai Mingyuan Art Museum, Shanghai, China
Tempered and Refined—Taiwan Contemporary Art Exhibition, Taiwan Cultural Center in Tokyo, Tokyo; Yokohama Civic Art Gallery, Yokohama, Japan
Pencil Walker, Mind Set Art Center, Taipei, Taiwan
2018
In Dialogue with Nature, Mind Set Art Center, Taipei, Taiwan
Still Waters Run Deep, Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
The Key: New Acquisitions 2017, Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
Extraordinary · Everyday, Chiayi Railway Art Village, Chiayi, Taiwan
Art Practitioners—2018 Buddha’s Birthday Special Exhibition, Fo Guang Yuan Art Gallery Headquarters, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
2017
Self-Portrait, Mind Set Art Center, Taipei, Taiwan
Spectrosynthesis—Asian LGBTQ Issues and Art Now, Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, New York, USA
Encountering the Process—Shi Jin-Hua’s 100-Kilometre Walk, Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
2016
Chronological Displacement—Twenty Years of the Kaohsiung Awards, Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
The Road through the Forest: Contemporary Art Exhibition, Part I, Mind Set Art Center, Taipei, Taiwan
Summertime, Mind Set Art Center, Taipei, Taiwan
Small · Big, Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taipei, Taiwan
Half of Drawing: An Artistic Approach to the Nature of Drawing, InnoArt, Hsinchu, Taiwan
Nurture · Heal—Group Exhibition, Lucie Chang Fine Arts, Hong Kong
2015
The Third Collectors’ Contemporary Collaboration, Hong Kong Arts Centre, Hong Kong
ReVision: Mind Set Art Center Fifth Anniversary Exhibition, Mind Set Art Center, Taipei, Taiwan
ReVision 2: Mind Set Art Center Fifth Anniversary Exhibition, Mind Set Art Center, Taipei, Taiwan
Constancy, Chini Gallery, Taipei, Taiwan
Self-Observation: A Documentary Exhibition of Chinese Performance Art, Macao Museum of Art, Macao
By the Way of the Body: Art of Action and Performance, Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
Pencil Walker, Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
2014
Far from the Long Night, Mind Set Art Center, Taipei, Taiwan
Fragmentary Refinement: Change and Constancy in Contemporary Art, NCTU Arts Center, Hsinchu, Taiwan
The Pioneers of Taiwanese Artists, 1961–1970, National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Taichung, Taiwan
The Body as Narrator, Silverlens, Manila, Philippines
2013
Spring Outing, Mind Set Art Center, Taipei, Taiwan
Since Then: IT PARK 25th Anniversary Exhibition, IT PARK, Taipei, Taiwan
2012
Two Extremities—Near East, Far East, Contemporary Art Park, Forte Marghera, Venice, Italy
Soka Vision—20th Anniversary Exhibition, Soka Art, Tainan, Taiwan
2011
Medi(t)ation—2011 Asian Art Biennial, National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Taichung, Taiwan
The 9th Taishin Arts Award Finalist Exhibition, Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
Time and Memory, 3812 Gallery, Hong Kong
2010
Utopia: Asian Contemporary Art Group Exhibition, Mind Set Art Center, Taipei, Taiwan
Black · White · Grey, Michael Ku Gallery, Taipei, Taiwan
2010 Taipei Biennial, Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taipei, Taiwan
Continuation—Li Chun-Shan Modern Painting Award Special Exhibition, National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Taichung, Taiwan
Love at First Sight: Collection of the Regional Contemporary Art Fund Nord–Pas-de-Calais, Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
2009
Field, Da Xiang Art Space, Taichung, Taiwan
2008
The Second Vision, National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Taichung, Taiwan
The 10th Li Chun-Shan Foundation Visual Arts Award, Art Center, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan
In the Beginning—The “Way” of Art in Pursuit of the Origins of Life, Da Xiang Art Space, Taichung, Taiwan
Dreams: 2008 Kuandu Biennale, Taipei, Taiwan
2007
2007 Taipei Arts Award, Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taipei, Taiwan
2007 Kaohsiung Awards, Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
Clues: Taiwan in Its Contemporary Art, touring exhibition: Washington Pavilion of Arts and Science, South Dakota, USA; Centre A: Vancouver International Centre for Contemporary Asian Art, Vancouver, Canada; Christel DeHaan Fine Arts Center, University of Indianapolis, Indiana, USA; Illges Gallery, Columbus State University, Georgia, USA; National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Taichung, Taiwan
2005
Trading Places: Contemporary Art Museum, Museum of Contemporary Art Taipei, Taipei, Taiwan
2004
Past in Reverse—Ke Sih-Hai Solo Exhibition, presented by G8 Public Relations and Art Consultancy, San Diego Museum of Art, San Diego, USA
Visa for Thirteen, MoMA PS1 Contemporary Art Center, New York, USA
2003
Rosary · Brushstrokes, Tokyo Gallery, Beijing, China
2002
CO2: Taiwan Avant-Garde Documenta—Ke Sih-Hai Solo Exhibition, presented by G8 Public Relations and Art Consultancy, Huashan Arts District, Taipei, Taiwan
Taiwan Contemporary Art, 1980–2000, Hong-gah Museum, Taipei, Taiwan
Kaohsiung Art after the Lifting of Martial Law, Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
2001
Spiritual Translation, Cheng Shiu Institute of Technology Art Center, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
1996
Close Up, Huntington Beach Art Center, Huntington Beach, California, USA
1996 Taipei Biennial: The Quest for Identity in Taiwanese Art, Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taipei, Taiwan
1995
Of Ill Repute, Bergamot Station Arts Center, Santa Monica, California, USA
1993
Taiwan 90’s: New Concepts in Art, Hanart TZ Gallery, Taipei, Taiwan
2026.09.12 – 2027.08.29