One of Taiwan's oldest art competitions has named its 2026 winners. The Taoyuan Art Exhibition, run by the Taoyuan Museum of Fine Arts and now in its fifth decade, announced the results of this year's painting and writing edition, which drew 753 entries and selected 66 works for display at the Taoyuan Exhibition Center through 15 November.

The two top honours, the annual special prizes, went to 邵士銘 for Hui (Return) and 嚴文㚬 for Day and Night. The jury praised both works for combining traditional ink and mineral-pigment painting with a contemporary visual language, folding contested subjects of city life — motorbikes, smoking — into compositions that feel both classical and current.

Six category prizes were awarded across the competition's disciplines. 楊士霆 won the ink painting prize for a work weaving personal memory into local landscape; 吳安節 took the mineral-pigment prize for Exit, which uses a bathtub as a private space for exploring the tension between rising and staying; 尤振宇 won the calligraphy and seal-carving prize; 石梓廷 won the oil painting prize for PCS, a reflection on industrial automation and handmade painting; 李閶建 won the watercolour prize; and 鄭芸婷 won the printmaking prize for A Family-piece Jigsaw, assembled from old photographs found at a flea market.

The competition alternates each year between painting and writing and three-dimensional and multimedia work, and it has become a platform for artists across generations in Taoyuan and beyond. Museum director Lin Yong-neng noted that more than a hundred local artists entered this year, a sign of the trust the competition has built over forty years. The winning works remain on view alongside the full selection of 66 pieces until the exhibition closes in mid-November.