董小蕙 Dong Shaw-hwei

Dong Shaw-hwei was born in 1962 in Taipei, Taiwan. She graduated from the Department of Fine Arts at National Taiwan Normal University in 1984 and obtained a master’s degree from the university’s Graduate Institute of Fine Arts in 1992. Beginning in 1993, she traveled across Europe for plein air painting, and from 1994 to 2007, she frequently resided in Germany, where she held solo exhibitions and published art collections.

Her early work was influenced by Impressionism, focusing on lyrical landscape painting. She incorporated the use of color and light techniques from Claude Monet, Vincent van Gogh, and Pierre Bonnard, resulting in a fresh and natural style. During her graduate studies, she explored Daoist philosophy and authored “The Aesthetic Meaning of Zhuangzi’s Thought”, which deepened her artistic expression. In the late 1990s, her style evolved towards a more subjective and introspective approach, leading to the development of the “Still Life of Black Table Series”, where she used flowers, vessels, and wooden furniture to create tranquil spaces. She later drew inspiration from her own residence, developing the “Courtyard in Black and White Series”.