Craft Flow - Yen Shui-long Collection Craft Exhibition

The National Taiwan Craft Research and Development Institute added 40 precious original works by Yen Shui-long (顏水龍) to its collection in the year 114 (2025/2026), covering diverse types such as craft design manuscripts, ceramic creations, and bamboo craft furniture. Using 'Craft Flow' as the curatorial theme, it re-examines the developmental trajectory of modern Taiwanese crafts in cultural enlightenment, life practice, and aesthetic translation. Craft is never a static object existence, but a cultural flow rooted in daily life and responding to the times; it is shaped through handcrafting, used in life, and continuously generates new meaning through the interaction between people and the environment.
As an important advocate for modern Taiwanese crafts, Yen Shui-long not only intervened in artistic practice as a creator but also actively promoted crafts entering public life and social spheres. What he left behind is not only craftworks of historical value but also a visionary perspective on 'how craft becomes living culture.' The 'Craft' and 'Living Art' proposed in this exhibition are a reinterpretation of his creative spirit and cultural practice—extending from a meticulous and深耕 (deeply cultivated) craft attitude to a life philosophy of integrating art into daily life.
The exhibition uses 'Living Water' as its core imagery, viewing craft as a continuously flowing cultural energy: it accumulates and settles in collections, transforms anew in contemporary contexts, and is perceived and practiced again in life experiences. The exhibition content is divided into three main thematic units: 'Warp and Weft on Paper' focuses on craft design manuscripts, presenting the design thinking and methods in the modernization process of Taiwanese crafts, reflecting Yen Shui-long's 'Craft' spirit full of patience and order; 'Forms of the Land' showcases his profound concern for land culture and folk aesthetics through ceramic works and paintings translated from indigenous culture; 'Life as Art' embodies the practical concept of integrating crafts into living spaces and daily use through works like bamboo craft furniture, highlighting the contemporary meaning of 'Living Art' as a life attitude.
Through this exhibition, viewers can re-understand how Yen Shui-long integrated Western modern art, Japanese Mingei (folk craft) thought, and Taiwanese local cultural contexts, further transforming craft into daily utensils combining aesthetics, function, and cultural character. The 'Life as Art' he advocated not only embodies the balanced relationship between culture, design, and industry but also witnesses the important journey of Taiwanese crafts moving from local to modern, from skill to cultural practice.