Chinese Name: 陳志揚
Born: 1972
Birthplace: Changhua County (Central Taiwan)
Did You Know That…?
In 2020, Chen Chih-yang was recognized by the Traditional Crafts Cultural Assets Review Committee of Changhua County as a preserver of tin craft making.
Chen Chih-yang’s father, Chen Wan-neng (陳萬能), is a master of tin crafts. Immersed in tin craft making from a young age, Chen Chih-yang, fond of sketching on paper, displayed a natural talent for drawing. After graduating from Mingdao High School (明道中學) in Taichung, he aspired to push the boundaries of graphic art. Around that time, his father began experimenting with artistic tin creations, transforming animals from sketches into three-dimensional objects. This realization—that tin, a material he had been familiar with since childhood, could be the key to artistic breakthroughs—deeply influenced him. It was only at the age of 18 that he began seriously practicing tin craft making under his father’s guidance, studying the properties of different metals.
Chen Wan-neng was a strict teacher to his four sons when it came to the techniques of tin crafts, but he allowed them the freedom to explore and develop their own artistic styles. With ample room for creative expression, Chen Chih-yang found his own path to innovation, moving beyond traditional themes to incorporate modern expressions. His work fuses abstract elements with natural landscapes, demonstrating a bold departure from convention.
In 1992, at the age of 20, Chen Chih-yang received the National Craft Award (now the National Craft Achievement Award) for “Against the Current (逆流向上),” becoming the youngest craftsman to earn this honor. In this piece, he skillfully welded different materials together, highlighting their natural colors and properties as an organic whole. Two years later, in 1994, he received the award again for “The Eight Immortals (八仙過海),” a work that magnificently captured the gestures and facial expressions of the legendary figures in Chinese mythology. In the same year, he was also named one of the Ten Outstanding Young Persons.
In 1995, supported by his father and driven by a desire to study different cultures and artistic expressions, Chen Chih-yang enrolled at the School of Visual Arts in New York City, majoring in fine arts. The school’s emphasis on hands-on learning encouraged students to create spontaneously, a stark contrast to Chen’s more deliberate approach. However, he recognized that this method would allow him to create works closer to his heart, unbound by traditional theories.
While developing his innovative style, Chen Chih-yang continued to draw from traditional crafts, integrating tin with other materials such as bamboo weaving and lacquer to enhance the aesthetic of his works. “Although tin is an element, it can be combined with other metals to create variations in color. When fused with glaze, tin takes on even greater possibilities in form and hue,” he explained.