Walking on Plate - Teachers’ Work Exhibition of Engraving Department of Tianjin Academy of Fine Arts was inaugurated on December 12 in the National Art Museum of China (NAMOC). Sponsored by Tianjin Academy of Fine Arts, the exhibition showed over 100 pieces of works created by 17 artists of the engraving department of academy. It showcased the latest creations of the teachers of the academy, as well as furnished a platform for the public to understand and get familiar with the engraving art.

Engraving art is regarded as a plastic art that takes plate as media. Today, this form of art, whether it is copperplate etching, lithograph, silkscreen prints or long-standing wood engraving, has all become carrier expressing art creation personality and humanistic spirit. The 17 artists supplying exhibits for the exhibition explore the possibility of printmaking in their own way, and return to the original intention of art creation through material language. The exhibition, themed as Walking on Plate, comprised both classic works and new ones of young and middle-aged artists. Diversified in media, language and form, the show paid close attention to the development road of engraving in the context of contemporary art.

Deng Guoyuan, president of Tianjin Academy of Fine Arts, said that the engraving artists of the academy, guardians of the fading warmth of the “burgeoning woodcut movement”, created impressive works in different times. The heads of the engraving department, including Wang Maigan, Tian Kun, Jiang Lu and Chen Jiuru, led the team to foster a large number of excellent engraving artists for the country. The engraving artists of the academy went through the age of material scarcity. Today, with excellent hardware support, they have adhered to setting out from their souls to explore creativity and imagination, and inspire the beauty and sincerity of the world with excellent works. The exhibited works are gifted with vitality and vigor. The artists constructed a visual world in respective open, creative ways.

The exhibition lasted till December 22.