Cinema poster painter to exhibit new oil paintings｜Taiwan News
One of Taiwan’s beloved public artists is shifting gears. Movie billboard painter Yen Chen-fa has been well known for years, creating retro hand-painted billboards for a popular movie theater. He’s also been hired by politicians to paint campaign posters. Now, the place where he works for the cinema is about to become history. Yen is taking it as a chance to start a new chapter of his artistic life. He’s embraced oil paints, and is enjoying pouring his creativity into his own compositions. A solo exhibition of his new work in oils will open later this month.
Cinema poster painter Yen Chen-fa has recently started making his own designs. Some of his oil paintings contain fantastical elements hidden amongst the realistic subjects. The colors are bold and striking. We asked him why he wanted to make the jump from cinema posters to freelance artist. He told us quite frankly that after 50 years painting posters, he’s a bit tired of it! He wants the chance to make up his own compositions.
His solo exhibition opens in mid-September. Yen has 20 oil paintings ready to exhibit, showcasing his imagination. Although he made his name with his hand-painted cinema posters, he feels that his latest free works express his ideals more closely.
Yen Chen-fa
Cinema poster painter
I thought of this one myself, and put it together. There’s a specific way to paint a cinema poster, but oil paintings have another style.
Yen is 71 years old, and has always loved cinema arts as well as paintings. He became an apprentice cinema poster painter at the age of 18. Although the custom gradually fell out of popularity, Yen’s exceptional skill was obvious and he has continued the work ever since. He has also painted campaign posters for many politicians. The only difficulty is that the lot where he works, opposite a cinema, might be about to be demolished.
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