Long Tao Art Workshop

Yu Wei Chou was born in Lukang, Changhua, Taiwan, and now lives in Longtan, Taoyuan, Taiwan.

The course of Wei Chou’s creation can be divided into three main phases. The first phase is a rural series which represents the memory of his childhood. Wei Chou’s parents owned a furniture factory, where it was filled with woody fragrances and carving sounds. Wei Chou reminisces this phase of his creation. The second phase is his path of learning. After graduating from Mingdao Middle School with a major in arts, Wei Chou went to Taichung to learn how to make Buddha’s statues from his teacher, Mr. Huang Yingpu. During his apprenticeship, he accumulated his learnings step by step and created many arhats (luo han) expressing emotions of happiness, anger, sorrow, joy, sadness, grief, and distress which reflect the various states of life. In the third phase, he began to enter the art of living and expanded ceramics into daily life, such as tea sets, flower vases, and ceramic ornaments, to today's impressive and inexplicable ceramic creation.

Yu Wei Chou was selected in many major awards, such as the First Taipei Ceramic Award, the 15th Asia Craft Award, the 25th Japanese Craft Award, the 8th Dream of Craft Competition Award and the 5th Da Dun Fine Arts Exhibition. He is extremely knowledgeable in the ceramics and the relief sculpture and has written “The Shape and Shadow of the Relief Sculpture in the Torrent of History” and “Wellness Tea Calms the Mind: Appreciation of the Historical Tea Bowls.” The number of exhibitions by Wei Chou is quite impressive, with exhibition footprints all over Taiwan. In August 2015, "Where Life Comes From — Yu Wei Chou’s Solo Exhibition of Pottery Sculpture" was exhibited at the Yingge Ceramic Museum. The planning took three years and exhibited more than 40 artworks focusing on women as the theme, such as female adolescence, pregnancy, slimness, plumpness, aging and other postures. All were included in this exhibition. The response was overwhelmingly positive and received unanimous praise from all walks of life. At the same time, he taught in prison for an extensive period of time by sharing the sculpture techniques with the inmate-students.

Yu Wei Chou grew up around the Mazu Temple and Longshan Temple in Changhua. That simple and beautiful childhood has had a profound impact on Wei Chou’s creative works later in his life. Many of his creations are full of this innocent memory. He is also a Buddhist scholar. He has always been able to create works that look like the morning sun in spring, which is gentle and warm. In this exhibition, there are many tea wares. Arhats (luohans) and tea wares are equivalent to “tea chan in one flavor.” As it turned out, Master Yu fell in love with tea ever since high school. He said that with tea in his life, he gradually entered the world of Chan. Drinking tea not only relieves the thirst, but it also relieves the thirst of a soul. This is what has accompanied Master Yu during his creation, the best non-verbal mentor. It is like a spiritual gas station or a stress relief station. Yu Wei Chou is currently the person-in-charge of the Long Tao Art Workshop. He leads students in Taoyuan to experience the beauty of pottery creation. He uses the ever-changing clay to augment this culturally rich treasury land. In every child’s heart, he plants a seed of love and beauty.