Born in Shanghai, Shiao Chin graduated from the Teachers College of Taipei (now the National Taipei University of Education) in 1954. He was taught by Chou Ying and Ju De-chiun and then became one of Lee Chun-shan’s students. He founded the East Painting Society with Hsia Yang and Wu Hao. In 1956, he was given a Spanish government scholarship to study in Europe. He has taught at Southampton College, Long Island University, Academy of Fine Arts Urbino in Italy, Academy of Fine Arts in Turin and Academy of Fine Arts in Milan. The awards he won include a gold medal of Norwegian International Print Biennale and Achievement Award of Lee Chun-shan Foundation of Contemporary Painting. In 2002, he won the National Award for Arts in Fine Art.

Shiao Chin’s work is a mélange of Chinese calligraphy and concepts of Western abstract painting. The elements in his composition include fluid shapes and geometrical shapes of circles and lines. With Chinese ink and gouache as his media, he uses the permeation and splash of colors on paper or canvas to create a Zen feel of emptiness, selflessness and obscurity. After a series of incidents in his life in the 1980s, he created the Zen, the Qi and the Beyond Destiny series. In 1990, Shiao’s daughter Samantha passed away in Los Angeles. Since 1991, he had transformed his grief of losing her into the Beyond Destiny series. Based on Eastern philosophy and religious meanings, this series was made by calligraphic drawing and became the artist most representative work.

In 1956, with Hsia Yang, Wu Hao, Li Yuan-chia , Chen Dao-ming, Ouyang Wen-yuan and Ho Kan, Shiao Chin cofounded the East Painting Society, the first abstract painting group in China. It began the development of avant-garde art in Taiwan. It advocated “learning new ways” but it didn’t forget “critiquing modern art in the context of tradition.” Shiao was the first painter who went to study painting in Spain. During his study overseas, he continued introducing knowledge about Western art and kept close relationships with the members of the East Painting Society. He had an important influence on the understanding of Western art in Taiwan. His Beyond Destiny series reveal his reinterpretation of life and his optimistic attitude. With this series, he elevates aesthetics of art to the level of transcendence over life and death, of the unity of heaven and mankind.