ART CIRCLE

Johnny Leo was born in 1961, Taipei, Taiwan. From 1990 to 1993, he studied Television, Film & Video at the University of California, Los Angeles. Over his career, he has worked in advertising agencies as an illustrator, film art producter, advertising film director and drawn illustrations, comics, and storyboards for major newspapers and advertising companies. He has media recognition from national TV, broadcast, newspapers and magazine in the Asian Pacific region.

In his early years, he published his short works on the bimonthly Oolong Courtyard. In 1985, his career as a comic artist began by serializing “Two Painters’ on Joy Comics. In total, the artist published 12 comic books in total, with “Young Master” (Huang FeiHong) popular in Asian markets (China, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand) and later adapted into an animated film. In 1999 he was contracted by Disney as their exclusive and authorized artist representative in Asia, and acted as Coca Cola’s specially hired exclusive artist for their annual Red Girl project. He established a company to produce web animations as well. As the director of Shanghai Animation Base, he led an animation team to produce 2D and 3D animation films, and concurrently served as the 3D animation director of Yingli Animation Company. Johnny’s works has been exhibited in domestic and international galleries, namely, Museum of Contemporary Art Shanghai; Today Art Museum (Beijing); Museum of Contemporary Art Taipei.

2021

Invited to participate in the 3rd “Blessing Asia” Visual Art Biennale, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Invited to participate in the Kaohsiung Art Fair “City Business Travel Exhibition”, The Pier2 Art Center, Taiwan

Participated in the Formosa International Art Fair Taiyuan Art Exhibition

The Apostle Comes”, Solo Exhibition, Taipei, Taiwan

Invited to participate in the 3rd “Art Future” Art Fair, Grand Hyatt hotel, Taipei, Taiwan

2020　

“Daruma Public Welfare Painting World Tour Exhibition”, Taipei, Taiwan

Attended personal creation “Apostle” comic book publishing and book signing, Taipei, Taiwan

Selected work “Meet the Gods and Buddhas No.9”  invited to participate in the Museum of World Religions, Taipei, Taiwan

2019

Participated in the 3rd Taiwan Comics Festival

Participated in San Diego Comic-Con International, California, USA

Invited to participate in the Comic Festival in Holland and France Angoulême

“Joint Exhibition of 4 Artists on Both Sides of the Taiwan Strait”, Macau

2018　

Chiayi Winery Cultural and Creative “Animation Art Pendulum” Exhibition

Participated in the Chiayi Hotel Art Fair, Taiwan

Participated in French Angola Comics Festival and Paris Art Exhibition, France

2016　

Good Idea Festival Cross-Border art festival, Taipei, Taiwan 

2015

“Hoping & Jones” comic book part 2 New Issue Announcement Campaign at Taipei Metro, Taiwan

2014-2015

Joined “Hoping & Jones” comic book team as chief manga artist

2013

“Solo Exhibition by Johnny Leo”, Taipei, Taiwan

2011

“The Animals’ Soliloquy”, Solo exhibition, Butch Art Center, Taipei, Taiwan

2010

Artwork  ‘A New Century Revelation’ selected by the National Oil Painting Contest

2008-2009

“100 Tales in Animamix”, Beijing, Singapore & Indonesia  

2008　

“Two Sides of Taiwan Straits Artists – Animamix New Generation”, Capital Art Center, Taipei, Taiwan

“Animamix – Super Animamix”, Taipei, Taiwan

2007

3L4D / 3rd Life 4th Dimension, National Dr. Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall, Taipei

“From Modern to Eternity”, Shanghai Animamix Biennial, Museum of Contemporary Art Shanghai, China

Guest artist /residence at Royal Holloway, University of London, UK

“Modern Art Revolution” Mitsukoshi Department Store, Taipei, Taiwan

Japan & China Group Exhibition, The Moon River Museum of Contemporary Art, Beijing

International Contemporary Art Festival / EXIT Festival and VIA Festival, Maison des Arts et de la  Culture (MAC), the Manege of Maubeuge, France 

2006

The Original Animamix, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Shanghai China

2000

Coca Cola’s assigned artist in Asian Pacific region

1999　

Specially hired as the exclusive artist for Coke’s annual ‘Red Girl Project’

Walt Disney’s exclusive and authorized artist representative in Asia

1998

Published well-known comic series, “Young Master” (exclusive copyright) that appeared in film,  cartoon, books and VCD/DVD in China, Singapore, Thailand and Korean markets. 

Awards

National Army Art Award winner for sculpture item　

List of Works

Two Painters (1 episode)

Young Master (4 episodes)

Game Boy (2 episodes)

Touchstone (1 episode)

Dragon Boy (1 episode)

The Young Master Part 2 (3 episodes)

Boy with Swords (3 episodes)

Apostles (3 episodes)）

Hoping Jones (3 episodes)

Fighting Spirit (3 episodes)

Sui HaoPing Travels Around the World for 100 Days (1 episode)