Ontological Investigations in Visual Art Studies
A special issue of Arts (ISSN 2076-0752).
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 July 2026 | Viewed by 68
Special Issue Editors
2. Professor, School of Visual Studies, University of Missouri-Columbia, Columbia, MO, USA
Interests: digital and AI art; immersive installations; contemporary ink; oil painting; visual communication design; formalistic aesthetics; ontological approaches in visual art studies; art education
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Visual art studies can be approached from a variety of perspectives, including historical, cultural, and ontological. Among these, ontological research—centred on the intrinsic qualities of artworks—offers particularly rich and accessible potential for artistic inspiration and creativity. This approach involves the examination of formal elements, distinctive techniques, technological innovations, creative concepts, and, most importantly, the logical connections between visual imagery and its spiritual expression.
Historically, Formalistic Aesthetics and related ontological inquiries in visual art, as established by influential figures such as Kandinsky, Arnheim, Roger Fry, Clive Bell, and later expanded by theorists and artists, including Henri Bresson, John Szarkowski, and Stephen Shore, laid a foundational framework for this field. With the global expansion of Doctor of Fine Arts programmes, the emergence of research-based artistic practice alongside intuitive approaches, and rapid technological advancements in the digital and AI era, ontological studies in visual art now encounter unprecedented opportunities for further exploration.
This Special Edition of the journal focuses on ontological investigations in visual art studies, aiming to develop new theories that reveal the universal principles and insights underlying artistic creation. It seeks to illuminate and unlock the hidden dimensions of visual art creativity at a pivotal moment when co-creation between physical and digital techniques and between humans and artificial intelligence is becoming increasingly prevalent.
Prof. Dr. Lampo Leong
Prof. Dr. Junping Liu
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Arts is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- digital and AI art
- immersive installations
- contemporary ink
- formal elements in visual art
- technological innovation in art
- ontological approaches in visual art studies
- formalistic aesthetics
- spiritual expression in art
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