Earnestly dedicated to greater Chinese art, the Tina Keng Gallery seeks to construct a context for Chinese contemporary art where aesthetic principles within history are discerned and upheld. For the 2017 edition of ART021, the gallery is pleased to present Wu Dayu (1903–1988), Zao Wou-Ki (1921–2013), Tony Wong (1948–2012), Su Xiaobai (b. 1949), Chiang Yomei (b. 1961), and Peng Wei (b. 1974). Together these six artists embody the progressive wave of modern and contemporary art since the early 20thcentury that foregrounds the intrinsic Eastern spirit within their practices shaped by the force of Western thought.
A pioneering figure of Chinese oil painting, Wu Dayu (1903–1988) introduced such prevalent European modern art movements as Impressionism, Fauvism, and Expressionism to China in the 1920s. As the dean of the Western painting department at the then National Hangzhou Arts Academy (now China Academy of Art), Wu spearheaded a new style of painting, while advocating a pure form of modern art, of artistic freedom, and of physical perception, thereby instigating the evolution of Chinese abstract painting. The first generation of artists nurtured by Wu at the academy would later achieve international recognition. Zao Wou-Ki (1921–2013) was a prominent example. He moved to France in 1948 to pursue studies, where he developed an abstract style characterized by an unrestrainedness that was uniquely his own. Critically acclaimed and fervently sought after, his work constantly breaks international auction records. On view at our booth this year are a constellation of oil-on-canvas and works on paper, including Composing Rhymes No. 62(n.d.) by Wu Dayu by Wu Dayu along with Nature Morte(n.d.) and21-2-94(1994) by Zao Wou-Ki.
Abstract painting takes on a more spiritual meaning in the practice of Su Xiaobai (b. 1949). Su moved to Germany in the 1980s to pursue studies at the Düsseldorf Academy of Fine Arts. The following 20 years in Germany inspired his rethinking of mediums and his shift toward China's inherent cultural underpinnings, as he incorporates Eastern lacquer craftsmanship and ceramic qualities into Modernist painting. This year we present Su Xiaobai’s Drifting Motes-1, 2, 3, 4 (2017) and Three Hills (2016), wherethe labor-intensive process contrasted with his minimalist composition exemplifies the Taoist spirit of simplicity, as well asGone in the Wind-3 (2017), poetically suggestive ofthe blue-and-white porcelain and freehanded brushwork.
Permeating the work of Chiang Yomei (b. 1961) is a profound sense of abstractedness. Inspired by Buddhism, philosophy, and literature, the Taiwan-born, London-based artist blends her understanding of impermanence with her contemplation on “existence, void, departure, gathering” and emptiness in her latest mixed-media paintings, including Ascension I (2016) and Flux (2015), as well as serenely evocative sketches View I, II,andIII (2017).
Chinese-American artist Tony Wong’s distinctly symbolic, unavoidably mysterious works utilize the ambiguous space between reality and the realm of dreams to suggest a story that is allusively universal through the power of imagery.One of the participating artists for the U.S. Pavilion at the 1984 Venice Biennial, Tony Wong (1948–2012) worked across a variety of mediums, from pastel on paper to oil on canvas and sculpture. His figurative works blend images from American folklore with familiar stories of traditional Chinese mythology his grandmother recounted during his childhood. On view this year at our booth are his Tree Fairy (2006) andBonding (2000), where the surfaces of his work are layered with impastoed oil paint, as if the colors are constantly shifting in movement and emerging from the canvas.
Known for her dexterous use of ink, Peng Wei (b. 1974) conjures sophisticated literati paintings that unfold subtle narratives in a refreshing and witty style. For this year's ART021, we present Peng Wei's Migrations of Memory (Wild Geese Descending on the Sandbank) No. 2 (2017). Inspired by ancient Chinese guqinmelodies, this work combines writings of Western musicians and Oriental landscape, colored by an intangible nostalgia for the scenery once seen through the eyes of the literati.