Booth D03
Artists Wang Pan-Yuan, Su Xiaobai, Yang Mao-Lin, Lin Ju, Yao Jui-chung, Su Meng-hung, Jason Chi
New Ink Art is stemmed from the West and constructed on the Western concepts, however, its contemporariness is not confined by the originality of style, language, or form, also included the value of thinkings and spirits which leverages a work of art to reflect upon the socio-cultural issues in history and in reality, as well as to respond to the existential condition of being human. In Taipei Dangdai Art & Idea 2019,Tina Keng Gallery will presentLandscapes on the Fringe: the Evolution of New Ink Artexhibiting works byWang Pan-Yuan, Su Xiaobai, Yang Mao-Lin, Lin Ju, Yao Jui-chung, Su Meng-hung and Jason Chi. The seven artists meet at the common ground of medium transformation, whose spirits in essence are a continuation of traditional ink art (shui-mo) and the reinterpretation of the presentational language of contemporary ink art, which anchor on Eastern philosophies in their re-appropriated and highly-individualized forms.
Wang Pan-Yuan entered the Shanghai Fine Art School in 1933 and studied under virtuosos such as Pan Yu-Liang, honing his skills in ink, watercolor, and oil. He is one of the pivotal senior figures on Taiwan’s art scene also the co-founder of Lanyang Painting Society. When the Second Sino-Japanese War broke out in 1937, he moved with his family to Kaohsiung, Taiwan afterward. Wang is skilled in embodying his rough and rugged paths of life through a minimal composition and a succinct palette. He projects himself as solitary animals, humans, sails, or houses in his painting. The forlorn artistic language speaks a wistful dream where home is a distant memory, a lifetime of displacement a haunting evanescence. His work, permeated with an enduring sense of nostalgia, mirrors the tumultuous times he lived through, simultaneously attesting to the modern history of Taiwan.
Su Xiaobai born in 1949 in Wuhan, China, currently lives and works in Shanghai and Düsseldorf. He attended Beijing’s Central Academy of Fine Arts in 1985 and was later awarded a German cultural and art scholarship to participate in a graduate program offered by the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf in 1987. Su Xiaobai’s oscillation between Chinese lacquer and painting makes his work a natural representation for a cross-cultural experience. The contrast of layers and texture within his works prompt a sense of depth and texture. His work embodies the concept of existence rather than overtly depicting objects, thereby posing a philosophical discourse on our daily lives through the language of visual art.
Yang Mao-Lin’s art ejects a touch of childishness into the Eastern tradition. Since 2000, Yang has initiated his exploration of a new cultural footing, to represent the interactions and hybridization between local and alien cultures – a stylist gesture heavily influenced by comic figures of cartoon or manga, as the direct impact of American and Japanese cultural importation.Yang’s works are characterized by openness, humor and profoundness, mutating the features of various fishes through a transformation and recombination of shapes and forms, and thus ultimately serve as a projection of a multi-layered image of his personality.
Lin Juis known for the surrealist imagery in his painting. A state closely resembles chaos and insanity becomes the vivid visual quality unique to Lin’s artistic style. His works, characterized by a lack of order, is a visceral response to traditional Chinese landscape painting. Lin’s practice evokes a sense that touches the experience which belongs to both the corporal and the soul. Through such creative process, the artist explores his personal and spiritual interiority, and at the same time, testing the boundary of perception, in the hope of coming closer to a state of consciousness that is characterized by the unknown. Lin’s pursuit is an act of unattainability – closely chasing the nature of life and reality while seeking resolution for an unanswerable question.
Yao Jui-chunghas continued his playful style since 2007, featuring a signature aesthetics that only belong to Yao’s classical shan-shui landscape painting. Using technical pen (hard pen) as direct contrast with the traditional Chinese calligraphy brush (soft pen), Yao piles up lines on the rough surfaces of handmade paper, while the resplendent landscapes serve as a foil to the jarring plots that are deliberately-designed to be absurd and grotesque. Yao’s practice is meant to be a conscious provocation to classical ink art, appropriating signs from the everyday or from the consumer culture, to juxtapose them with a composition of classical poetics and ultimately rendering a sense of ridicule and aloofness
Su Meng-hungstrives to rebrand the traditional Chinese flower and bird painting into a gaudy and superfluous visual icon. This attempt can be seen in the creative process of Su’s paintings, silkscreen prints, installations and sculptures, as well as his three-dimensional installations that transform the figures of classical flower and bird into cultural symbols which have higher sensory appeal. The appropriation of the elements of classical flower and bird paintings from the middle to late Qing dynasty shows not only the gradual tendency of popularization in high culture, but also a satire on the taste that belonged only to the traditional aristocrat and literati.
Jason Chi, with a background both in art and architecture, he is endowed with a keen sense of perception and meticulous logical thinking, which allow him to create paintings with a precise and orderly structure under sensual brushstrokes.Chi’s works often bears a very distinctive character; the use of abundant and varied colors brings organic emotional variables to the paintings, which looks like the dynamic light and shade beneath the surface of the water , while the rigorous composition allows the viewer to retain a distance far enough from indulgence.
These seven artists reveal a deeper reflection on the East-West cultural relationships, in the hope of presenting a rethink of the contemporary Eastern spirituality; at the same time, aiming to refine an artistic achievement that transcends any cultural contexts. As Tina Keng Gallery takes root in modern art of the Greater Chinese, we focus on the discovery of aesthetic classics throughout the history. Shouldering the responsibility of carrying on the promotion and continuation of the Chinese legacy, we aim to reinterpret the art history of the 20thCentury East Asia and its dynamic correlation with the contemporary narratives.
