Objects and Stories
Objectsdisplayedin contemporary art exhibits, in addition to its referencing concept,often carry a narrative or content that might be absent or suggests an alternative. The directive display thus entitles contemporary art extra depth and tactility in sentiments and culture. The space where art occurs is not just an artistic manifestation, but also more about the perceived relationship between people (artists). This exhibition titled Objects and Storiesbrings together Su Xiaobai, Peng Wei, Joyce Ho, and Chen Jing yuan. The four artists from different generations and distinct creative background dynamize and examine notions of art and concerns through different aesthetic manifestations, cultures and even state of emotions. The concept of the exhibition focuses not on the binary distinctions of the two subtopics but the relationship of their interactions.
Su Xiaobai re-presents the classical Chinese experiments of textures through his thick and imposing artistry, rendering the traditional Chineseobjects likelacquer and ceramics with lacquer and oil paintings. His signature style enables the act of painting to be a cross-cultural experience of sentiments using visual language and art concepts, embodying universal concerns and discussion on philosophies and human conditions. Peng Wei, on the other hand, devotes herself into different scenes and narratives, combining classical Chinese literati and landscape paintings with traditional lady garments and embroidered shoes. Beneath the elegant and traditional outlook are stories of art, the stories that hold ancient wisdom, memories, and sorrows; but at the same time traversing the sense of reality of contemporary literati in between.
Encompassing painting, video and installation, Joyce Ho’s art embeds the sense of fidgety in details wittily inset in everyday objects and happenings. Integrating details of decomposition movements, epitomes of everyday habits, and rich and illusory light and shadow, Ho's works always delineate the intimate yet distant relationship and tension between people and reality. Her unique and powerful creations simultaneously envelop her audience while keeping them in a state of being confronted, rendering the quotidian moment depicted in her work an immediate landscape or ritual. In recent years, Chen Ching-Yuan attempts to capture through his painting the subtle sensibility that weaves through literature, mythology, and history in different cultural contexts. Surrounded by a romanticist ambience, his works are infused with surrealist sceneries carrying the sense of déjà vu under, at first glance, the careful and solid structure. An overflow of subtle and fragmented symbols pervades his painting thus reconstructing sensory experiences in the reality. All plausible clues in the narrative collapse when viewers attempted to follow them and the undercurrent of the subconscious emerges under the realistic outlook, striking the bottom of the sensuous and secretive human heart.
Tina Keng Gallery is pleased to participate in the 2019 Art Düsseldorf together with TKG+, the contemporary platform of the Tina Keng Gallery. The Tina Keng Gallery has its roots in the Lin & Keng Gallery established in 1992 and was instrumental in promoting the work of Asian masters such as Zao Wou-Ki, Lin Fengmian, Sanyu, and Yun Gee in its early years. Ever since the establishment of Tina Keng Gallery, it has continued the tradition by supporting visionary Asian artists and by building bridges with international institutions, collections, and connoisseurs of Asian modern art.
In October 2009, the Tina Keng Gallery inaugurated its expansive space TKG+at the Neihu District of Taipei where it endeavors to promote and support contemporary art with potentials from the region. The gallery works with emerging artists and privileges experimentation in art across different mediums, from video and photography to installation and new media. As its name suggests, TKG+believes in the exponential growth and possibility of art in the 21stcentury.