Participating Artists
Wu Dayu, Su Xiaobai, Ava Hsueh, Chiang Yomei, Yao Jui-Chung, Chen Chun-Hao
The Tina Keng Gallery returns to the second edition of Taipei Dangdai with a group presentation, themed Collection of Time Pieces, exploring the intergenerational connections between five artists of Chinese descent, including Wu Dayu, Su Xiaobai, Ava Hsueh, Chiang Yomei, Yao Jui-Chung, and Chen Chun-Hao. The group show examines how the five artists communicate their artistic interpretation of image, color, and texture, informed by their time with an inviting composition of light, perception, and consciousness.
This journey begins with Wu Dayu (1903–1988) and his time in Paris in the early 20th century. Immersed in modern art movements from Fauvism, Expressionism, to Cubism, Wu tested the limits of Western color theory and related painterly practices, by pushing the boundaries with a set of aesthetic principles characteristic of Chinese calligraphy and ink art — this process saw the development of Wu’s seminal visual language, widely revered as the school of shixiang (Dynamic Expressionism), known to combine elements of shixiang and dynamism, light and color, tone and hue. Wu’s pioneering style not only informed the aesthetics of a generation of disciples who later became iconic abstract painters, such as Zao Wou-Ki, Chu Teh-Chun, and Wu Guanzhong, but also shaped the institutional backbone of post-war abstract art in the East that concurred with its Western counterparts. Renowned Taiwanese abstract artist Ava Hsueh (b. 1956), also former director of the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, transcends beyond the decision making of forms and compositions with her diffused imagery of pigment and color. Hsueh’s works communicate the riveting dynamics of time and space. Her multidirectional calligraphic brushstrokes travel across the canvas, while the gradual transition of color and hue holds the gaze of the viewer. The aesthetic encounter with Wu and Hsueh is a perceptive interplay of epiphanies, inspired by Eastern and Western charm.
The jaunt of light and hue can also be captured in the attempt to translate the essence of objectness onto the canvas. The effort of Su Xiaobai (b. 1949) to conjure abstraction through Chinese lacquer epitomizes a cross-cultural dialogue. Experienced as a mirror of time, the administration of texture and materiality in Su’s painting educes a sculpturesque serenity in a fortuitous resonance with the wabi-sabi philosophy — namely a worldview centered on the acceptance of transience and imperfection. His employment of lacquer infuses a contemporaneity into a traditional medium rich with history, transmitting a visual warmth with subtility in a painterly practice that pivots around light and shadow. Of Chinese, Russian, and German descent, Chiang Yomei (b. 1961), on the other hand, builds the foundation of her practice through the intertwining of Buddhist philosophy, cognitive psychology, and quantum entanglement theory. Chiang’s abstract interpretation of color is transcribed into a synergy of light, material, and perception. As a material embodiment of this worldliness, dust, ashes, and hair used in Chiang’s works are mixed with paint, to reinforce her poetic gesture as a testament to the ingrained nature of being and emptiness.
Reinterpretation of classical shanshui painting takes on new forms through Yao Jui-Chung’s and Chen Chun-Hao’s mastery of mediums and maneuvering of light and shadow. Internationally renowned for his golden landscape painting, Yao Jui-Chung (b. 1969) rebels against the classical works he emulates by foregoing the traditional medium of ink and water. What should have been expanses of white space morphs into a golden land of purity, where fleeting glimpses of people amidst mountains and waters connote a wry wit that casts the critique of capitalism evoked by the gilded backdrop in a satirical light. Chen Chun-Hao (b. 1971) substitutes traditional brush and ink with modern industrial materials in his signature mosquito nail painting. Each nail that went into the canvas becomes a reminder of the nuanced correlation between art making and its intrinsic manual labor. By so doing, Chen reinterprets the act of emulation — also known as homage to masters through the studying and copying of the masters’ works, universally practiced in Chinese classical painting — and transmutes this spirit into a contemporary one. Tens of thousands of nails create a three-dimensionality that fluctuates with the direction of the viewer’s gaze. This technique becomes synonymous with Chen as it typifies his personal take on traditional shanshui painting.
The second edition of Taipei Dangdai also marks the occasion of the first co-presentation by the Tina Keng Gallery and TKG+. Collection of Time Pieces connects a plethora of cultural contexts across the span of time with singular aesthetics of the five artists. During the fair, the solo show Beneath a descending moon, breathing — The Paintings of Su Xiaobai is also on view at the gallery in Neihu, Taipei. Su’s solo exhibition aims to recreate in the gallery space a light and airy atmosphere, unique to the artist’s studio, further etching the traces of time onto his searingly silent works.
