One and the other: 2020 Solo Exhibition of Ava Hsueh
Dates
26 SEPTEMBER - 28 NOVEMBER 2020
Reception
26 SEPTEMBER, 4:30 p.m.
Tina Keng Gallery 1F, No.15, Ln. 548, Ruiguang Rd., Neihu Dist., Taipei 114, Taiwan
The Tina Keng Gallery is pleased to present One and the Other: 2020 Solo Exhibition of Ava Hsueh, comprising the artist’s latest body of work from the past three years. In her ongoing investigation of how abstract art defines itself, she examines the differences between Eastern and Western philosophies, confrontation between subject and object, and the relation between abstract art and the real world. The interplay of color, form, composition, dynamism, and texture allows the artist to navigate the socio-cultural landscape, ushering the viewer across the threshold of ego onto an exploration of abstract art through its hot and cold dichotomy, in an effort to redefine abstract art.
Taking a different approach from her past practice, the artist first lays the foundation with one of the nine color strips of cold abstraction, upon which she layers gestural brushstrokes of hot abstraction. This method educes a realm of confluence as the visual languages of hot and cold abstraction become intermeshed. In the real world, the number nine can be a cardinal number to evaluate results. If we consider the numbers zero to nine as a loop, the arrival at nine also means a new beginning where it should either return to zero, or move to another decimal round. It is the threshold to abandon all, as well as to start over. The artist’s Nine Lines Method further draws on color research. Different proportions of the same and complimentary tones coalesce, cold and warm hues coordinated and juxtaposed, visual depth rendered through interweaving brushstrokes. Pigments’ luster and warmth commingle with lines and planes, conjuring seasonal, emotional, and universal experiences, as well as visible and invisible depths of temporal and spatial fields. An effulgent realm of abstraction unfolds and irradiates the viewer’s perception.
In a close scrutiny of the confluent space-time in Hsueh’s painting, art critic Kao Chien-Hui has provided a new way to delve into the artist’s abstraction: “Because her work revolves around how the invisible kinetic energy of life — and its growth and decline — can be visualized, viewers may be inclined to imagine using a VR device to enter Hsueh’s Nine-Nine Realm as they confront the artist’s new series. Within that virtual reality, phenomena such as endoscopic realms, landscapes of burgeoning consciousness, and the chaotic states of a neurological jungle can create cosmic universes that enwrap the viewer in psychosomatic sensations.”
About Ava Hsueh
Born in 1956 in Taichung, Taiwan, Ava Hsueh obtained her D.A. degree in arts from the New York University. She currently serves as a honorary professor at the Tainan National University of the Arts. She served as the director of the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, chief executive of the National Cultural and Arts Foundation, dean of the College of Visual Arts, and chair of the doctoral program in art creation and theory at the Tainan National University of the Arts. Hsueh’s artistic practice has long pivoted around the visual language of abstraction. Her work of biomorphic forms and geometric shapes convey a hybrid reality that resonates with the stylistic shifts of contemporary abstract art.
Ava Hsueh has exhibited internationally, including in Taiwan, China, Korea, Japan, France, Italy, and the U.S. Her work is housed in private and renowned public collections, such as National Taiwan Museum of Fine Art, Taichung, Taiwan; Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taipei, Taiwan; Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts, Kaohisung, Taiwan; National Art Museum of China, Beijing, China; and White Rabbit Museum, Chippendale, Australia.
VIEWING ROOM