Long, Long Live: Yao Jui-chung Solo Exhibition

The Tina Keng Gallery is pleased to present Long, Long Live—Yao Jui-chung Solo Exhibition, on view from March 2 to 31, 2013 (opening reception: Saturday, March 2, 4:30-7 pm). Following the exhibition Long Live/Landscape at the gallery last April, Long, Long Live continues to illuminate Yao’s synthesis of his living experiences with rebellions against the tradition of Chinese ink painting. The exhibition will include a presentation of the complete painting Long Live Landscape, measuring 28 meters in length, along with the latest video and other recent works.

Yao intentionally ignores the rules and formats of traditional Chinese ink painting, using a needle-point pen instead of brush and ink, creating depth with layers of lines. In applying gold leaf in the voids of his compositions, Yao produces a simplicity and intimacy similar to the images found in household altars. In this vein, the artist also embeds friends and family in his works, creating works that defy the subject matter in traditional shan shui.

Having lived through Taiwan’s turbulent political and social changes, Yao often explores issues of history and society, especially those surrounding the political status of Taiwan and an ambiguous collective consciousness. His latest video Long, Long Live, filmed at the Oasis Villa in Green Island, once a reform and re-education prison to house political prisoners during Taiwan’s martial law period, examines history through reviewing Taiwan’s historical identity and revealing political conspiracies.

Yao Jui-chung

Yao Jui-chung was born in Taipei, Taiwan (1969), and received a Bachelor of Arts in Art Theory at the National Institute of the Arts (now Taipei National University of the Arts) in 1994. He currently serves as an associate professor at the Department of Fine Arts of the National Taiwan Normal University. His work has been collected by  Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts, National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, as well as Queensland Art Gallery (Australia), Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art (USA), Bibliothèque nationale de France. Yao has represented Taiwan in the Venice Biennale (1997), participated in the Yokohoma Triennale (2005), the Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art (2009), YES TAIWAN: 2010 Taiwan Biennial (2010), and Shanghai Biennale (2012). Most recently, his works have been on view in group shows, including True Illusion, Illusory Truth—Contemporary Art Beyond Ordinary Experience at MOCA Taipei (2013), Art Stage Singapore, Singapore (2013), Ink: The New Ink Art from China at Saatchi Gallery, London, UK (2012), Unhomely—Tales of the Island at Chinese Arts Centre, Manchester, UK (2012), and Eye of the Times—Centennial Images of Taiwan at Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taipei, Taiwan (2011).