GROUP EXHIBITION

This exhibition emerges from such a moment to reconsider Modernism—not as a historical period or a visual style defined by abstraction, geometry, or Minimalism, but as a method of thinking. At its core, Modernism challenges artists to believe that art can continually redefine itself, pursuing an ideal that always remains just beyond reach. Without this aspiration, art risks becoming mere information, entertainment, or consumption rather than a force capable of reshaping history.

Through the works of Li Yuan-chia, David Diao, and Chen Shiau-Peng, the exhibition traces three distinct yet interconnected approaches to Modernism.

Against the backdrop of the Cold War and cultural displacement, Li Yuan-chia reduced the universe to a single point, transforming abstraction into a meditation on space, emptiness, and the cosmos. His pursuit of radical reduction resonates profoundly with Eastern philosophy, where simplicity becomes a path toward essence rather than absence.

For more than five decades, David Diao has examined Modernism from within. Through works such as Suprematist Prison, his investigations of Konstantin Melnikov’s house, and paintings that merge cartography, art history, and personal memory, Diao continually remaps the structures of Modernism. His work is an ongoing intellectual dialogue with the history that shaped him.

Chen Shiau-Peng extends this dialogue into the present. Her geometric paintings transform maps, grids, and chessboards into reflections on urban space, systems of power, and individual agency. Rather than rejecting modernist order, she reimagines it from the perspective of lived experience.

Together, these three artists demonstrate that the significance of Asian artists lies not in adding “Eastern” elements to Modernism, but in offering new ways to rethink and extend it. Modernism’s enduring legacy is not a style, but a spirit—one that continually challenges art to redefine its own possibilities.