Pearl Lam Galleries will exhibit works by leading contemporary artists from across the globe, including Chinese artists Qian Jiahua, Ren Ri, Su Xiaobai, Zhou Yangming, and Zhu Jinshi; American artist Leonardo Drew; Australian artist Dale Frank; British artist Jason Martin; and Tibetan born British artist Gonkar Gyatso. The Galleries is also proud to present works by the celebrated late American abstract expressionist Robert Motherwell.
Leonardo Drew (b. 1961) is an artist whose practice is centred around his choice of medium. The materials he chooses are of particular importance. They often reflect memories of his days in the projects, socio-political issues related to his African-American ethnicity, or themes of death, darkness, and decay. Drawn from historical evidence, the resulting abstract sculptural compositions are an emotional reflection on the cyclical nature of existence, the human condition, and the connectivity of all things. The Galleries will exhibit two of his large-scale sculptural wood works, including Number 18C (2015).
The Galleries is also delighted to be showing Black Open (1973) by the pioneer American abstract expressionist Robert Motherwell (1915–1991), the youngest member of a group of artists that made the first truly international American art—the Abstract Expressionists—or as famously named by Motherwell, The New York School, which also included Philip Guston, Willem de Kooning, Jackson Pollock, and Mark Rothko. From his first exhibitions with Peggy Guggenheim’s Art of this Century Gallery and through major retrospectives in museums around the world, Motherwell displayed a tireless inventiveness and rigorous attention to the principles of Modern Art. The affinity between Japanese Zen painting and his own work is best seen through Motherwell’s animation of the void in his Open series.
Two 2015 paintings by Dale Frank (b. 1959) will be exhibited at the fair. Chinese landscape—sore succulents (2015) and Chinese landscape 9—thick curly black hair pushed out from his shirt collar like a well fluffed paisley cravat (2015) showcase the artist’s abstract style and technique that involves pouring paint or paint stripper directly onto canvases or other materials to create a unique swirling effect.
Jason Martin (b. 1970) takes inspiration from both Minimalism and Abstract Expressionism, making paintings about paint: its materiality, sculptural presence, and transformative, alchemical nature. His work subscribes to the Western tradition of gestural painting. Martin produces monochrome oil paintings on an aluminium or stainless steel background upon which the brushstroke becomes the subject of the piece.
Gonkar Gyatso’s (b. 1961) work comes out of a fascination with material and pop culture along with a desire to bring equal attention to the mundane as well as the extraordinary, the imminent, and the superfluous. These contradictions are often found in the same piece. His work can be very silly, uncanny, and even ironic, and at the same time, comes out of concerns that are shaping our times. As his own experience has been one that reflects a kind of hybridity and transformation, his work also holds this quality.
Qian Jiahua (b. 1987) experiments with how spatial delineation and colours can affect perception. She stacks, divides, and polishes, building layers upon layers to construct her paintings, which possess a rigid accuracy but musical cadence. Populating her canvases with areas of colour, subtly un-geometric shapes and conscientiously placed lines, Qian joins some of the most interesting artists today in questioning the category of abstraction.
Ren Ri (b. 1984) creates his artworks with a very special medium, beeswax. Even though it is quite a difficult material to work with, Ren’s understanding of bee psychology and nature helps him to create—in collaboration with insects—mesmerising sculptures. This manipulation of beeswax to create forms requires finding a balance to cooperate with nature in order to accomplish artistic goals.
Artist Zhou Yangming (b. 1971) is one of the most distinctive Chinese abstract artists in China. His works are all based on line and space, which ultimately reflect his thoughts and ideas at that specific moment. By drawing and painting line upon line, Zhou creates a colourful surface that shows great training of both the hand and mind.
Pearl Lam Galleries will also showcase works by Su Xiaobai (b. 1949), who has developed his own technique using lacquer, a medium steeped in Chinese history. Su focuses on essential qualities like colour, shape, and texture, which in various combinations produce unique surfaces that range from smooth and sensuous to carved and abraded. Each piece exudes its own history, character, and independent presence.
Artist Zhu Jinshi (b. 1954), a pioneer of Chinese abstract art, will exhibit two of his 'thick paintings'. His wall-hung works, executed in the mature period of his career, present themselves as low reliefs. After 30 years of unwavering efforts, Zhu’s abstract paintings break the constraints of a flat canvas and transform the traditional visual experience through the use of three dimensions.
OPENING
VIP Preview: 8 November
Public Days: 9 - 13 November 2016
Pearl Lam Galleries represents these artists: