Tina Keng Gallery is pleased to participate in JINGART. For the fair's 2019 edition, we present the works of four artists: Sophie Chang (b. 1944), Ava Hsueh (b. 1956), Chiang Yomei (b. 1961), and Peng Wei (b. 1974). Through their respective practices in abstract painting and new ink art, the four artists exemplify the diverse styles of Greater Chinese contemporary art nurtured in a globalised context. Coming from Taiwan, London, and Beijing, the roster of female artists is a highlight in a fair that features a higher percentage of male artists. What makes the quartet stand out, however, is their singular approach to art making and individual artistic sensibilities.
Self-taught artist Sophie Chang (b.1944), who spent years living in New York, began studying painting since 2006, and has been consistently engaged in painting for over a decade. A plethora of styles has been developed over the course of her practice as she delves into the exploration of painting. She shifted her focus to abstraction in the later stage, and cultivated an approach to palette and line that allows her to interweave her insights and feelings with colours and brushstrokes. The resulting work sees Western oil paint blend with her unique Eastern rhythm, and her ink painting embodied through Western techniques. Sophie Chang had made significant records in major auction houses such as Ravenel, Christie's, and Sotheby's since fall 2017. Submerged in her artistic realm of meditation, Sophie Chang has conceived a constellation of work moulded by acuity and wisdom, slow and steady.
Ava Hsueh (b. 1956) is one of the representative artists of abstract painting in Taiwan. She obtained her D.A. degree in Arts from New York University, and served as Director of National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts between 2006 and 2009. Hsueh has long used abstract language as her means of expression, not simply in the choice of form and composition, but in the calligraphic ink lines that travel across the canvas, and in a mixture of lines and lush colours reminiscent of Japanese ukiyo-e arts. What lies behind the dimension of imageries are the visible and invisible depths of temporal and spatial fields, achieved through her interweaving of lines and planes that cradle the pigments' luster and warmth. Layered compositions blending the charm of both the East and the West are intrinsic to her work. A gradual expansion of aesthetics and consciousness allows the viewer to become cognizant, as the abstract composition comes into form in the viewer's perception like a strike of light.
Of Chinese, Russian, and German descent, Chiang Yomei (b. 1961) was deeply influenced by diverse Chinese and Western cultures from a young age. Departing for the United States for further studies in the late 1970s, she subsequently settled in London. To delve into Chiang Yomei's practice through Buddhist philosophy, cognitive psychology, and quantum entanglement theory is simultaneously the most straightforward and most arduous way. The artist meditates during her art-making process. The resulting work attests to such process where she examines the nuanced relationship between life, perception, and memory, and reflects on the intrinsic nature of being and emptiness, ultimately cultivating the mind.
Seemingly shifting away from ink tradition, Peng Wei (b. 1974) focuses her exploration in contemporary aesthetics on ink and further transcends tradition. Rooted in traditional literati painting, her work incorporates daily realizations into elegant and delicate ink paintings, portraying the soft yet persevering spirit of Chinese literati. Her work revolves around the past of art, including the wisdom, memories, sorrows, and sense of reality found in ancient work. With her traditional approach, she departs from convention, yet brings traditional texts and contemporary concepts together on paper. While altering the form of traditional shanshui, she does not intend to transform tradition. Instead, she is in search of an artistic equilibrium between the past and present.
Firmly rooted in Greater Chinese modern art, Tina Keng Gallery's mission is to unearth artistic classics from the bygones of history, and champions Greater Chinese contemporary art. Sophie Chang's painting of unrestrained spirituality, juxtaposed with Ava Hsueh's strength and resilience, while calm and profundity imbues Chiang Yomei's painting, and elegance and otherworldliness delineates Peng Wei's. Together their artistic oeuvres, shaped by their life journey and creative language, embody the profound intersection of the East and West.
2019 年 JINGART 藝覽北京,耿畫廊將帶來張淑芬(b. 1944)、薛保瑕(b. 1956)、蔣友梅(b. 1961)、彭薇 (b. 1974)四位藝術家的精采作品,以抽象繪畫的考究、對傳統水墨的反思,呈現當代藝術的全球化浪潮下,華人藝術家多元而精煉的形式風格。來自台灣、倫敦、北京的女性藝術家組合,在男性藝術家比例偏高的藝博會場域, 誠然為一大亮點,然而,四位女性各自鮮明的特質與創作才氣,才是她們作為藝術家卓爾不群的主因。
非學院派出身的張淑芬長年旅居紐約,自2006年開始習畫,後以自學為主,至今十餘年。在學習和探索的過程中, 累積了風格相當豐富且多元的作品,至後期主要轉向抽象表現,並善於在色彩與線條中寄寓內心對於事物的觀照與感受;在其油畫作品中融合東方筆韻,而水墨作品中亦涵蓋西畫技巧。自2017年秋,更於羅芙奧、佳士得及蘇富比拍場屢創佳績。張淑芬在藝術領域靜思默想、安靜創作,默默打造出另一種慧黠與傳奇。
薛保瑕是台灣抽象繪畫的代表藝術家之一,為美國紐約大學教育學院藝術系博士,並曾任台灣美術館館長。薛保瑕長久以來選擇以抽象語彙做為藝術創作的表現形式,然而不僅只在形式與構成的選擇間停留—於畫面穿梭的書法式墨線,同浮世繪般的飽和油彩線色交融;以顏料光澤與溫感、線與面所交疊出的意象維度內,是可見與不可見的時空景深;是東方與西方韻味的層次組構;更是美學與意識空間的逐漸擴張,於繪畫藝術的抽象構成轉譯嫁接感知體驗的一瞬之光。
身具中、俄、德三國血統的蔣友梅,自幼受中西多元文化的薰陶,在70年代末便赴美留學,後輾轉至英國倫敦定居。於佛理聯結認知心理學、量子物理的哲學式纏結論述,是探究蔣友梅藝術核心最簡單同時最為崎嶇的感知路徑。 蔣友梅在創作過程中冥思空性,其作亦成為修心過程的一種記錄;一方面探索生命、感知和記憶之間的微妙關係,一方面也反映自己對物質聚、散、離、合之本性,以及對空性的觀照。
彭薇於當代美學的思索,從水墨走出,最終亦回歸水墨;借傳統文人繪畫的特質,將日常生活的體悟寫入典雅纖細的水墨繪畫,再現中國文人於當代柔軟而堅韌的姿態。其作所關切的是藝術的過去,包括古老作品中的智慧、記憶、 悲傷、以及現實感;她以再傳統不過的手法,與傳統分離,又使傳統文本與當代觀念在紙面上合一。彭薇雖轉變了傳統山水的形式,卻非試圖要透過作品來轉換傳統,而是在傳統中,以自己的方式去找尋一種過去與當下的平衡。
耿畫廊專注從歷史風華中探掘美學經典,扎根於華人現代藝術,並肩負著華人現當代藝術的推動與延續。張淑芬的任真自得、薛保瑕的剛柔並濟、蔣友梅的沉靜深遠、彭薇的精巧與靈性,四位華人女性藝術家用各自的生命歷程與創作語彙,淬鍊出東西方在文化與藝術史上的深層交會。