Amy Li Gallery is pleased to announce the opening of a group exhibition – “The Taste of Ink”, which opens at 15:00 on November 2, 2013. The exhibition is curated by art critic Liu Libin who also has a Ph.D from CAFA. Seven contemporary Chinese artists including Chen Qi, Liu Liyun, Liu Zhixing, Luo Wei, Tan Ping, Wang Huangsheng and Wu Mengshi were invited to participate in this exhibition.
Based on the philosophical ideas that “man is an integral part of nature” and “compatible with matter”, some critics regard the relationship between the artist himself and the paper (or the work) as the patent of traditional Chinese painting. Somehow, this concept gave the curator rise to the following reflections and this led to the original intention of “The Taste of Ink”.
Artists who truly inherited the essence of traditional Chinese painting can be oil painters, printmakers or even installation artists, not necessarily traditional Chinese painters. The position of artists accompanies the migration of ink and brush, thus forming the assimilation between substance and self. Moving Visions Series by artist Wang Huangsheng appropriately reconstructs the relation between self and paper. The “strong” transposition from body to paper can hardly be concealed: purified lines reveal the moment of “writing” vividly on the paper. Tan Ping's “One Cup” pursues a stage that is more pure and direct. It seeks some kind of uncertainty under “the state of control”. Perhaps it is the arbitrary and disorderly nature of ink that gives us a sweet aftertaste. “Bodhi is fundamentally without any tree, the bright mirror is also not a stand,” immaculately reveals the transparency and spotless exposure of Luo and Liu's works. In Luo Wei's “Transparent” series, she creates an interior reflection of an empty world with all the minor details abandoned but leaving all the images in the scene. Comparatively, the delicate horse drawn by Liu Zhixing induces a tender emotion gently centred on common people. These acrylic paintings express a universal feeling that is so pure, and pleasantly touching.
The meaning of “ink painting” is traditionally bounded as the patent of traditional Chinese painting. As a result, many artists are bound in this small circle and are often overtaken by traditional stereotypes. In contrast, take a look at Chen Qi's woodblock prints “Water”' under this circumstance, we would sense the persistence and speculation of the artist that are profoundly hidden in his works. Chen Qi declares independence of his woodblock prints from questioning the “nature of materiel” while digging into the “nature of mind”. In her work “All About”, Liu Liyun materialises traditional Chinese ink painting into simple lines, and gives a new deification to it via her installation works. On the other hand, mechanical devices “Spawn” and “Worms” created by Wu Mengshi, cleverly creates another type of sight of ink painting.
How do we establish the language of traditional Chinese art in the modern world? The “sense of texture” permeates into the artist's lifestyle and the essence of “materiel”. By rethinking “materiel”, it comes back to a deep understanding of “materiel” by the creators. In this process, the subjectivity of the artist is highlighted, while traditional Chinese culture gets speculatively translated. As a result, their works exist subjectively in a style of “tactile”, instead of being limited in any single format. The selected art works from this exhibition are all explorations of the artists from the past couple of years, and what we see is the outstanding “qualities” when they are presented together. As the scent of ink painting lingers around, this exhibition is entitled “The Taste of Ink”.
About the exhibition
Curator: Liu Libin
Artists: Chen Qi, Liu Liyun, Luo Wei, Liu zhixing, Tan Ping, Wu Mengshi, Wang Huangsheng, Zhan Jinjuan
VIP Preview: 15:00-18:00 November 2(Sat), 2013
Duration: November 3 – December 29, 2013
Address: No.54 Caochangdi(old airport road), Chaoyang District, Beijing 100015, China
Courtesy of the artist and Amy Li Gallery.
