Past Exhibition
Awaiting: New Works by Wang Tiande
26 Mar - 12 May | 2018
Wang Tiande Introduction
In the presence of the artist
Champagne brunch
30 March, Friday, 9am-12noon (HKAGA Art Brunch)
Artist Talk begins at 11am (in Chinese with English translation)
On the occasion of Art Basel Hong Kong, we will remain open on Good Friday 9am-6pm & Easter Saturday 10am-6pm
“While representational or semantic content has been rendered inaccessible, what remains in an enhanced awareness of the fragility of these unmounted sheets as the bearers of the artist’s vigorous brushwork and signed traces, reminding us that much of Chinese culture is preserved through a medium that is inherently fragile and vulnerable, and that our grasp of past traditions is similarly elusive.”
──Maxwell K. Hearn, Ink Art, Past as Present in Contemporary China,
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2013, P.61
Alisan Fine Arts is proud to present a solo exhibition of internationally acclaimed Chinese artist Wang Tiande. This will be the fourth solo exhibition the gallery has organized for him since 2003. Known for his landscape and calligraphic incense paintings, Wang has been using incense sticks in lieu of brushes to "paint" for over 15 years. His paintings are made up of two layers of rice paper. He uses incense sticks to create burn marks on the first layer of rice paper and paints on the second layer of rice paper with Chinese ink, thus transforming paintings of traditional landscapes and calligraphy into contemporary artworks. With each new series, he has invigorated and added new dimensions to classical landscape painting.
"Wang's work fascinates and resonates with a global audience, with or without deep knowledge of Chinese art ... Wang provides a refreshing alternative to the hauntingly persistent effort of 'advancing' Chinese art through belabored fusion of Chinese and Western styles."
－ Prof Josh Yiu, Director of Art Museum, Chinese University of Hong Kong,
and Curator of Over Mountains and Across Valleys, Guangdong Museum of Art, China, 2017
Well-versed in traditional Chinese art and culture, Wang continuously searches for possibilities in the realm of ink art and presents novel ideas in every exhibition. In his earlier works, he created burn marks on Chinese clothing and, more recently, incorporated stele rubbings in his paintings. With this exhibition, he has attached classical works of calligraphy, many from his own collection, to his ink paintings. This ancient text does not serve a mere decorative purpose, nor is it attempting to explain or describe the paintings. Instead, Wang is trying to connect himself with the ancient sages and to pay homage to those ancient masters. Roughly 20 new works, the majority created specifically for this exhibition, will be on display.
Wang Tiande was born in Shanghai in 1960 and studied at the College of Art in Shanghai in 1981 before pursuing further studies at the China Academy of Art in Hangzhou. After graduating in 1988 with a degree in traditional Chinese painting, he went on to obtain a PhD in calligraphy in 2014 from the same academy. He first gained international recognition when his work “Ink Banquet” produced in 1996, was exhibited as part of Inside Out: New Chinese Art, a travelling exhibition that opened at PS1 Contemporary Art Center, New York; then San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Tacoma Art Museum and Henry Art Gallery, Seattle; Museo de Arte Contemporaneo, Monterrey, Mexico; Canberra National Art Museum, Australia; and ended at the Hong Kong Museum of Art. The show was curated by Gao Minglu, a well -known contemporary Chinese art critic, curator, and scholar. “Ink Banquet” was subsequently collected by the Hong Kong Museum of Art.
Wang has participated in many important international exhibitions including two group exhibitions at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, firstly Brush and Ink: The Chinese Art of Writing in 2006, and the seminal exhibition Ink Art: Past as Present in Contemporary China in 2014. He had a solo exhibition in Suzhou Museum of Art in 2014, in the Forbidden City in 2015, and more recently Over Mountains and Across Valleys at the Guangdong Museum of Art in 2017, to name a few. His works have been collected by the British Museum, London; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Berkeley Art Museum, California; Spencer Museum of Art, Kansas University; Montreal Museum of Fine Arts; Shanghai Art Museum; Shenzhen Art Museum; Guangdong Museum of Art; Chinese Painting Research Institute, Zhong Nan Hai, Beijing; Hong Kong Museum of Art, amongst others.
Champagne brunch
30 March, Friday, 9am-12noon (HKAGA Art Brunch)
Artist Talk begins at 11am (in Chinese with English translation)
On the occasion of Art Basel Hong Kong, we will remain open on Good Friday 9am-6pm & Easter Saturday 10am-6pm
“While representational or semantic content has been rendered inaccessible, what remains in an enhanced awareness of the fragility of these unmounted sheets as the bearers of the artist’s vigorous brushwork and signed traces, reminding us that much of Chinese culture is preserved through a medium that is inherently fragile and vulnerable, and that our grasp of past traditions is similarly elusive.”
──Maxwell K. Hearn, Ink Art, Past as Present in Contemporary China,
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2013, P.61
Alisan Fine Arts is proud to present a solo exhibition of internationally acclaimed Chinese artist Wang Tiande. This will be the fourth solo exhibition the gallery has organized for him since 2003. Known for his landscape and calligraphic incense paintings, Wang has been using incense sticks in lieu of brushes to "paint" for over 15 years. His paintings are made up of two layers of rice paper. He uses incense sticks to create burn marks on the first layer of rice paper and paints on the second layer of rice paper with Chinese ink, thus transforming paintings of traditional landscapes and calligraphy into contemporary artworks. With each new series, he has invigorated and added new dimensions to classical landscape painting.
"Wang's work fascinates and resonates with a global audience, with or without deep knowledge of Chinese art ... Wang provides a refreshing alternative to the hauntingly persistent effort of 'advancing' Chinese art through belabored fusion of Chinese and Western styles."
－ Prof Josh Yiu, Director of Art Museum, Chinese University of Hong Kong,
and Curator of Over Mountains and Across Valleys, Guangdong Museum of Art, China, 2017
Well-versed in traditional Chinese art and culture, Wang continuously searches for possibilities in the realm of ink art and presents novel ideas in every exhibition. In his earlier works, he created burn marks on Chinese clothing and, more recently, incorporated stele rubbings in his paintings. With this exhibition, he has attached classical works of calligraphy, many from his own collection, to his ink paintings. This ancient text does not serve a mere decorative purpose, nor is it attempting to explain or describe the paintings. Instead, Wang is trying to connect himself with the ancient sages and to pay homage to those ancient masters. Roughly 20 new works, the majority created specifically for this exhibition, will be on display.
Wang Tiande was born in Shanghai in 1960 and studied at the College of Art in Shanghai in 1981 before pursuing further studies at the China Academy of Art in Hangzhou. After graduating in 1988 with a degree in traditional Chinese painting, he went on to obtain a PhD in calligraphy in 2014 from the same academy. He first gained international recognition when his work “Ink Banquet” produced in 1996, was exhibited as part of Inside Out: New Chinese Art, a travelling exhibition that opened at PS1 Contemporary Art Center, New York; then San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Tacoma Art Museum and Henry Art Gallery, Seattle; Museo de Arte Contemporaneo, Monterrey, Mexico; Canberra National Art Museum, Australia; and ended at the Hong Kong Museum of Art. The show was curated by Gao Minglu, a well -known contemporary Chinese art critic, curator, and scholar. “Ink Banquet” was subsequently collected by the Hong Kong Museum of Art.
Wang has participated in many important international exhibitions including two group exhibitions at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, firstly Brush and Ink: The Chinese Art of Writing in 2006, and the seminal exhibition Ink Art: Past as Present in Contemporary China in 2014. He had a solo exhibition in Suzhou Museum of Art in 2014, in the Forbidden City in 2015, and more recently Over Mountains and Across Valleys at the Guangdong Museum of Art in 2017, to name a few. His works have been collected by the British Museum, London; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Berkeley Art Museum, California; Spencer Museum of Art, Kansas University; Montreal Museum of Fine Arts; Shanghai Art Museum; Shenzhen Art Museum; Guangdong Museum of Art; Chinese Painting Research Institute, Zhong Nan Hai, Beijing; Hong Kong Museum of Art, amongst others.