Past Exhibition
Variations in Ink — Selected works from Ink Asia
09 Jan - 11 Feb | 2017
Hao ShimingPan GongkaiWang TiandeZhang Yu Introduction
Alisan Fine Arts is pleased to present selected works from Ink Asia. On display will be works by four Chinese artists – Hao Shiming, Pan Gongkai, Wang Tiande and Zhang Yu – experimenting with line, form and media in ink painting. This curated selection traces first, the artistic lineage of Chinese ink painting and the variations in contemporary practices, and second, presents artists who re-imagine line as a mere brush stroke, or as a form created by serendipity.
About the artists
Born in 1977 Heze, Shandong, Hao Shiming is a Beijing artist who attempts to extract the most ‘pure’ elements from traditional ink painting – such as lines – and transform and reconstruct them. Line, is perhaps the most pressingly towards his artistic philosophy. His lines are neither flat nor rendered in perspective, rather they interweaved and undulated upon themselves, like writhing serpents. Though when viewing the landscape works we are positioned in such a way to understand them as such, it is the calligraphic works of Tang dynasty poems that begin to tease out incredible possibilities in understanding line as suggestive of form or form as suggestive of line. Along with light colours, they express a powerful leaping rhythm, as if the spirit of ink itself flows.
Pan Gongkai, born in 1947 Ninghai, Zhejiang, is the son of the acclaimed modernist Chinese artist and respected art educator Pan Tianshou. However, the artistic vision of son and father could not be more different. Pan Gongkai’s artistic oeuvre stretches beyond painting, and in many cases includes three dimensional features like lighting. He is one of the most ardent experimenters, and has concerned himself with the importance of xieyi, that is the expression of spontaneity and the spirit of being through brushstrokes. His works have been collected by Asian Art Museum of San Francisco; The Frye Art Museum, Seattle; The San Diego Museum of Art; Tokyo University of the Arts; Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall, Taipei; National Art Museum of China, Beijing; Shanghai Art Museum; Guangdong Museum of Art; Zhejiang Art Museum; Macau Museum of Art.
Wang Tiande is an innovative avant-garde ink artist known for his creative use of incense sticks as a form of brush. Born in Shanghai in 1960, he 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. Well versed in traditional Chinese art and culture, Wang searches for further possibilities in the realm of ink art. His most ground-breaking creation, Chinese ink with burn marks on layered rice paper and the use of incense sticks in lieu of brushes to paint, transfigure paintings of traditional landscapes and calligraphy, while conveying the ephemeral quality of painting. 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; Chinese Painting Research Institute, Beijing; Zhong Nan Hai, Beijing; Shanghai Art Museum; Shenzhen Art Museum; Guangdong Museum of Art; Hong Kong Museum of Art.
About the artists
Born in 1977 Heze, Shandong, Hao Shiming is a Beijing artist who attempts to extract the most ‘pure’ elements from traditional ink painting – such as lines – and transform and reconstruct them. Line, is perhaps the most pressingly towards his artistic philosophy. His lines are neither flat nor rendered in perspective, rather they interweaved and undulated upon themselves, like writhing serpents. Though when viewing the landscape works we are positioned in such a way to understand them as such, it is the calligraphic works of Tang dynasty poems that begin to tease out incredible possibilities in understanding line as suggestive of form or form as suggestive of line. Along with light colours, they express a powerful leaping rhythm, as if the spirit of ink itself flows.
Pan Gongkai, born in 1947 Ninghai, Zhejiang, is the son of the acclaimed modernist Chinese artist and respected art educator Pan Tianshou. However, the artistic vision of son and father could not be more different. Pan Gongkai’s artistic oeuvre stretches beyond painting, and in many cases includes three dimensional features like lighting. He is one of the most ardent experimenters, and has concerned himself with the importance of xieyi, that is the expression of spontaneity and the spirit of being through brushstrokes. His works have been collected by Asian Art Museum of San Francisco; The Frye Art Museum, Seattle; The San Diego Museum of Art; Tokyo University of the Arts; Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall, Taipei; National Art Museum of China, Beijing; Shanghai Art Museum; Guangdong Museum of Art; Zhejiang Art Museum; Macau Museum of Art.
Wang Tiande is an innovative avant-garde ink artist known for his creative use of incense sticks as a form of brush. Born in Shanghai in 1960, he 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. Well versed in traditional Chinese art and culture, Wang searches for further possibilities in the realm of ink art. His most ground-breaking creation, Chinese ink with burn marks on layered rice paper and the use of incense sticks in lieu of brushes to paint, transfigure paintings of traditional landscapes and calligraphy, while conveying the ephemeral quality of painting. 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; Chinese Painting Research Institute, Beijing; Zhong Nan Hai, Beijing; Shanghai Art Museum; Shenzhen Art Museum; Guangdong Museum of Art; Hong Kong Museum of Art.