ESLITE GALLERY

Lu Liang has said of his art, "Trying hard at the canvas and being able to achieve something brings me happiness." Realist painting requires laborious exertions in order to produce a finely detailed final product. Lu Liang's creative process is especially slow and repetitive, involving first painting, then sanding down, re-painting and sanding down again, and then painting once again, so that even a small-scale work may take years to produce.

LU Liang, Safety Passageway 2, 2014-2016, Oil on canvas, 218x388cm

Safety Passageway 2, the process of the creation

Lu Liang believes that photographs are jumbled and confused, with unnecessary details that clutter the image like dust spots; Lu's aim is to further refine and define the subtle, hidden relationships that can only be hinted at in a photo. Unlike some artists whose photograph-based works become flat, pale, and empty, Lu endeavors to bring out the "emptiness" of photographs with greater clarity in his paintings, and his manner of depicting objects conveys a deep understanding of their crucial essence.

LU Liang, Billboard in the Sunset, 2014-2016, Oil on canvas, 218x388cm

Billboard in the Sunset , the real scene of the billboard

Painting with this attitude brings a stronger sense of mood and atmosphere to Lu's canvases, which sometimes even seem to transcend their static images and become almost cinematic. Lu's choice of subject matter involves scenes that most often evoke historical, societal, or political issues, including his Concentration Camp—Tile Table, Winding Staircase—Central Market, and Advertising Sign at Dusk. Frequently devoid of any human figures, his spaces are silent, though the mood, trace, or scent of human activity still lingers, sometimes in a chilling sense of hidden danger, sometimes in the shocking decay and devastation of the scene.

LU Liang, Concentration Camp-Mottled Wall, 2014-2015, Oil on canvas, 120x150cm

LU Liang, Concentration Camp-Cellar, 2014-2015, Oil on canvas,        120x150cm

LU Liang, Concentration Camp-Tile Platform, 2016, Oil on canvas, 120x200cm

LU Liang, Concentration Camp-Room, 2016, Oil on canvas, 120x90cm

Lu Liang was born in Shanghai in 1975 and studied in Beijing as a young man. Entering the Mural Painting Department of the Central Academy of Fine Arts, he obtained first a master's and then a doctorate, in 1999 and 2005 respectively, and currently teaches in the oil painting department of his alma mater.

LU Liang, Central Mall-Exhibition Hall, 2014-2016, Oil on canvas, 110x170cm

LU Liang, Cement Pipes, 2014-2016, Oil on canvas, 218x388cm

Lu Liang's solid and earnest work stands out as exceptional among those contemporary artists who grew up in post-Cultural Revolution China, and exhibits his unchanging concern for humanity's existential condition. This solo exhibition brings together works which showcase his signature brand of undeniable emotional tension, encased in stillness; it displays the questions he poses regarding many of our societal issues, while reflecting the complex and intense spirit of the era in contemporary Chinese society.

LU Liang, Dong Xin Dian, 2016, Oil on canvas, 60x90cm

LU Liang, Huan Tie Bridge, 2014-2016,  Oil on canvas, 218x588cm

LAI Chih-Sheng, Falling, 2017, Video Installation, Loop, Based on Site Size

Falling is about what you see does not exist; what you do not see exists. A moving image of a grill roll-up door that descends endlessly is projected onto an imaginary wall. Because there is no surface to reflect the projection, the image overflows into the void behind the nonexistent wall, so that when we step inside, the grills, slightly out of focus but perpetually rolling down, become a cage, a reminder of the tethers that confine us.

Installation view of Falling, "Lai Chih-Sheng--Between Dog and Wolf", ESLITE GALLERY, Taipei, Taiwan, 2017

LAI Chih-Sheng, Resting on the dust_SL, 2017, Dust, Iron, Aluminium and Concrete, 40x134x42cmx2、6x59x8.5cmx1

Where does it come from, and when did it come about?

Dust is an accumulation of fine particles through time. It is worthless yet found everywhere. This work was made for “Kau-Puê, Mutual Companionship in Near Future: 2017 Soulangh International Contemporary Art Festival,” an exhibition in Tainan, Taiwan. Between 2015 and 2016, Lai asked workers of Soulangh Cultural Park to collect dust as they cleaned the park, and he used that dust to make this work. The aluminum ruler on the wall was a tool he used to smoothen the surface of the benches, and the samples sitting on the ruler show a series of experiments he conducted to test the durability of cement-dust mixture. In the end the benches are made of 35% dust.

Dust, hidden in the park corners, is a silent traveler that circles the site in procession. 

Lai hopes to transform or memorialize this unwanted thing from daily life to tender a subtle way to experience time and space. By cementing it in two benches and inviting visitors to come for respite, it becomes a warm and friendly sculpture.

Installation view of Resting on the dust_SL, 2017, "Lai Chih-Sheng--Between Dog and Wolf", ESLITE GALLERY, Taipei, Taiwan, 2017 

LAI Chih-Sheng, White Painting, 2017, Acrylic on Canvas, 322x190cm

An achromatic color, white is without hue and because of that it is often overlooked. However, to Lai, white can be elegant and when looking closer, there could be myriad variations to be discovered in the white paint of White Painting. By placing it on the floor instead of hanging it, the wall is given a respite from its obligation or duty.

Installation view of White Painting, "Lai Chih-Sheng--Between Dog and Wolf", ESLITE GALLERY, Taipei, Taiwan, 2017

LAI Chih-Sheng, Befor the Present, 2017, Moving images,Loop

Before the Present is the reversal of a rotating image that indicates waiting. Made into an infinite loop, the reversed loading turns into an expression of loss, pointing to not only the future but also the eternal lapse of time.

Installation view of Befor the Present , "Lai Chih-Sheng--Between Dog and Wolf", ESLITE GALLERY, Taipei, Taiwan, 2017

LAI Chih-Sheng, 30 cm, 2017, Polyvinyl Chloride, 3x48.2x0.2cm

30cm is a ruler that had been stretched and thus has lost its function as an instrument for measurement. No longer a useful tool, the only way to approach the ruler would be to appreciate it as is.

30cm (detail)

LAI Chih-Sheng, 8cm inclination, 2017, Installation, Based on Site Size

Occupying the largest space in the gallery (3.5x7.2x21.3m), 8cm Inclination makes the floor appear erroneously skewed after Lai Chih-Sheng “fixed” the 8cm-gap under the walls by giving them a trim.

LAI Chih-Sheng, 8cm inclination, 2017, Installation, Based on Site Size

Born in Taipei in 1971, Lai creates a minimalist, atypical reality within everyday circumstances. His artwork has a site-specific quality, involving concepts of labor and consumption, and raises questions about art and its production, while also drawing on his 13 years of experience as a professional bricklayer. His recent work responds to the contemporary art world’s reliance on display systems and explores subtle sensitivity in a self-referential way.

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“Confucius Said—Calligraphy Works of Tong Yang-Tze” will be on view from 17 June to 3 July at Exhibition and Performance Hall, eslite Xin-yi store in Taipei. With 27 calligraphy works TONG Yang-Tze reinterprets the wisdom of Confucius, a Chinese thinker active in the sixth century B.C. and still influential today. The artist TONG Yang-Tze often draws from Chinese classic literature and history, yet she always creates new meaning for the original work in every course of re-writing. She has written Book of Changes, Laozi, Zhuangzi, and Immortal at the River (Linjiang xian) that just closed at eslite spectrum Suzhou store this May. The show “Confucius Said” exhibits TONG Yang-Tze’s new works in these two years. Spanning twenty five centuries, the teachings of Confucius—concerning self-reflection, dealing with people and things, and ethical concerns in general—are revived by TONG’s calligraphy and scintillate with eternal wisdom.

TONG Yang-Tze was born in Shanghai in 1942. After graduating from the Department of Fine Arts at Taiwan Normal University, she went to the U.S. and acquired her M.F.A. at the University of Massachusetts. Under her father’s instruction, she had modelled after the works of calligraphy masters, such as YANG Zhengqing, WANG Xizhi, and WANG Xianzhi, from the age of eight until high school. In the U.S., she studied Western art theories and began to attempt the application of western composition in her calligraphy. Ultimately, she was able to surpass the limits of traditional Chinese calligraphy and ink art, moving on to develop contemporary artworks that extend the beauty of space and express the rhythm of sound. As TAI Jingnong once remarked, “Calligraphy mirrors one’s mind,” or as a critic indicated: “the Qi of traditional Chinese calligraphy” is turned into “the dynamic rhythm of painting calligraphy” in her work.

TONG Yang-Tze, Three-point Reflection, 2014, 180 x 97 cm

Zeng Shen, a pupil of Confucius, is quoted as saying: “I daily examine myself on three points: whether, in transacting business for others, I may have been not faithful; whether, in intercourse with friends, I may have been not sincere; whether I may have not mastered and practiced the instructions of my teacher.” The phrase “three-point reflection” has now entered the general Chinese vocabulary.

TONG Yang-Tze, Three Friendships, 2015, 97 x 180 cm 

“Confucius said, ‘There are three friendships which are advantageous, and three which are injurious. Friendship with the upright; friendship with the sincere; and friendship with the man of much observation: these are advantageous. Friendship with the man of specious airs; friendship with the insinuatingly soft; and friendship with the glib-tongued: these are injurious.”

TONG Yang-Tze, A Natural Ease Is to Be Prized, 2014, 180 x 388 cm

“The philosopher Yu said, ‘In practicing the rules of propriety, a natural ease is to be prized. In the ways prescribed by the ancient kings, this is the excellent quality, and in things small and great we follow them.’” “A natural ease” (he; 和) can also be understood as “harmony”; thus the words can also be rendered: “Harmony is precious.”

Professor KO Ching-Ming explains:

“Besides paying attention to personal growth, the superior man naturally places even more emphasis on his relations with other people and on responding to the external world as a whole.”

“When superior men seek to perfect the admirable qualities of others, they are able to get along with them even when they do not agree with them, because they respect individual differences and are happy to help others achieve their own personal goals. Aided by the rules of propriety, they are able to live in a harmonious state with others, so that they can reach a state where ‘the Tao proceeds along parallel lines and without contradiction and all creatures help each other along without killing one another.’”

TONG Yang-Tze, The Wise Are Joyful, 2015, 97 x 180 cm

TONG Yang-Tze, The Virtuous Are Long-Lived, 2015, 97 x 180 cm

 “The Master said, ‘The wise find pleasure in water; the virtuous find pleasure in hills. The wise are active; the virtuous are tranquil. The wise are joyful; the virtuous are long-lived.’”

TONG Yang-Tze, Neither Anxiety Nor Fear, 2015, 97 x 180 cm

“Sima Niu asked about the superior man. The Master said, ‘The superior man has neither anxiety nor fear.’ We have nothing to fear, provided that we have done nothing wrong and our conscience is clear.”

Professor KO Ching Ming explains:

"Wisdom, virtue, and courage are all important to the superior man; but because virtue and wisdom are different, the superior man also comes in different forms."

"There are three types of excellence: wisdom, virtue, and courage. The freedom from perplexities that is characteristics of wisdom perhaps depends on insight into human relations and worldly affairs, and not on self-knowledge alone. But being free from anxiety and fear comes from a certain broadness of mind and catholicity of spirit. It also results “when internal examination discovers nothing wrong.” Whether we are called “virtuous” or “bold,” or known simply as “the superior man,” the most important thing is that we have a good conscience and an upright character, and be without fear and hindrances."

TONG Yang-Tze, Not a Utensil, 2014, 97 x 180 cm

A person of virtue and learning is not limited to just one function or one skill. In other words, such a person is not a narrow specialist, but rather a philosopher who grasps the underlying principles that obtain everywhere.

TONG Yang-Tze, Not for Anything, 2015, 97 x 180 cm

“The superior man, in the world, does not set his mind either for anything, or against anything; what is right, he will follow.” 

TONG Yang-Tze, Affable, But Not Adulatory, 2015, 97 x 180 cm

“The Master said, ‘The superior man is affable, but not adulatory; the mean man is adulatory, but not affable.” 

TONG Yang-Tze, The Virtuous Rest in Virtue, 2015, 97 x 180 cm

“Those who are without virtue cannot abide long either in a condition of poverty and hardship, or in a condition of enjoyment. The virtuous rest in virtue; the wise desire virtue.”

*Works Cited:

Ching-Ming, Ko. “Experiencing Cultural Values: On Tong Yang-Tze’s Reading of the Analects.” Confucius Said. Taipei: eslite bookstore, 2016.  

Rur-Bin, Yang. “The Sage and the Decree of Heaven.” Confucius Said. Taipei: eslite bookstore, 2016. 

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Confucius Said—Calligraphy Works of Tong Yang-Tze

Date | 17 June—3 July 2016

Venue | Exhibition and Performance Hall, eslite spectrum Xin-yi store 

(6F, No. 11, Songgao Rd. Taipei 11073 Taiwan)

Time | 11am—9pm (17 June: 3pm—9pm)

Untitled No. 12-08, 2012, Fired Clay and Metallic Oxides, 44.4 × 44.4 × 64.7 cm

Untitled P 07-15, 2015, Acrylic on Canvas, 122 × 122 cm

Untitled E-01, 2015, Copper Plate Etching Print, 39 × 28 cm / each, set of 4, Ed. 20 + 2 AP

Kuo’s way of creation involves subtraction and meditation. All his endeavors aim at returning to the origin or his inner essence. As he confided, “I like to follow my nature, and I particularly cherish the arbitrary happenings during my creation.”

Untitled No. 12-04, 2012, Fired White Clay and Clear Crackle, 92.7 × 40.6 × 48.2 cm

Untitled No. 15-03, 2015, Fired Clay with Metallic Oxides and Wood on a Metal Stand, 132 × 55.8 × 55.8 cm

For Shida Kuo, an artwork “should carry its creator’s thoughts as well as traces of its making, showing the artist’s anxiety, insanity, or simply bewilderment, so as to become a soulful work.” Given that his works are the outcomes of his subconscious and intuition, there is no narrative content, and thus they are all named “Untitled.” The works do not form into any series, either, as each one is distinct and unique.

Untitled No. 14-03, 2014, Fired White Clay and Acrylic Paint, 92.7 × 40.6 × 48.2 cm

Untitled No. 14-02, 2014, Fired Clay and Metallic Oxides, 92.7 × 40.6 × 48.2 cm

Some of Kuo’s works make people smile, and some quietly exist, while others are like flashing inspiration. They are abstract thoughts or drifts of emotion condensed into three-dimensional forms. Strewn here and there across the exhibition space, the works invite viewers to experience, speculate on, and decode their mysteries.

Untitled No. 15-02, 2015, Fired Terracotta and White Clay on a Metal Stand, 127 × 30.4 × 86.3 cm

Untitled No. 14-01, 2014, Fired Clay and Metallic Glaze, 92.7 × 40.6 × 48.2 cm

Untitled No. 11-01, 2011, Fired Clay, Metallic Glaze and Wood, 114.3 × 38.1 × 40.6 cm

For instance, is it possible to consider Untitled No. 08-06 (2008) a piece of wineware, drunken and delighted, dancing to itself?

Untitled No. 08-06, 2008, Fired Clay and Metallic Glaze on a Metal Stand, 106.6 × 55.8 × 66 cm

Untitled No. 15-05 (2015), for female viewers, may represent a plump woman raising her leg and doing yoga, while male audience may regard it as a submarine with a telescope above sea level, inspecting its surroundings. 

Untitled No. 15-05, 2015, Fired Clay, Metallic Oxides and Wood, 139.7 × 53.3 × 68.5 cm

People rich in creativity may take his works as springboards to unleash their imagination, but it may also be their inner consciousness that is actually articulating.

Untitled No. 12-03, 2012, Fired Clay and Metallic Glaze, 92.7 × 40.6 × 48.2 cm

As for his canvas works, he uses square canvases and doesn’t emphasize much on composition nor narrative content. In doing so, his works can be propped in various directions and still be able to maintain visual legitimacy. Combining acrylic paints with sculpture skills, he creates organic and amusing forms on canvas.

Untitled P 01-16, 2016, Acrylic on Canvas, 122 × 122 cm

Untitled P 03-15, 2015, Acrylic, Burlap on Canvas, 122 × 122 cm

Three artistic endeavors, his preoccupations about canvas work since 2007, can be discerned: First, he continues using images that resemble flattened containers. His subjects are presented to contain internal space, like his hollowed ceramic sculptures. This is an extension of his constant exploration in inner space, for which Untitled P 02-15 (2015) is a good example.

Untitled P 02-15, 2015, Acrylic on Canvas, 122 × 122 cm

Untitled P 01-15, 2015, Acrylic on Canvas, 122 × 122 cm

Untitled P 05-15, 2015, Acrylic on Canvas, 122 × 122 cm

Second, he addresses spatial and architectural forms on canvas and identifies space via simplest lines, as shown by Untitled P 01-14 (2014).

Untitled P 01-14, 2014, Acrylic on Canvas, 122 × 122 cm

Untitled P 02-14, 2014, Acrylic on Canvas, 122 × 122 cm

Third, he finds varying ways to exemplify the “purity” of painting—an obsession since college. He focuses on such basics as point, line, plane, texture, and material, without making narrative expressions, as illustrated by Untitled P 06-15 (2015).

Untitled P 06-15, 2015, Acrylic, Burlap on Canvas, 122 × 122 cm

Untitled P 11-15, 2015, Acrylic on Canvas, 92 × 92 cm

Untitled P 204-16, 2016, Acrylic on Canvas, 77 x 77 cm / each, set of 2

Untitled P 201-16, 2016, Acrylic on Canvas, 77 x 77 cm / each, set of 2

Untitled P 203-16, 2016, Acrylic on Canvas, 77 x77 cm / each, set of 2

Untitled P 202-16, 2016, Acrylic on Canvas, 77 x77 cm / each, set of 2

Shida Kuo’s works, sculptures or canvases, are his response to the primitive summoning from his inner self. Accordingly, his works appear both remote and familiar, natural and industrial, concrete and abstract, Eastern and Western—they feel intimate to us, yet they resist thorough interpretation. This is where verbal language fails. One sees something but is unable to name it. Shida Kuo’s art suggests such ineffable experience.

Untitled P 12-15, 2015, Acrylic on Canvas, 92 × 92 cm

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SHIDA KUO: Shifting Lines and Evolving Forms

11 June—10 July 2016

 Venue: ESLITE GALLERY | 5F, No. 11 Songgao Road, Taipei 11073 Taiwan

Opening Hours: 11am—7pm, Tuesdays—Sundays (closed on Mondays)

 For more info, please visit our website

Heading South to South Africa #48, 2015, Acrylic, Watercolor on Photo, 22.2× 32 cm

Heading South to South Africa #45, 2015, Acrylic, Watercolor on Photo, 22.2× 32 cm 

Heading South to South Africa #44, 2015, Acrylic, Watercolor on Photo, 22.2× 50.2 cm

Heading South to South Africa #49, 2015, Acrylic, Watercolor on Photo, 22.2× 32 cm

Heading South to South Africa #50, 2015, Acrylic, Watercolor on Photo, 22.2× 32 cm

Heading South to South Africa #43, 2015, Acrylic, Watercolor on Photo, 22.2× 32 cm

Heading South to South Africa #42, 2015, Acrylic, Watercolor on Photo, 22.2× 32 cm

Heading South to South Africa #41, 2015, Acrylic, Watercolor on Photo, 22.2× 32 cm

Heading South to South Africa #46, 2015, Acrylic, Watercolor on Photo, 22.2× 32 cm

Heading South to South Africa #16, 2014, Watercolor on Xuan Paper, 50 x 50 cm

Heading South to South Africa #17, 2014, Watercolor on Xuan Paper, 50 x 50 cm

Heading South to South Africa #18, 2014, Watercolor on Xuan Paper, 50 x 50 cm

Heading South to South Africa #20, 2014, Acrylic on Xuan Paper, 50 x 50 cm

Heading South to South Africa #19, 2014, Acrylic on Xuan Paper, 50 x 50 cm

Heading South to South Africa #15, 2014, Watercolor on Xuan Paper, 50 x 50 cm

Heading South to South Africa #01, 2014, Acrylic on Xuan Paper, 50 x 50 cm

Heading South to South Africa #35, 2015, Watercolor on Xuan Paper, 50 x 50 cm

Heading South to South Africa #39, 2015, Watercolor on Xuan Paper, 50 x 50 cm

Heading South to South Africa #37, 2015, Watercolor on Xuan Paper, 50 x 50 cm

Heading South to South Africa #40, 2015, Watercolor on Xuan Paper, 50 x 50 cm

Heading South to South Africa #38, 2015, Acrylic on Xuan Paper, 50 x 50 cm

Heading South to South Africa #34, 2015, Watercolor on Xuan Paper, 50 x 50 cm

Heading South to South Africa #33, 2015 Acrylic on Xuan Paper, 50 x 50 cm

Heading South to South Africa #32, 2015, Watercolor on Xuan Paper, 50 x 50 cm

Heading South to South Africa #36, 2015, Watercolor on Xuan Paper, 50 x 50 cm

Heading South to South Africa #14, 2014, Acrylic on Xuan Paper, 50 x 50 cm

Heading South to South Africa #12, 2014, Watercolor on Xuan Paper, 50 x 50 cm

Heading South to South Africa #11, 2014, Watercolor on Xuan Paper, 50 x 50 cm

Heading South to South Africa #03, 2014, Acrylic on Xuan Paper, 50 x 50 cm 

Heading South to South Africa #04, 2014, Acrylic on Xuan Paper, 50 x 50 cm

Heading South to South Africa #27, 2015, Watercolor on Xuan Paper, 50 x 50 cm

Heading South to South Africa #28, 2015, Watercolor on Xuan Paper, 50 x 50 cm

Heading South to South Africa #05, 2014, Watercolor on Xuan Paper, 50 x 50 cm

Heading South to South Africa #26, 2015, Watercolor on Xuan Paper, 50 x 50 cm

Heading South to South Africa #29, 2015, Watercolor on Xuan Paper, 50 x 50 cm

Heading South to South Africa #30, 2015, Watercolor on Xuan Paper, 50 x 50 cm

Heading South to South Africa #06, 2014, Watercolor on Xuan Paper, 50 x 50 cm

Heading South to South Africa #09, 2014, Watercolor on Xuan Paper, 50 x 50 cm

Heading South to South Africa #10, 2014, Watercolor on Xuan Paper, 50 x 50 cm

Heading South to South Africa #24, 2015, Watercolor on Xuan Paper, 50 x 50 cm

Heading South to South Africa #25, 2015, Watercolor on Xuan Paper, 50 x 50 cm

Heading South to South Africa #31, 2015, Watercolor on Xuan Paper, 50 x 50 cm

Heading South to South Africa #13, 2014, Watercolor on Xuan Paper, 50 x 50 cm

Heading South to South Africa #02, 2014, Acrylic on Xuan Paper, 50 x 50 cm

Heading South to South Africa #21, 2014, Acrylic on Xuan Paper, 50 x 50 cm

Heading South to South Africa #07, 2014, Watercolor on Xuan Paper, 50 x 50 cm

Heading South to South Africa #08, 2014, Watercolor on Xuan Paper, 50 x 50 cm

Heading South to South Africa #23, 2014, Acrylic on Xuan Paper, 50 x 50 cm

Heading South to South Africa #22, 2014, Acrylic on Xuan Paper, 50 x 50 cm

LIU Xiaodong in South Africa

14 May—5 June 2016

 Venue: ESLITE GALLERY | 5F, No. 11 Songgao Road, Taipei 11073 Taiwan

Opening Hours: 11am—7pm, Tuesdays—Sundays (closed on Mondays)

 Opening & Book Signing Event

3pm, Saturday, 14 May (by invitation only)

     In August 2014, LIU Xiaodong, invited by fashion house Louis Vuitton, embarked on a project of life drawing in South Africa. Under his brush, the leopards, lions, and elephants are equipped with their own characters. “I feel I know him the moment I paint him,” said LIU. Like an anthropologist, he sees, investigates, records, and ponders over people and things, essentially everything that makes up life itself. He not only portrays their images but captures their vibrant souls in flesh and blood. In the following, we present some extracts from his “Flying to the South,” his diary during the project, which also becomes the concluding chapter of his collection One Centimeter: Diary of LIU Xiaodong.

August 6, 2014 

I left home at half past five in the morning and my flight took off for South Africa at 7:30 a.m. All the way to Africa’s southernmost country.

A group of spirited elephants clogged up the road, followed at a good distance by a lone, seemingly bewildered [elephant]. The tour guide told me that he was being punished by the herd’s matriarch, the oldest and most experienced female, for some sort of faux pas. 

Heading South to South Africa #03, 2014, Acrylic on Xuan Paper, 50 × 50 cm

Heading South to South Africa #24, 2015, Watercolor on Xuan Paper, 50 × 50 cm

Nature here is incredibly peaceful. The animals rarely run around or scuffle amongst themselves. You can’t hear the elephants trumpeting or the wolves howling. Lions aren’t likely to go after humans, because they can find plenty of food to eat with less effort. We are all familiar with the least-cost rule.

Heading South to South Africa #30, 2015, Watercolor on Xuan Paper, 50 × 50 cm

South Africa covers a land area one-ninth that of China, with a population of 30 million, 80% of which is classified as black, with the remainder considered as white, Indian/Asian or of mixed racial heritage. Nearly 80% of South Africans follow the Christian faith. Other major religious groups are Hindus, Muslims, Jews and Buddhists. There are more Buddhists here than in any other African country.

In 1652, South Africa became a Dutch colony. I was quite confused as to how a few dozen Dutchmen arriving in a ship, armed with guns and cannons, could have been able to subdue millions of blacks in South Africa. 

In the 1680s, Huguenots from France began establishing wine estates in South Africa and were soon producing wines that became very popular.

The first British settlers began arriving in the 1820s, solidifying British control over the Cape Colony, which had been ceded to them by the Dutch in 1814. By the 1830s, tensions between the British and the Dutch resulted in the Great Trek, during which many thousands of Dutch settlers, called Afrikaners, left the colony to found Boer republics in the Transvaal and the Orange Free State.

In the 1910s, South Africa became an independent country and the age of colonization was over.

Apartheid, the racial institution established in 1948 to ensure white domination of the country, formally ended in 1994 with the first election allowing participation by all adult voters.

Heading South to South Africa #35, 2015, Watercolor on Xuan Paper, 50 × 50 cm

Heading South to South Africa #39, 2015, Watercolor on Xuan Paper, 50 × 50 cm

Heading South to South Africa #37, 2015, Watercolor on Xuan Paper, 50 × 50 cm

I was gaining a deep admiration for the administrative system the British had brought to South Africa, which made this country operate in an orderly way. Its natural landscape was well protected, and no one could deny South Africa’s position as the most developed country in Africa.

Heading South to South Africa #47, 2015, Acrylic, Watercolor on Photo, 22.2 × 32 cm

Heading South to South Africa #45, 2015, Acrylic, Watercolor on Photo, 22.2 × 32 cm

“LIU Xiaodong in South Africa” works are compiled in a travel book published by LV.

LIU Xiaodong in South Africa

14 May—5 June 2016

 Venue: ESLITE GALLERY | 5F, No. 11 Songgao Road, Taipei 11073 Taiwan

Opening Hours: 11am—7pm, Tuesdays—Sundays (closed on Mondays)

 Opening & Book Signing Event

3pm, Saturday, 14 May (by invitation only)

 Work Cited:

LIU Xiaodong’s “Flying to the South” collected in One Centimeter: Diary of LIU Xiaodong published by Guangxi Normal University Press in 2015.

For more info, please visit our website:

Abstract painting is often named “untitled” to appear self-autonomous, which tradition is challenged by David DIAO. Alternatively, he appropriates the titles of films and books that have influence on him to name his works. For instance, High and Low is a namesake of Kurosawa Akira’s film in 1963, while Notorious derives from the eponymous film of Alfred Hitchcock in 1946. Thus, DIAO creates intertextuality between his works and those of other artists. The meanings of his works also reach beyond the canvas. 

David DIAO, Notorious, 1980, Acrylic on Canvas, 183 x 152.5 cm

TSONG Pu

  TSONG Pu’s ten latest works in 2016 will be shown. TSONG moves beyond the customary forms of traditional two-dimensional painting and turns to emphasize painting’s materiality and abstract composition. He imprints and duplicates the cubic stamps in multiple layers, revealing the movement and self-autonomy of his ideas.

TSONG Pu, Small Government, 2016, Acrylic on Canvas, 44.5 x 52 cm

TSONG Pu, Primitive State, 2016, Acrylic on Canvas, 44.5 x 52 cm

TSONG Pu, Completion, 2016, Acrylic on Canvas, 91 x 116 cm 

TSONG Pu, Blinding, 2016, Acrylic on Canvas, 91 x 116 cm

Works such as Composure feature pure and neat configuration. On the canvas, the aluminum readymades, paper, and the background stamps negotiate with one another. The symmetry and difference of varied lines and material units are thus highlighted.

TSONG Pu, Composure, 2016, Paper and Aluminum on Canvas, 73 x 91 cm

TSONG Pu, Everything Flows, 2016, Paper and Aluminum on Canvas, 97 x 130 cm

As Chia Chi Jason WANG indicates, “Tsong’s works feature the modular and serial structure characterized by Minimalism and Post-Minimalism. He adopts simple themes and iteratively organizes them into a complex and integrated whole.”*

TSONG Pu, Common Good, 2016, Paper and Aluminum on Canvas, 73 x 91 cm

TSONG Pu, Pure Consciousness, 2016, Paper and Aluminum on Canvas, 73 x 91 cm

TSONG Pu, Suspension, 2016, Paper and Aluminum on Canvas, 73 x 91 cm

TSONG Pu, A Whiff of Perception, 2016, Paper and Aluminum on Canvas, 73 x 91 cm

Paul CHIANG

The Silver Lake series of Paul CHIANG applies black and gray shades to portray the flowing and arresting of perceptions and consciousness, reflecting the artist’s aspiration for natural mystery and energy.

Paul CHIANG, Silver Lake 07-07, 2007, Oil on Canvas, 200 x 300 cm

Critic TAO Wen-Yueh notes that CHIANG’s black is affectionate: “[His black] is tranquil and reserved, revealing his individual reflection about life. I think he has acquired the depth of ocean.”

Paul CHIANG, Silver Lake 07-08, 2007, Oil on Canvas, 200 x 300 cm

LAI Chih-Sheng

A participant of “Utopias / Heterotopias—Wuzhen International Contemporary Art Exhibition” that opened this past March, LAI Chih-Sheng measures the boundaries of reality through his creation. His works concern with immediate experiences and allude to some spiritual conditions about gloom, negativity, inversion, and lack. The viewers are allowed to deviate from the trajectories of reality for the time being, seeing and perceiving the work in and of itself.

No Ifs has metal rings in three more sides than the usual sketch book, so as to lose its original function as a sketch book. The viewers are unable to see the pages under the first one. The inaccessible emptiness / blackness can only be imagined. This work also implies the anxiety of the creator, who find his creativity captivated and unable to develop.

LAI Chih-Sheng, No Ifs Ed. 4/5, 2013, Paper, Metal Rings, 31 x 41 x 2 cm

Shida KUO

The Untitled series demonstrates the artist’s equal dexterity in creating sculptures and plane works. Having been renowned for his sculptures, Shida KUO recently resumes plane creation, whose composition is organic and amusing. KUO is in constant search of “essential” form through varying and re-arranging fragmented or incomplete patterns. Above all, his works give off pure, innocent, and somewhat mysterious beauty.

Shida KUO, Untitled P 07-15, 2015, Acrylic on Canvas, 122 x 122 cm

Shida KUO: “I like to follow my own nature, and I particularly cherish the arbitrary happenings during my creation.”

His recent works continue his pursuit of primitive and plain configurations, but their simplified appearance is more related to the forms of modern art and architecture. 

Shida KUO, Untitled P 06-15, 2015, Acrylic on Canvas, 122 x 122 cm

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■ ESLITE．Modern．Abstract Art

Artists: David DIAO, Paul CHIANG, TSONG Pu, LAI Chih-Sheng, Shida KUO

VIP Preview: 3pm—10pm, 30 April 2016

Public Days: 1—3 May 2016

Opening Hours: 11am—7pm (3 May until 6pm)

Venue: National Agriculture Exhibition Center, Beijing (No. 16, East Third Ring Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing, China)

Booth B15 in Contemporary Pavilion-Hall 11 

*Reference:

--- Artist TONG Yang-Tze exhibits her calligraphy of Immortal at the River (Linjiang xian), the poem prefacing Three Kingdoms, at eslite spectrum Suzhou store from 17 April to 29 May. The calligraphy in scroll measures fifty-four meters, expressing the heroes’ glory, humbleness, sorrow for parting, delight for reunion, and reflection after drinking found in the text. This is TONG’s first solo show in China.

TONG Yang-Tze was born in Shanghai in 1942. After graduating from the Department of Fine Arts at Taiwan Normal University, she went to the U.S. and acquired her M.F.A. at the University of Massachusetts. In 2015, she was awarded the second-rank Order of Brilliant Star. Under her father’s instruction, she had modelled after the works of calligraphy masters, such as YANG Zhengqing, WANG Xizhi, and WANG Xianzhi, from the age of eight until high school. Then at college, she studied under such masters as TAI Jingnong and imitated the clerical script of Han dynasty and the works of four masters in Song dynasty. In the U.S., she studied Western art theories and began to attempt the application of western composition in her calligraphy. Ultimately, she was able to surpass the limits of traditional Chinese calligraphy and ink art, moving on to develop contemporary artworks that extend the beauty of space and express the rhythm of sound.

Installation View of TONG Yang-Tze’s Immortal at the River at Taipei Museum of Fine Arts, 2014.

TONG’s works have melted into the everyday life of Taiwanese people. People can see her writings of the following titles in public spheres: Taipei Train Station, Cloud Gate Dance Theater, the film The Grandmasters, and the novel Crystal Boys. All these names appear in the form of her brushwork.

TONG Yang-Tze’s Writing of “Cloud Gate Dance Theater”

To be exhibited at eslite spectrum Suzhou store this time, her writing of Immortal at the River draws from the work of a writer in Chinese Ming dynasty, YANG Shen, whose following writer, LUO Guanzhong in Qing dynasty, adopted the lyric to unfold his Three Kingdoms.

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“Immortal at the River” (YANG Shen)* 

On and on the Great River rolls, racing east.

Of proud and gallant heroes its white-tops leave no trace,

As right and wrong, pride and fall turn all at once unreal.

Yet ever the green hills stay

To blaze in the west-waning day.

 Fishers and woodsmen comb the river isles.

White-crowned, they’ve seen enough of spring and autumn

To make a good company over the winter jar,

Where many a famed event

Provides their merriment.

*Translation by Moss Roberts in Three Kingdoms: A Historical Novel. London: The Regents of the University of California, 2014. 

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Installation View of TONG Yang-Tze’s Immortal at the River at Taipei Museum of Fine Arts, 2014.

TONG Yang-Tze creates contemporary art through calligraphy. Under her re-interpretation, this classic work visually expresses the heroic glory and worldly desolation through the movements and gradations of her brushes. Immortal at the River is her longest work; together with the installation of sands in the hall, the lyric from the ancient Ming is vibrant enough to penetrate through the viewers.  

TONG Yang-Tze, Detail of Immortal at the River (Rolls) 

TONG Yang-Tze, Detail of Immortal at the River (Hero)

According to an interview conducted by Global View Monthly, TONG in her early years often consulted TAI Jingnong for opinions. Once, the master, delighted in discussion, gave her a little note and solemnly told her that on the note was written the key to supreme calligraphy, left by Qing Dao Ren（the self-appellation of Li Ruiqing, a renowned calligrapher in late Qing dynasty）to CHANG Dai-chien. The key is: “One bears in mind the paper in full stretch but sees no full expanse of a character in front.” Years later when re-examining her own works, TONG Yang-Tze felt that those to her satisfaction are works that echo the saying.

TONG Yang-Tze, Detail of Immortal at the River (The Winter Jar) 

TONG Yang-Tze, Detail of Immortal at the River (To blaze in the west-waning day)

One should not approach TONG’s work via the lens of traditional calligraphy. In square or in scroll, her work is contemporary, given the characters’ composition and the brushwork’s rhythm, as well as the space and temporality generated on the paper. “Calligraphy mirrors one’s mind,” as TAI Jingnong once remarked, or as a critic indicated: “the Qi of traditional Chinese calligraphy” is turned into “the dynamic rhythm of painting calligraphy” in her work. TONG Yang-Tze draws from classic literature and history, but she is competent to create disparate meanings in each re-writing.

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Exhibit: Calligraphy Work of TONG Yang-Tze

Date: 17 April—29 May 2016

Venue: 3F eslite Exhibition and Performance Hall, the eslite spectrum Suzhou store | No. 8, Yuelang St., Suzhou Industrial Park, Jiangsu Province, China

Opening Hours: 10am—10pm, every day

Installation View of Sky #2 at ESLITE GALLERY, Taipei, Taiwan, 2016

The transmission of art as a form [of] knowledge is something rare today, given its competition with the abundance of spectacles and popular entertainment. Whereas Lin Yan’s paperworks do not move, spectacles project a constant flickering, a perennial strobe that keeps us in a sublimated condition of panic and off-balance.

Echoes in Silence, 2006, Xuan Paper, Gauze, 190 × 170 cm

Chating #4, 2016, Xuan Paper, Wax and Cotton Thread, 79 x 45 cm

Clear Cloud, 2014, Ink, Xuan Paper, 61 × 61 × 5 cm

  Lin Yan will cast metal floors and walls of bricks not simply as decorative or textural patterns in the formal sense, but as signifiers of her past and of China’s past as well. In addition, the artist further speaks of the contrasting elements of metal as having an industrial significance and paper as a more delicate cultural component directly associated with Eastern aesthetics, writing, and philosophy.

Installation View of To Beijing #1-Cradle Song at ESLITE GALLERY, Taipei, Taiwan, 2016

Installation View of To Beijing #4 (Detail) at ESLITE GALLERY, Taipei, Taiwan, 2016

Installation View of To Beijing #4 (Detail) at ESLITE GALLERY, Taipei, Taiwan, 2016

[O]ne may visually absorb the feeling of dark ink.

Raining Inside #2, 2006, Ink, Xuan Paper, 180 × 168 cm

LIN Yan: “The richness of blacks is like ink in Chinese painting. Black is a complex and sensitive color. It’s very powerful when you handle it well.”

Raining Inside#1, 2006, Ink, Xuan Paper, 250 x 99 cm

From the perspective of Abstract Expressionism, this recalls the painter Robert Motherwell’s use of black, especially in his series of “Elegies to the Spanish Republic.” While Motherwell emphasized the tragic and somber connotations of black, Lin Yan’s perspective is much different.

Generally, from a Chinese perspective, one reads black as having less to do with tragedy than fertility, the place where things grow out of the darkness, which is an essential Taoist teaching.

Gray City 2015 (Detail), 2015, Ink, Xuan Paper, String Light, 44 × 53 cm

Dew (Detail), 2015, Xuan Paper, Ink on Linen, 193 × 147 × 40 cm

LIN Yan: “I use paper and ink for their ability to record intricate effects of wear and tear on the cultural and material fabric of our contemporary world, and, at the same time, to restore culture and peace within conflicts. Despite the feeling towards things lost, struggling, or being destroyed, there is also beauty, strength, hope, and persistence in these sculpted paper paintings.”

Hutong #1, 2012, Xuan Paper, Ink, 41 × 41 cm

Hutong #5, 2016, Xuan Paper, Ink, 51 x 41 cm

In the Tao Te Ching, much emphasis is given to the details of what one sees in nature, and nature – in contrast to Western philosophy – is less in opposition to culture [than] an extension of it.

Both Sides, 2014, Xuan Paper, Wax, 41 × 41 × 3cm

Chating #3, 2016, Xuan Paper, 44 x 45 cm

Hutong #4, 2016, Xuan Paper, Ink, 35.5 × 26 × 9 cm

Hutong #4 (Detail), 2016, Xuan Paper, Ink, 35.5 × 26 × 9 cm

[A]s the Tao te Ching makes clear:

That which is called Tao / is indistinct and ineffable

Ineffable and indistinct, / yet therein are objects

Deep-seated and unseen, / therein are essences,

The essence is quite real, / therein is the vivid Truth.

It is always problematic to put such ideas within an outside context and still allow them to resonate with their own special meaning, a task once given to centuries of Chinese scholars who contemplated the application of the “way” in relation to everyday reality.

My Pond #2, 2016, Xuan Paper, String Light, 20 × 20 × 3 cm

Brooklyn Note 2016, 2016, Ink, Xuan Paper, Gauze, 33 × 27 cm

City View #4, 2012, Xuan Paper, Wood, 38 × 33 cm

Hutong #3, 2016, Ink, Paper, Wire, 34 × 30 × 29 cm

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LIN Yan

VIP Preview | 11am—6pm, Friday, 8 April 2016

Opening Reception | 3pm, Saturday, 9 April 2016

Installation View of “LIN Yan” at ESLITE GALLERY, Taipei, Taiwan, 2016

Date | 9 April—8 May 2016

Venue | ESLITE GALLERY | 5F, No. 11 Songgao Road, Taipei 11073 Taiwan

Opening Hours | 11am—7pm, Tuesdays—Sundays (closed on Mondays)

Website | http://www.eslitegallery.com/en/

In 1994, LIN returned to Beijing, and to her dismay, the once familiar city was virtually ruined in urban modernization. The urge to respond to the changes swelled inside her. She began to cast, with paper, the partial objects of old buildings in Beijing, such as roof tiles and rivets. 

“It was 1994. In Beijing, the old buildings and culture was replaced by the skyscrapers mushrooming here and there. I felt shocked and unnerved. I wish our city could have been cared, rather than sabotaged in such ways!”

To Beijing #1- Cradle Song, 1996, Mixed Media on Paper with Chrome, 116.84 × 365.8 cm

“My sensitivity to architectural elements bears on my home and culture, as well as my experiences and expressions at different stages.”

Monument #8, 2008, Ink, Xuan Paper, Gauze, 200 × 145 × 20 cm

Monument #8 (Detail), 2008, Ink, Xuan Paper, Gauze, 200 × 145 × 20 cm

In addition to the brick walls in Beijing, LIN Yan also casts her studio floor in Brooklyn, creating sculpture paintings armed with industrial character.

City View #2, 2011, Xuan Paper, 145 × 80 cm

City View #2 (Detail), 2011, Xuan Paper, 145 × 80 cm

“The xuan paper in my hands has changed from the medium of painting into the subject of a work. Its layers and texture are implicitly rich and versatile, its vocabulary enlarging our aesthetic scope. My feeling about painting, my passion for space and colors interact with these elements. A kind of penetrating truth is embodied through the paper’s handcraft quality and imperfect arbitrariness.”

Drizzling #2, 2015, Xuan Paper on Linen, 132 × 132 cm

Drizzling #2 (Detail), 2015, Xuan Paper on Linen, 132 × 132 cm

“I try to express most thoughts via least elements, exploring something uncertain in the process.”

Kongqu, 2016, Xuan Paper, String Light, 30 × 1156 × 20 cm

Installation View of Kongqu and Pondering at ESLITE GALLERY, Taipei, Taiwan, 2016

“Black and white, steel, brick, and soft paper—their combination is like tai chi, performing the balance of yin and yang in life and in art.”

Installation View of Pondering at ESLITE GALLERY, Taipei, Taiwan, 2016

Pondering (Detail), 2016, Xuan Paper, Ink, 330 × 30 × 16 cm

“Even though I employ the devices of traditional painting and framing, I have transformed the traditional role of paper. Wrinkling, breaking, tearing, and pasting—what should be avoided in painting—become my vocabulary. The material, though fragile in appearance, is exactly my means to express firmness, steadiness, and valuable things.”

Dew, 2015, Xuan Paper and Ink on Linen, 193 × 147 × 40 cm

“I am convinced that people are moved not by my techniques, but by my work’s tangibility that lessens our interpersonal gap. Every nuance of the paper in my hand resembles a painterly stroke—it is how a work narrates itself.”  

Leaves Are Gone #2, 2012, Xuan Paper, Nails on Linen, 147.5 × 193 cm

Monument #6, 2008, Xuan Paper, Wax, 47 × 47 × 13 cm

Air from Inside, 2013, Xuan Paper, 154 × 76 cm

“Life and art are essentially one thing. Who you are is inevitably revealed in your art.”

Leaves Are Gone, 2009, Ink, Xuan Paper and Plexiglass, 184.5 × 108 × 11 cm

“Even though paper may endure a thousand year, it can return to the nature ultimately. Not a hint of trace left. This is how I want my life to end as well.”

Passing By, 2014, Ink, Xuan Paper, 40 × 337 cm

Installation View of “LIN Yan” Solo Show at ESLITE GALLERY, Taipei, Taiwan, 2016

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Artist Bio

LIN was born into a distinguished family of artists in Beijing in 1961. Her maternal grandfather, PANG Xunqin, and maternal grandmother, QIU Ti, were the pioneers of Chinese modern art; her parents, LIN Gang and PANG Dao, were the first-generation artists nourished by Chinese high art education. As the third generation of the family, LIN Yan has inherited their aesthetic spirit since childhood, but she was confident to establish an idiosyncratic artistic vocabulary. She turns xuan paper into subject material, creating sculpture painting armed with architectural characters, expanding the domains of contemporary art. After graduating from The Central Academy of Fine Arts, LIN pursued further studies at L’École National Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris and then obtained her master’s degree from the Department of Art Studio at Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania, USA.

LIN Yan

Date: 9 April—8 May 2016

Opening: 3pm Sat 9 April

Venue: ESLITE GALLERY | 5F, No. 11 Songgao Road, Taipei 11073 Taiwan

Opening Hours: 11am—7pm, Tuesdays—Sundays (closed on Mondays)

DIAO was born in Chengdu in 1943. In 1949 he came to Hong Kong and then left for New York in 1955. While his journey from Chengdu to New York was full of uncertainty, Hong Kong was essentially his transit center en route both geographically and emotionally speaking. In mid-October of 1949, a foreign friend confided to his family that he got a plane and could take them to Hong Kong if they wanted to. Soon, the seven-year-old DIAO found himself leaving Chengdu with his grandmother, uncle, and aunt, and all he could take with him was a small piece of baggage. “It felt just like the refugees fleeing to Europe today,” he recalled. At that time, DIAO’s grandfather was already in Hong Kong. Whether his grandfather just happened to be there by coincidence or had planned for the self-exile long ago, DIAO did not know. DIAO’s grandfather was an old general who didn’t feel like staying in China, nor going to Taiwan. He was jaded by war and politics, said DIAO.

For DIAO’s family, Hong Kong meant a transportation hub pointing to other places. The next stop could be Brazil or America. They had no idea at all but knew that they wouldn’t live in Hong Kong forever. They came to Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong, a desolate place then, and settled down in a new building on Chatham Road.

Hong Kong, Tsim Sha Tsui, 2014, Acrylic and Paper on Canvas, 173 x 223.5 cm

During the fifties, Canton-Kowloon Railroad steered along the South Chatham Road, heading to Guangdong all the way through Shenzhen and Dongguan. It was the earliest railway between Hong Kong and the mainland China. DIAO lived on Chatham Road, and he often saw the train roaring past their place.

Canton-Kowloon Railroad, 2014, Acrylic and Oil on Canvas, 91 x 46 cm

DIAO’s home, school, and church were located in an area between Chatham Road and Nathan Road. His school was two streets away from his home, a church one block away, and his life centered around these places. The nearby church often distributed cards with religious vignettes. DIAO was not a Christian, nor a Buddhist—he did not believe in any religions because he was influenced by his grandfather, who had a “scientific brain.” Intriguingly, however, it was likely that DIAO’s interest in art was piqued by the church’s pamphlets. While other children were still playing childish games, he was immersed in his own artistic experiments such as painting on bamboo tubes.

Three Points a Line, 2015, Acrylic and Vinyl on Canvas, 139.5 x 112 cm

As DIAO recalled, there was a famous actress, LI Lihua, living downstairs. Whenever he walked down and looked into her house through the open door, he would see servants in white uniforms streaming back and forth and smell wafting perfume in the hallway. The scenario seemed a world away to him. “I can remember [our apartment] was located in a new five-story building on Chatham Road. Across from our house was the sea, and there were a railroad and a park nearby. LI Lihua’s place was on the building’s ground floor. I remember peeping into her place from outside. The interior decoration was strikingly beautiful and intact. Our unit was on the top floor, its interior simple enough. We moved in when the flat was finished but barely had the chance to paint the walls. My grandfather, a retired general of Chinese Nationalist Party, was frustrated and disappointed, but he would still have tea with his friends at Peninsula Hotel while losing every penny of his saving in the gold market.” 

Li Lihua (Neighbor 1950-1955), 2016, Acrylic and Silkscreen on Canvas, 122 x 81 cm

Afterwards, DIAO made a painting, where he juxtaposed the photos of his own and LI Lihua on a map of Kowloon. In his picture, he wore a T-shirt with a cowboy on it; in LI’s, she was dressed as a cowgirl, which DIAO took from a film magazine. This painting is named She Was a Neighbor, but DIAO thinks it could just as well be American Dream. 

She Was a Neighbor, 2014, Acrylic and Inkjet / Paper on Canvas, 223.5 x 173 cm

During his nearly six-year stay in Hong Kong, DIAO had been learning English intensively because he wanted to be admitted into a public school and because his family had been resolute to settle abroad.

Elvy’s Private English School with Blackboard, 2015, Acrylic and Vinyl on Canvas, 112 x 140 cm

Later, he enrolled into Diocesan Boy’s School, one of the conventionally prominent schools and one of the top three middle schools in Hong Kong. The artist Richard Show-Yu LIN was also an alumnus. 

Diocesan Boys’ School Crest, 2016, Acrylic and Enamel on Canvas, 97 x 79 cm

DBS, 2016, Acrylic and Vinyl on Canvas, 35.5 x 51 cm

On the eve of his twelfth birthday, DIAO left for America to unite with his father, who was a civil engineer. Why the eve? Because as soon as he turned twelve, he would be denied child’s discount on the flight. DIAO’s family told the personnel of U.S. Embassy: “All of us will go to America, but please give this boy his visa by his twelfth birthday. Or we’d have to pay extra fare.” Not long after, DIAO got his immigrant visa, with a green card soon to follow. In 1955, the immigrant policy in the U.S. only allowed 500 Chinese people, whereas 20,000 English people were allowed. “Their racial prejudice was deep,” DIAO remarked.

By the time he arrived in America, the twelve-year-old DIAO had already been able to speak English. America represented the land of dream for him, even nowadays. He grew up and was educated there; he found the country a good place to be in.  

  In 2012, DIAO held a solo exhibition in his studio on No. 72, Franklin Street, New York, and the show is named exactly “David Diao: Franklin Street, 5th fl, 1974-2012.” In hindsight, the distance between Kowloon and New York, ten thousand miles approximately, seems merely a number’s difference today.

Chatham Rd to Franklin St., 2014, Acrylic and Oil on Canvas, 76 x 295 cm

Looking back, David DIAO finds Kowloon, where he spent nearly six years of his life, and Manhattan, where he has lived for over 60 years, amazingly similar, with their geographical outlook being one of the reasons. Respectively, they represent where a family’s dream began and realized.

Kowloon & Manhattan, 2014, Acrylic and Oil Marker on Canvas, 152.5 x 162.5 cm

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Exhibit | David DIAO Solo Exhibition

Date | 24—26 March 2016

VIP Preview | 22—23 March 2016

Venue | Booth 1D11, Hong Kong Convention & Exhibition Centre (1 Harbour Road, Wan Chai, Hong Kong, China)

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Artist Talk | David DIAO in conversation with Pauline J. Yao

Date | 10:00am—11:30am, 23 March 2016

Venue | Conversation and Salon Auditorium, Hong Kong Convention & Exhibition Centre

For example, She Was a Neighbor juxtaposes his image as a boy and that of an actress LI Lihua against the backdrop of a map of Kowloon, Hong Kong. DIAO remembers that he and LI once lived in the same apartment; her lovely image and lingering fragrance became part of his memory about Hong Kong. Unpremeditatedly, their migration trajectories from China, Hong Kong, to the U.S. are similar. Such an experience encapsulates the diaspora of Chinese people in the specific era and their constant struggles for American dream. 

David DIAO, Kowloon and Manhattan, 2014,  Acrylic and Oil Marker on Canvas, 152 x 160 cm    

In Kowloon and Manhattan, DIAO also uses map as a canvas and indicates his previous and present residences in the two cities with two yellow dots, thus stressing the two cities’ geographical similarity and cultural disparity with a succinct touch.

In the “Film” sector, held in the agnès b cinema at Hong Kong Arts Centre, we will present 7 video works by 3 Taiwanese artists: Kuang-Yu TSUI, LAI Chih-Sheng, and LEE Ji-Hong. Four works of TSUI are displayed, including Youth (2014), Invisible City: Sealevel Leaker (2006), Eighteen Copper Guardians in Shao-Lin Temple and Penetration series (2001), and The Welcome Rain Falling from the Sky (1997). LAI’s Vicinity I and Vicinity II (2011) and LEE’s Looking for the Edge of Earth / First Round / Island (2009) will be on view as well.

ESLITE GALLERY at Art Basel Hong Kong 2016

Date: 24-26 March 2016

VIP Preview: 22-23 March 2016

Venue:

Main Sector: Booth 1D11, Hong Kong Convention & Exhibition Centre (1 Harbour Road, Wan Chai, Hong Kong, China)

Film Sector: Agnès b. Cinema at Hong Kong Arts Centre (2 Harbour Road, Wan Chai, Hong Kong, China)

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Art Basel Hong Kong 2016: David DIAO + Film Screenings at Hong Kong Arts Centre

24-26 Mar 2016 (Preview on 22-23 Mar)

Art Basel Hong Kong 2016 will take place at Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre on 24-26 March (preview on 22-23 March). In the main sector “Galleries,” ESLITE GALLERY will launch David DIAO’s solo exhibition, highlighting his latest pieces about his life in Hong Kong. Moving from China, Hong Kong, to New York, DIAO settled down in the Big Apple and has become one of the representatives of abstract painting in America. His recent works begin to deal with his childhood memories in Asia, of which his remembrance begins from his six-year life in Hong Kong. Art Basel also has “Film” section in the agnès b. cinema at Hong Kong Arts Centre, where we will present 7 film works by 3 Taiwanese artists: Kuang-Yu Tsui’s Youth and his other three works, LAI Chih-Sheng’s Vicinity I and Vicinity II, and Lee Ji-Hong’s Looking for the Edge of Earth / First Round / Island.

David DIAO, She Was a Neighbor, 2014, Acrylic and Inkjet / Paper on Canvas, 173 x 223.5 cm

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David DIAO: 15 Best Retros of 2015

19 Sep-14 Nov 2015

“David Diao,” held at Ullens Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing, is elected one of the fifteen best artist retrospectives of 2015 by The Huffington Post and is the only candidate in Asia. It is also DIAO’s biggest retro in his fifty-year artistic career. DIAO was born in Sichuan, China, in 1943; at 12 he left Hong Kong for New York, where his painting evolved from abstract, conceptual, to postmodern forms. His work often uses symbols and diagrams to address such issues as identity politics, family memories, and artistic institution, often scintillating with his particular insight and humor.

David DIAO, Hiding, 2000, Acrylic and Silkscreen on Canvas, 183 x 122 cm

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LAI Chih-Sheng’s Scene in Wuzhen

27 Mar-26 June 2016

LAI Chih-Sheng is invited to “Utopias and Heterotopias—The First Wuzhen International Contemporary Art Exhibition,” held in Tongxiang City, Zhejing, China. He will set up a new Scene for Wuzhen in a silk factory (the main exhibition hall), which was deserted in the 70s and then converted into an art space. LAI will produce Scene_WZ onsite in this space that features strong historical ambience. Scene was first exhibited at ESLITE GALLERY in 2015; its massive bulk exerts great pressure on the vision, body, and mind of the viewers. 40 contemporary artists of international renown will be engaged in the show, including Marina Abramović, Damien Hirst, Xu Bing, and Ai Weiwei.

Fu-sheng KU was born in Shanghai in 1934 and came to Taiwan when his father General KU Chu-tung brought the entire family over with the Nationalist Army in 1948. KU took to drawing at a young age. When graduating from the Department of Fine Arts at Taiwan Normal University, he had already participated in the exhibitions of Fifth Moon Group, becoming one of the key figures promoting modern art in Taiwan.

Filled with strong emotions and drama, Fu-sheng KU’s works exude a rich literary quality and constantly reflect on the issues of human existence. Kenneth Hsien-yung PAI, prominent writer and a close friend, remarks that art is a passionate and persistent pursuit for KU. “If everyone must choose a way of life, painting is my whole life—my thoughts are in my work, and so are my feelings and every detail of my existence.” KU faces his art with utmost honesty. Indifferent to trends in art, he prefers to indulge himself in the subconscious world between reality and fiction, allowing his fantasies and dreams to flow spontaneously. Naturally inspired by anything or any situation, his creations spring from his inner sense; time, place, material, color, and lines can all be used as vehicles for expression. KU readily twists his media in rich and diverse ways, gracing his works with whimsical and unconstrained fun and beauty.

Fu-sheng KU, Petals And Flowers, 2013, Oil on canvas, 122 x 183 cm

Exploring the meaning of life, KU’s creation centers around “man” as a vital subject, so that his oeuvre can be associated with modernist and existentialist philosophy. As curator Chia Chi Jason WANG once commented, “Fu-sheng KU ’s creative enlightenment began with the individual’s ‘body’ and he strives to capture the ‘present.’ Depictions of distortion and deformation are commonly found in his art.” Fu-sheng KU says, “I paint man’s inner self as well as his feelings towards the outer world; man’s relationship with man, or man’s relationship with his surrounding environment and nature. Life is a riddle and a dream. Life is fragile.” The complexity of human nature, interpersonal parting, the mysteriousness and desires of the body, and the dream and reality of life... these are the ideas that pervade his art.

Fu-sheng KU, In Touch, 2013, Oil on canvas, 117 x 152 cm

Fu-sheng KU’s art can be roughly classified into different periods based on the cities he has lived in: Taipei Period (1957-1961), Paris Period (1961-1962), New York Period (1963-1974), San Francisco Period (1974-1990), Portland Period (1990-2002), Chicago Period (2002-2008), and Los Angeles Period (2008-Present). In early works, headless bodies are enveloped in infinite solitude and bitterness. In works of the middle years are his contemplations of life and death as well as the juxtaposition of illusion and reality. The recent works now witness his liberation from all worldly restraints and sing praises of life with melodies from a blooming sanctuary. The exhibition “Song of Myself” demonstrates not merely Fu-sheng KU’s creative career for more than half a century but a sincere artist’s profound fascination in man, living and life in all its endearments. 

Fu-sheng KU, Farewell, 2001, Oil on canvas, 61 x 81 cm

Exhibition: Song of Myself: Selected Works of Fu-sheng KU 1960-2015 

Date: 9 January to 28 February 2016 

Venue: ESLITE GALLERY | 5F, No. 11, Songgao Road, Taipei 11073, Taiwan

Gallery Hours: 11AM – 7PM, Tuesday – Sunday (closed on Mondays)

Tommy CHEN, 2212015, 2015, Acrylic on Canvas, 100 x 77 cm

Tommy CHEN, 1512015, 2015, Acrylic on Canvas, 95 x 116 cm 

Tommy CHEN, 1822015, 2015 , Acrylic on Canvas, 97 x 194 cm

Tommy CHEN, 1822015, 2015, Acrylic on Canvas, 77 x 100 cm 

About Tommy CHEN

Tommy CHEN was born in Jinan, Shangdong Province, China, in 1931. Amidst the turbulence of the era, CHEN came to Taiwan and built his family here, later classified as one of the Chinese diasporic painters after the Chinese Civil War. At 18, CHEN enrolled into the department of art at National Taipei Teachers College. Afterwards, he learned under LI Chun-Shan, who had recognized his bold use of colors then. CHEN was acknowledged by HSIAO Chin as the first Chinese painter of abstract art, even earlier than ZAO Wu-Ki. At the end of 1955, CHEN, together with friends including HSIA Yan, LI Yuan-Chia, HO-Kan, HSIO Chin, co-founded “Ton Fon Art Group,” and the eight founders were dubbed “The Eight Highwaymen of the East.”

Influenced by Cubism at earlier stages, CHEN adopted geometric and architectural compositions. Around 1955, he introduced the formal elements of oracle bone characters into his paintings, attempting to capture the fluxes of consciousness through his abstract strokes. He also experimented with the combined effects of paints and varying materials, so as to equip his paintings with the uneven texture of antiques. During the 1980s, he turned to acrylic and watercolor paints, and thus his paintings appeared brighter and warmer, his strokes more dynamic. Like a scientific researcher, CHEN has been eager to explore the variations of materials, formations, and colors. He shapes microscopic worlds through the piling of paints; the concrete matters and abstract momentum come to clash on the canvas, generating many atlas-like tableaus vibrating with musical rhythms.

As he remarked, “Make a change, or left behind.” His works reflect the destructive and constructive urges of an epochal artist, not just because he has loosened the yokes of formal languages, but also because he has widened the parameters of material expressions. Overall, his creation displays cosmic magnificence and oriental brilliance. Transcending the constraints of language, his works crystallize and transform the images of life into many a lyric scenes.

In 1959 and 1965, CHEN participated in “Sao Paulo Art Biennial” for twice. In 1962, he was awarded the silver medal in the 2nd International Art Saloon of Hong Kong. His first solo exhibition took place at ESLITE GALLERY in 2012.

More Information

Exhibition: Art Taipei 2015 | ESLITE GALLERY | Booth: D03

Artist: Tommy CHEN

Date: 30 Oct.~02 Nov. 2015 (Fri. to Mon.)

Two Young Men Standing, 2013~2015, Oil on Canvas, 200 x 300 cm 

JENG Jundian’s solo exhibition “Details” will be held from 10 Oct to 08 Nov at ESLITE GALLERY, showing his concrete paintings and signature “colored line” works. With his ant-like vision, JENG probes into the extraordinary minutiae of people and things in everyday contexts. His works often measure up to two to three meters in height and width, for which the portrayed images transcend their quotidian significance and give off a sense of surrealist immensity and the aura of life. 

Leaf II, 2014~2015, Oil on Canvas, 200 x 300 cm

JENG’s composition is not particularly theatrical, and he seldom uses primary colors or arranges paints in blocks. Instead, he prefers secondary colors to portray the details of prosaic things. The spectacles and objects he encountered in his studio, in different places of Taiwan, or in Paris are translated into his paintings. Many new works attest to his recent preoccupation with materials and textures. In Curtain III, he utilizes warm colors to capture the varying states of sunshine as it penetrates the curtain or refracts on its patterns; every inch of the cloth is granted distinct beauty due to the gradation of light. During his working process, JENG often changes a painting’s position and observes how the paints’ effects vary with those changes, in the hope to make his works diversified in appearances and details. Take Leaf II as an example, spectators viewing it from some distance may find the same-colored leaf and the table integrated into each other, but with closer examination, they may discover more subtle variations of different colors. The colored lines, converging and separating on the canvas, combine the plant’s fibers and the invisible longitudes and latitudes, spinning out a world that is constantly stretching and throbbing.

Curtain III, 2012~2015, Oil on Canvas, 200 x 200 cm

Thus, JENG’s subjects and style are metaphoric of a kind of life philosophy: “To see a world in a grain of sand.” Namely, humans, things, and space are not separate entities but entangled in a complex and mutually influencing ecology. In the space of the grids, JENG deliberately leaves the drafting pencil marks, expecting to preserve his own emotional fluctuations amidst the rational composition. As he remarked, “I don’t want my works to resemble the rigid etching prints, but I hope the severely controlled works can contain some traces of my creative impulse.”  Painting is the medium of JENG’s communication with his inner self. His mentality as a creator evolves from the aggressive expression of earlier years to the composed introspection at present. In the marathon of strength and willpower, JENG never ceases to explore the limits of painterly languages and awaits to seize the moment when “mind, hand, and canvas” become united together. “Where there is mind, there is a canvas,” JENG firmly declares. Thus produced, paintings can possess singular and sincere power.

Exhibition: JENG Jundian’s Solo Exhibition “Details”

Date: 10 October to 8 November

Venue: ESLITE GALLERY | 5F, No. 11, Songgao Road, Taipei 11073, Taiwan

Gallery Hours: 11AM – 7PM, Tuesday – Sunday (closed on Mondays)