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Tenri Cultural Institute proudly presents Vaulting Limits: Cao
Jigang, Lin Yan, Wei Jia, Xiao Bing, Yuan Zuo,
co-curated by Thalia Vrachopoulos and Michelle Y. Loh. The show
will run May 4–25, 2012 with an opening reception on Thursday, May 10
from 6 to 8pm, and a panel discussion on Saturday,
May 12,
3–5pm.
Trained in modern European painting and influenced
by the Chinese ink tradition, Cao Jigang, Lin Yan, Wei Jia, Xiao Bing, and
Yuan Zuo explore the borders between abstraction and realism, painting and
sculpture, symbolism and literalness, improvisation and regimented
discipline. While ostensibly nebulous, the artworks included in the show,
simultaneously appear startling; familiar yet strangely unsettling,
providing an enlightening flicker of displacement. All five artists are
graduates of the most advanced and prestigious, yet government sponsored
art academy in Beijing, the China Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA).
They've straddled the categories of traditional and contemporary, producing
works that, while employing time-honored methods and materials, are
meaningful to the contemporary world.
Lin Yan
expresses her political pre-occupations through xuan paper that in
itself has a rich cultural history dating back to the Tang Dynasty when it
was used for calligraphy, painting, and book printing. She casts it to
create bricks that make up the grid in a distressed American flag, or she
tears it to symbolize a cultural deterioration, or overwhelming
consumerism.
Wei Jia's collage works with hand
made paper relate to calligraphy with which he embellishes his work's
surfaces as well as its layers to explore his cultural roots. Wei
incorporates both the purposeful and accidental effects of his paper and
paint within its layers, either calligraphic text with meaning or lettering
for its own sake.
Cao Jigang's landscapes,
while addressing historic entities, simultaneously fragment reality at
times by offering detailed views or by dividing it into panels. While
ostensibly appearing like the 11th century Monumental Song mode of
monochrome because of its quiet color, Cao's landscapes are more about the
cun or contour strokes used to define mountains, hills, and valleys
that act as cyphers of identity.
Fragmentation, separation, and
Heraclitan flux or eruption can partly describe the work of Xiao
Bing. However, through all of this seeming abstract chaos it is
possible to make out familiar scenes such as the Great Wall or other
historic landmarks. This 'misty screen,' as he calls it, that overlays his
buildings results in a blurry haziness much like that used by Turner in his
Vortex-like compositions.
Yuan Zuo is a scholar
and painter familiar not only with his own culture's historic past but also
with that of the West. However, he is an independent thinker, as seen
through his art statement, who claims that "the subject of the painting
should be determined by the artist and be devoid of outside influences."
This statement is borne out by Yuan's abstract works that, although they
engage the gesture in their expressionist tendency, are coloristic
symphonies.
These five artists Cao, Lin, Wei, Xiao, and Yuan
have been put together for this show not only because they're graduates of
the same academy, but also for their retention of aspects of their original
culture while working within a globalized world. This is a somewhat
difficult ambition, as a discourse or dialog with multiple cultures is
somewhat like the immigrant experience whose adoptive country offers an
alternative place to live, yet doesn't understand his/her originating
social context. Nevertheless, these five artists have successfully conveyed
their personal views while maintaining their cultural integrity to
sensitively express their experience within an international world.
For more information
Please contact the
Administrative Director, Yuji Okui at yuji@tenri.org or 212 645 2800,
or the Exhibitions Director, Thalia Vrachopoulos at tvrachopoulos@gmail.com or 212
691 7978.
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