Mountainscapes

New Ink Art by
Wang Tiande

April 3 – May 3, 2014

Opening reception:
April 5, Saturday 4pm - 6pm

Talk by Wang Tiande starts at 4:30pm

Wang Tiande will be coming especially from Shanghai for the opening reception and will give a talk on Chinese Contemporary Ink Art and his new works

The artist will be available for interviews by appointment

Catalogue available

____________________________

For the first time, Alisan Fine Arts will be participating in “Asian Art HK” organized by Orientations Magazine. For this special event, we are honoured to present internationally acclaimed Shanghai artist, Wang Tiande. Wang, an innovative avant-garde ink painter and scholar was born in 1960 and graduated from the China Academy of Art in Hangzhou in 1988. Well versed in traditional Chinese culture, he continuously searches for the infinite possibilities in the realm of ink painting. His most ground breaking creation - Chinese ink with burn marks on layered rice paper - transforms traditional landscape images into a new and exciting realm. His works successfully reflect the revolutionary changes that have taken place in contemporary Chinese ink art over the past two decades, and have been recognized by the international art world. His works are currently on show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York as part of “Ink Art: Past as Present in Contemporary China.” This is the second time his works have been included in a show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The first time being in “Brush and Ink: The Chinese Art of Writing” exhibition in Sept 2006 to Jan 2007.

The exhibition consists of a dozen of his most recent works especially produced for this show. They include vertical works that are tall and narrow panels, a horizontal work that is long and narrow in format, similar to a hand scroll, and some album leaves, all focusing on the subject of landscape. Instead of using 2 layers of rice paper as in the past, Wang, in his latest works has incorporated 3 layers of rice paper. The landscape on the top layer is “painted” with a stick of incense instead of ink and brush, revealing glimpses of the real ink landscape and calligraphy from the other two layers underneath. By carefully burning the contour and shades of mountains, trees, the digital inscription, and combining the stele rubbings of Qing Dynasty, the artist reveals his talent and training in Chinese traditional landscape painting. Thus the unique burnt landscapes stand out with their distinctive quality.

About the artist

In addition to being a talented artist, Wang Tiande (born 1960 Shanghai, China, currently living in Shanghai) is also a professor at Arts Education Centre of Fudan University in Shanghai, and a Ph.D in Calligraphy from the China Academy of Art, Hangzhou. Wang graduated from the Shanghai Academy of Fine Arts in 1981 and the Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts (now called the China Academy of Art) in Hangzhou in 1988. He created abstract ink paintings and installations in the early 1990s. “Ink Banquet” (1996, ink installation) is in the collection of the Hong Kong Museum of Art. His “Chinese Clothes Series” of the late 1990s depict Chinese robe shapes painted in ink with landscape patterns. It is here that he first experimented with burn marks: the paper has been crumpled, creased, burned, patched, splashed. Wang Tiande's “burnt” creativity exploration continued in the form of real Chinese robes in silk with burn marks (2004), and digital photographs “Gu Shan” (2006).

In total he has exhibited in more than 100 solo and group shows around the world, including USA, Canada, Mexico, UK, France, Italy, Spain, Germany, Belgium, Austria, Ireland, Russia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Taiwan and Hong Kong. His works have been collected by major museums such as British Museum, London; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Montreal Museum of Art; National Art Museum of China, Beijing; Shanghai Art Museum; Guangdong Art Museum; Shenzhen Art Museum, and Hong Kong Museum of Art.

Alisan Fine Arts held solo exhibitions for him in 2003 and 2007, and also exhibited his works at FINE ART ASIA 2009, ART HK 2010 and Art Basel Hong Kong 2013.