Fu Qiumeng Fine Art is delighted to announce Beyond the Landscape, a three-person exhibition by Arnold Chang, Tang Ke and Wang Mansheng on view at 156 Orchard Street, from March 18 to March 25, 2017. This exhibition, which presents works influenced by classic Chinese aesthetics and literati culture, is an exploration of each artist’s use of mediums and their evolving art forms. The opening reception will take place on Saturday, March 18 from 6-8 pm, and Arnold Chang and Wang Mansheng will be present.
The beauty of Chinese landscape painting can be understood in many different ways, but one of its most intriguing and unique features is its underlying intellectuality and philosophy, which in most cases are imaginative and idealistic. Featuring three modern artists dealing with the wider genre of landscape painting, this exhibition explores how contemporary aesthetics, techniques, and perspectives transcend classical forms, and how artists go beyond landscape in landscape paintings to present their modern mentalities.
Finding contemporary relevance in the brushwork and composition of literati ink painting is the central concern of Arnold Chang’s work. This exhibition will include Chang’s abstract landscapes, in which he explores the ever-changing viewpoint and angle of vision in Chinese landscape painting. His works argue that there is no fixed viewpoint—creating, instead, a non-directional image in space. In 2010, in response to curator Hao Shen’s invitation to create a painting in dialogue with a work in the Boston Museum of Fine Art’s collection, Chang chose Jackson Pollack’s No. 10 (1949). Chang’s creation was exhibited alongside the Pollack, both lying flat in a case like a Chinese handscroll. Chang analyzes orthodox Chinese painting through the lens of Western abstract expressionism. In the realm of abstract expressionism, Chang still applies traditional Chinese literati painting’s principle of handling the brushwork in a balanced and fused manner while breaking away from the limitations of traditional compositional structure.
Wang Mansheng’s works explore a wide range of techniques, tools, and media in concert with literati brushwork in order to compose subject matter in dialogue with classical Chinese literature. Incorporating modern strategies into the introspective serenity of traditional Chinese art, Wang aims to capture the spirit of Chinese master painters, while revitalizing and transforming the essence of their work in his landscape painting, calligraphy, monotype, and woodcut Buddha sculptures. He has managed to develop his unique approach by uniting his modern experiences with China’s collective cultural history. Taken from the indivisible interconnection of text and image inherent to Asian praxis, Wang’s art frequently employs symbolic Chinese themes. The works on view are drawn primarily from Wang’s imagination, informed by his deep love of nature, particularly mountains, a favorite destination for the sketches and photography.
With his work, Tang Ke examines the synergy within brushwork, transparent materials, background lighting, and other mechanisms in order to create an atmosphere that presents a direct platform to engage with the ancients. Using transparent acrylic film and lightings, Tang created his distinct classical Chinese landscape composition by adding layer upon layer of paint onto transparent acrylic film, often applying both sides simultaneously. When the film receives light from the front, traditional oil painting modeling and techniques are displayed; when the back receives the light, the symbols on the screen seem to drift away from the plane, floating into space. When painting on the transparent film, the effect changes with the light. There is a sense of uncertainty, but it is this sense of uncertainty that defines Tang’s view of the status quo of today’s society. Tang seeks the origin of Chinese classical paintings and tries to keep the “hints” given to him by the ancients as much as possible, while fusing the contemporary “painterliness” with the traditional style.
