Art Projects Gallery presents China contemporary ink artist, Cai Jinwei’s inaugural Hong Kong solo exhibition, titled “Flora Universe”.

“Flora Universe” is a collection of Jinwei’s latest works. With her superb mastery of the “gongbi” painting technique, Jinwei challenges the traditional medium and genre with her refreshing compositions of flowers and butterflies, all exquisitely executed in the “ink, color, water and pigment boneless painting method”. Weaving poetry and elegance into her paintings, she portrays surreal microcosms of flowers and butterflies, some in surreal settings bathed in intense washes of saturated hues and mysterious light; while in others, in calm, lightly rendered settings featuring highly refined brushworks.

The integration of the meticulous intricate brushstrokes with layers of ink washes; the interplay between the opaque and the translucent; the combination of both the dry and the wet ink methods; are all part of Jinwei’s constant innovation of the “gongbi” ink painting technique developed over the years. Born in 1980 in Guangzhou, Jinwei holds a Doctorate in Fine Art from the Chinese National Academy of Arts in Beijing. She is recognized as one of the leading contemporary ink artists in China and has won many awards including the Lin Ruoxi Foundation Emerging Artists Award in 2012. Jinwei’s works was selected to be part of Sotheby’s exhibition of contemporary ink art in 2013, titled “New Ink – An Exhibition of Ink Art by Post 1970 Artists from The Yiqingzhai Collection”.

-Art Projects Gallery

Image: © Cai Jinwei
Courtesy of the artist and Art Projects Gallery