Plum Blossoms Gallery proudly presents “Approaching Mountains: Gallery Artists Group Exhibition” at our booth [1V07] at ART HK’11 this May.
This exhibition will feature works by Arnold Chang, Raymond Fung, Michael Kenna, Peter Steinhauer, C.N. Liew and Wu Shaoxiang. From disparate backgrounds and training, we have selected to showcase these six artists for their distinguished interpretation of one unified subject - mountains. Works exhibiting in this show will include paintings, sculptures and photography.
The subject of mountains is eternally significant in the world of Chinese art. The mountains of China elicit varied perceptions in the society. Many are considered sacred and pilgrimages to their peaks are considered a spiritual lifetime achievement. Artists and poets throughout history have sought shelter in their remoteness escaping the vicissitudes of court life and the political upheavals in the capitol cities. Their isolation provided a constant in times of upheaval where inspiration from nature was embraced as opposed to the chaotic and ever changing society. The essence of such beliefs is often embodied in the artistic representation of the sublime heights, rugged terrains and the majestic presence of mountains. As this sacred idea of mountains remains a central part in Chinese art created today, selected artists at Plum Blossoms Gallery will each respond to this age-old subject via his own personal style of creation.
Arnold Chang has embraced the laborious exercise of Chinese traditional painting. Fortunate to have studied and been mentored by the fabled Wang Jiqian (1907-2003) with an emphasis on Chinese painting and especially connoisseurship, Arnold’s landscape paintings reflect his devotion to the intricacies of the Chinese traditional medium and composition.
Michael Kenna is a world-renowned landscape photographer who continues to work in the traditional, non-digital photographic medium. His intimate, exquisitely hand crafted black and white prints reflect a sense of refinement, respect for history, and thorough originality. His remarkable atmospheric studies of the Huangshan Mountains in Anhui province, Eastern China, capture the sublimity and grandeur of the peaks of Huangshan, which have been a source of inspiration and a muse for Chinese painters and poets throughout history.
Raymond Fung’s lyrical ink paintings of Hong Kong mountainous landscape reflect his love for the city and its unique topography. Raymond’s artistic work is widely known in Hong Kong and he has made a significant contribution to the development of Hong Kong’s Modern Ink Painting movement.
Whilst some artists pay homage to the lineage of the traditional representation of mountains in Chinese art, others offer a fresh take to the subject matter. Wu Shaoxiang’s sculpture practice concerns itself with the monetization of iconic imagery in today’s society. He has “coined” MOMA and many iconic images of our global culture including the Venus de Milo, Bill Gates and Mao Zedong. He is particularly concerned these days with the great rush in China towards the gross monetization of everything including the landscape. In his latest “Mountains” series, Wu Shaoxiang creates mountain sculptures out of cast-bronze US$100 dollar notes to resonate the changing perceptions of monumental mountains in China in light of the rapid adoption of capitalism and consumerism.
Photographer Peter Steinhauer directs his lens on colorful bamboo scaffolding-wrapped buildings in Hong Kong. These unique structures so distinctive of Hong Kong emerge from the cityscape, with many of them shooting 100 storeys high form colorful and textured artificial mountains in this ultra modern city.
C.N. Liew’s body of works is an extraordinary combination of poetry, calligraphy and painting. C.N. draws inspiration from classical Chinese literature on mountains written by the great Tang dynasty poet, Li Bai and more recent poems of Chairman Mao Zedong. In each painting, Liew begins by taking the textual content of a selected verse as his inspiration. He then goes on formulating the characters in strokes of acrylic paint, building up layers of calligraphic strokes on a single aluminum plate. His experiments ultimately led him to a breakthrough encounter with the 3000-year-old art form of Chinese calligraphy.
In Zen teachings, it is believed that how one perceives mountains is connected to the stage of life one has reached: “When you start on a long journey, trees are trees, water is water, and mountains are mountains; After you have gone some distance, trees are no longer trees, water is no longer water, and mountains are no longer mountains; but after you have traveled a great distance, trees are once again trees, water is once again water, and mountains are once again mountains.” Apart from enjoying the works showcased in “Approaching Mountains: Gallery Artists Group Exhibition”, viewers are offered a glimpse into the mind and character of the artists as reflected through their creations.
