"Conceptual Ink" is the third in a series of exhibitions produced by FEIZI Art Club, and the only one focusing on the development of ink art. Curated by Cui Cancan, the gallery invited three artists long engaged in this art field: Cai Guangbin, Zhang Zhengmin, and Wei Qingji. The opening of this show will take place on the evening of the 28th of October in FEIZI Gallery.
The exhibition attempts to break past exhibition models of ink art, introducing the concept of space to structure and order, that is, the three artists will use visual research methods to express text. We hope that the use of this method will stimulate the artist's visual and materialistic senses. Meanwhile, we hope to provide viewers with more channels and information for understand ink painting, and each artist's production process. The exhibition will feature their recent works, personal documents, texts of creative resources, and classic works of Eastern and Western masters favored by the artists. We also hope that the presentation of this exhibition will increase interactions between and among all these elements, ultimately helping viewers understand the artist’s intentions and ideas through the study and observation of their expressed relationships.
"Concept" from the popular sense to understand, means the artist comes to a comprehensive understanding through his long-term artistic practice, and "Conceptual Ink" refers specially to the visual material - “ink” - through the artist's conceptual study, production, and expression. Here, "ink" is both a tool, and a result. It is not only a reflection of the artist's thinking about ink or the concept related to cultural forms, but also experiments on ink as a material and a language form. Therefore, "Conceptual Ink" is the combination of the subjective and objective understanding of the relationship of "ink" and "concept". Of course, "Conceptual Ink" is different from "Conceptual Water Ink". "Conceptual Ink" is not a typology, or the research and study of style, nor a unilateral emphasis on the concept of transformation of ink as a "stimulus-response" model. "Conceptual Ink" emphasizes the interaction between the concept and the ink itself, not a reflection on novelty and change, but a conscious awareness of the problem, namely: "ink" as a phenomenon, but one not limited to the scope of art in the world. In other words, "ink" is the source of germinal ideas, but also the inner tension of the concept. In this sense, the exhibition hopes to loosen the cultural patterns and characteristics of the medium of “ink”, and open the theology and consciousness fields of “ink”, through the visual display and contemplation on these three artists.
"Conceptual Ink” is both a single unit, and an exhibition interacting with a few other exhibitions (easel paintings, space paintings, installations, video, performance). We hope to find what else can be done by various artistic media, and what cannot be done.
