by Serindia Gallery Location: Serindia Gallery
Artist(s): Skyler CHEN
Date: 20 Aug - 30 Sep 2014
In this latest Serindia Gallery show, Taiwanese painter Skyler Chen introduces his new series of paintings titled “Peach Blossom Valley”, inspired by the Chinese classic Taohuayuan Ji 桃花源記. Peach Blossom Valley (or sometimes called Peach Blossom Spring) was written by 5th-century poet Tao Yuanming 陶淵明, who described the Peach Blossom Valley as a kind of Chinese utopia — an idea of escape, curiosity, discovery, and even exoticism. Chen asks what a modern utopia is. He explores the modern meaning of this tale in our daily life — are glittering shopping malls, luxury fashion brands and Hollywood big budget movies a modern time’s replacement of the Peach Blossom Valley? A new escape from reality?
Peach Blossom Valley is a progression in Chen’s own successful style from the previous series Republic of Norman. Here he infuses Chinoiserie grammar in his works and advances in both techniques and style. The resulting works bring about a mesmerizing visual interpretation of the modern utopia.
