The contemporary art section of Fine Art Asia 2012 will feature selected galleries from both Asia and the West, showing a wide range of art works in different media.
Michael Goedhuis, London, focuses on New Ink Artists who draw on the rich cultural legacy of China’s classical past to create a contemporary pictorial language that is relevant to Chinese society today. A training in traditional Chinese art and philosophy plus 25 years in the USA have contributed to Liu Dan’s (b. 1953) sophisticated style, whether painting landscapes or scholar’s rocks. Qiu Jie (b. 1961) combines a brilliant drawing technique with provocative surrealistic elements as he juxtaposes stark images from the Cultural Revolution with elements from contemporary culture. Wei Ligang (b. 1964) who has been at the forefront of contemporary ink from the beginning, deconstructs and re-forms calligraphic characters on a gold ground while hinting at traditional script-forms. Qin Feng (b. 1961) is actively involved in China’s avant-garde art movement. In 1996 he moved to Berlin where he began to combine Western modernism and Chinese ink painting to create intensely emotional and explosive works in ink and tea on silk and cotton paper. These innovative works will be creatively juxtaposed with a collection of Chinese antique bronzes from the Han Dynasty (206 BC- 220 AD) to the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911).
Art Plural Gallery, Singapore, founded by Swiss art dealer Frédéric de Senarclens, presents an exhibition of international artists. French artist Fabienne Verdier (b. 1962) uses space to capture the intrinsic forces of life in a perfect stroke. She spent ten years in China working with masters in traditional ink painting. Her almost calligraphic works reflect the artist’s East-West spirit and her quest for oneness with the universe. Also featured are the works by twins Doug & Mike Starn (b. 1961). Born in New Jersey, USA, they make sculptures, photography and installations as a way to convey the transformation of life, whether physical or psychological. Their philosophy is “The only thing that is consistent is change.”
Marc Quinn (b. 1964) is one of the founders of Young British Artists (YBA) along with Damien Hirst. Most of his work is preoccupied with the ever-changing physical states of the human body and our desire to understand our mortality; it addresses controversial issues about science, nature and beauty. Also exhibited is the leading Chinese artist Chu Teh-chun (b. 1920). Chu was trained at the National College of Art in Hangzhou but in 1955 left for Paris where he has lived ever since. He combines classical Chinese painting with Western art to create a lyrical abstraction. In contrast are the vibrant colour arrangements in vertical lines by the prominent British abstract painter Ian Davenport (b. 1966).
Grotto Fine Art, Hong Kong, represents exclusively local Hong Kong Chinese artists with a particular interest in avant-garde artworks. Featured artworks include painting, sculpture, prints, photography, mixed media and conceptual installation pieces. Highlights include Moth Lake by Tsang Chui-mei, whose artistic style combines the Chinese literati tradition with elements of Western Abstract Expressionism. Tsang’s works are intense expressions of her private emotions that often refer to inner and outer selves, positive and negative, the dichotomy of yin and yang.
Albemarle Gallery, London, will feature a solo exhibition of the Italian realist painter Luciano Ventrone (b. 1942) who is acclaimed by the Italian art establishment, museums, curators and critics as one of the leading exponents of his genre. Ventrone’s hyper- realistic paintings are much more than photographic representations of his subjects. Art historian and critic Edward Lucie-Smith has commented, “Far from offering us the somewhat flattened version of physical forms typical of the monocular vision of the camera, his paintings have an almost overwhelming solidity and physical presence, to the point where the nearest shapes seem ready to break through the front plane of the canvas.”
Koru Contemporary Art, Hong Kong, presents international contemporary artists specialising in sculpture in a wide range of media including wood, bronze, stone, glass, ceramic and mixed media; paintings, prints and photography. Featured at Fine Art Asia 2012 will be stunning works in glass by the Japanese artists Kazumi Ikemoto (b. 1954) and Hiroshi Yamano (b. 1956); the Chinese artist Guan Donghai and the Korean Kim Kira (b. 1973); in wood and marble by the Italian-born Oriano Galloni (b. 1970) now living in New York; in wood by established New Zealand artist Rick Swain (b. 1949) and in cast bronze by fellow New Zealander Terry Stringer (b. 1946).
3812 Contemporary Art Projects, Hong Kong, presents contemporary Asian artists including Xiang Yang (b. 1967) who creates mixed media installations using silk thread as a primary material and combines Chinese philosophy and traditional Chinese folk art with Western culture in his work.
