Beijing's Today Art Museum will concurrently exhibit the work of painters Kuo Wei-kuo and Lu Hsien-ming for the first time/ Curated by Cui Cancan with support from the Lin and Lin Gallery and in close coordination with the artists, these large-scale exhibitions occupying the Museum's Exhibition Hall 2 will focus on significant works completed by Kuo and Lu from the 1980s to the present. To accompany both artists' first solo exhibition in Mainland China, extensive catalogs will be published.

Significant evolution in the contemporary art of Taiwan has taken place since the 1980s when martial law on the island ended. During this period of accelerated growth, Kuo and Lu emerged as representative artists, and their work as testimony to trends at that time. Both artists, from their involvement in the establishment of the Taipei School of Painting in the 1980s to the still active Hantoo Art Group, have always been on the leading edge of contemporary painting in Taiwan, and like their contemporaries, have carried forth western painting traditions. They not only thoroughly grasp the style and vocabulary of western art, but also remain cognizant of their own tradition, and have always consciously related these eastern and western elements to Taiwanese society, their cultural context and history, while maintaining liberated, experimental attitudes toward form and content.

Over the last thirty years, the works of Kuo and Lu have born witness to cultural trends and social developments in Taiwan. Kuo starts from the individual’s interaction with the real world, proceeds to alignment of his imagination with reality, and uses visual strategies to restore possibility and complexity. Taking transformations in urban landscapes as his theme, Lu has consistently focused on Taipei's relationship with individuals and communities, and through experimentation and expansion of art forms, bears witness to fluctuations in this modern city.

Rather than organizing works in chronological order, the exhibitions present the artists in separate sections of the venue, and each section is further divided based on different themes to highlight each artist's relationship to Taiwanese culture.

Exhibition organizers have brought together each artist's most important works, and presents them in thematic groups set by the artists. The hope is to guide viewers in their understanding of Taiwan's recent history and social issues. By reexamining perceptions of this unique island, we hope to encourage a cultural dialog between Taiwan and Mainland China. At Today, the world can share in this moment. 

*image (left)
Lu Hsien-Ming,
Theater, 2008
Mixed media, 270x420cm
courtesy of the artist