Even though the future may be far away,
Even though saying good bye needs not be at an airport,
If only you could describe a future
Michael Ku Gallery is proud to present an exhibition that gathers the works of five young contemporary Taiwanese artists, all of whom share artistic sympathies and inspire one another. From their works, viewers will gain insight into the defining characteristics of Taiwan’s contemporary art. While the artists all share a love of contemporary art, each conveys his or her art through different media — including painting, video art, installation art, photography, and ink and wash painting — making for a diverse and exhilarating exhibition.
Luo Jr-Shin’s works include installation and photography. By observing the subtleties and minutiae of daily life, Luo is able to infer the macroscopic picture of his environment; by delving deeper into his observations, he gives higher meaning to the word “daily,” which is often only used as an artistic adjective. In Luo’s transformation of inanimate objects, we see hints and traces of humanity and of the events that shape our time. Chen Ching-Yuan’s paintings exhibit the artist’s pursuit of an ideal world, seeking truth in the real world, and chasing the celestial movements in which his faith lies. He portrays the world as what he wishes it could be and offers his contemporaries a place to belong. Artist Jian Yi-Hong’s ink and wash paintings blur the line between city and country. They depict people who have shied away from the mainstream narrative, reflecting a sentiment that is, to some extent, felt by everyone in our contemporary world. Wang Shao-Gang’s videos record life in the moment. If the viewers should see fragments of familial memories and pieces of real history woven into scenes that directly concern the artist, it could be because the artist is exploring the value of the self. Artist Kuo Yuping is always traveling — even when she is living in one place. In her travels, she creates art that is entirely her own and completely unreserved. As is the case with her paintings, her videos capture traces of her flesh and and of herself.
The artists in this exhibition have created a great body of work. In the process of doing so, they have unwittingly become a reflection of Taiwan’s youth; one that is clear of mind, fresh in spirit and, at times, naive of heart. They refuse to stay in the same place and do not feign ignorance in the face of a challenge — they are searching and they are building. At this moment in time, we could very well be converging at the beginning of a new era, ready to start a vigorous new chapter full of great accomplishments.
“Even though the future may be far away, even though saying goodbye needs not be at an airport, if only you could describe a future…” These lyrics are taken from the song “Fly,” written by San Mao and performed by Pan Yue-Yun in 1985 at a time when Taiwan’s economy took flight and the nation threw itself into a rapid development. The lyrics speak of someone’s desire to fly away from the rapidly changing and increasingly secular Taiwan to find out who they truly are. Thirty-some years have passed since the song was written, and we are no longer wandering — we are seeking. As we seek to carve out an era that is uniquely ours, life in the city and in the country still floats in slow uncertainty. The distance we face is not necessarily that of geography, but of progress. This exhibition bears witness to the ongoing progress made by a new generation of Taiwanese artists. Perhaps, the best place to embark on the journey to the future is from the promise we make ourselves.
About Artists
Luo, Jr-shin (born 1984, Taiwan) graduated from Taipei National University of Arts in 2010. He often engages common objects in daily life. Through the richness of these objects, it then reproduces another kind of reality. From this alternative reality, the viewers are able to notice the trace of the daily life and the slight displacement from the origin, then to provoke with a sense of humor.
Recent exhibitions include: “The Other Face of the Moon”(Asia Cultural Complex, ACC, Korea, 2017), “Tropical Cyclone”(Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts, Taipei,2017), “Times Heterotopia Trilogy III The Man Who Never Threw Anything Away” (Guangdong Times Museum,Guangdong,2017), “Slide, Don’t Slip —Luo Jr-shin solo exhibition”(VT Art Salon, Taipei, 2016), “Open Containers | Luo, Jr-shin Solo Exhibition”(Michael Ku Gallery, Taipei, 2016),“URBAN SYNESTHESIA”(Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts, Taiwan, 2015), “Self-Titled solo”(Art Basel Hong Kong, 2015), “Unseen Daily Life”(Tokyo Wonder Site Hongo, Tokyo, 2014), “Sharon” (Eslite Bookstore Art Studio, Taipei, 2014), “Photographs / Sculptures” (Fotoaura Institute of Photography, Tainan, 2014), “The Distance The Other” (Hubei Museum of Art, China and Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts, Taiwan, 2014), “Queens International 2013”(Queens Museum, New York, 2013) and Taipei Biennial 2014 (Taipei Fine Art Museum, Taipei, 2014). His works have been exhibited in Taiwan, Japan, Brazil, China, and the United States.
Luo Jr-shin, in Budding, in Blooming, in Withering, 2017, Metal, mirror, pigment print, scented soap, glass vase, flower. In plastic bag: green tea, beer, whisky, soft drink, Each approx.: 80x50x15cm
Chen Ching-Yuan (born 1984, Taiwan) received his M.F.A. in 2013 from the School of Fine Arts of the Taipei National University of the Arts. In recent years, Chen Ching-Yuan attempts to capture through his painting the subtle sensibility that weaves through literature, mythology, and history in different cultural contexts. The artist’s unique compositions coalesce into a constellation of images where the absence of the temporal element and the fragmentation of meaning elicit unexpected narrative parallels between the artist’s imaginary worlds and the essence of humanity.
Cocooned in a romanticist ambience, Chen Ching-Yuan’s work is built on a sense of déjà vu that enshrouds mystifyingly surrealist narratives that appear at first glance pregnant with fixed and careful connotations. An overflow of subtle and fragmented symbols pervades his painting, where sensory experiences are reconstructed with plausible, fleeting narrative clues. His intricate palette and loose compositions collapse connections between each work, turning every piece into a fable tinged with the artist’s profound consciousness.
Chen’s recent solo exhibitions include “THE SPIDER ON SHIP Solo Exhibition by Chen Ching-Yuan”(IT Park, Taipei, 2017), “What am I ? If I can’t be yours”(TKG+, Taipei , 2016) , “Un title”, (IT Park, Taipei, 2015) ,His work has been exhibited in notable exhibitions internationally, including “8th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art”(Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane, Australia,2015), “Asia Triennial Manchester” (Manchester, UK , 2014)
Chen Ching-Yuan, Hammer and Chisel, 2018, Oil on canvas, 21x18cm
Wang Shao- Gang (born 1985, Taiwan) graduated from the Graduate Institute of New Media Art in Taipei National University of the Arts. Wang specializes in exploring the interrelations between the self and the external through video installation. Constantly experimenting with the possibilities of video art, he is committed to restructuring film, video, documentary and other forms of image creation, diminishing the scope of boundaries in order to probe the state of reality and construct various images of the world. Wang is currently in an ongoing attempt to research the humanistic culture and history of the locality through his creative practice.
He is fascinated by his random encounters with people and the fragmented events that occur throughout space and time yet eternally in the process of facing oblivion. For him, the objects and places seen in the immediate reality are not simply as they appear, but exist before us through unseen processes; therefore, he raises many doubts to the reality that we live in and pieces together imaginary subjects and fictional perspectives in his works to liberate the obvious appearances of reality.
Recent exhibitions include: “Invincible | Wang Shao- Gang solo exhibition”(Michael Ku Gallery, Taipei, 2017), “The Moment that Comes is about to Go- 6 Visions about Time” (Digital Art Center, Taipei, 2017), “Chiayi City International Art Documentary Film Festival-Enjoy Art Of All”(Chiayi Municipal Museum, Chiayi, 2017), “Taiwan Biennial -The possibility of an island” (Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taipei, 2016), “Kaohsiung Awards”(Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts, Kaohsiung, 2016), “Taipei Arts Award” (Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taipei, 2015), and “Sanchin- Wang Shao- Gang solo exhibition” (Open Contemporary Art Center, Taipei, 2015).
Wang Shao- Gang, One Stroke, Video installation, 2018, 00”07”00”
Kuo Yuping (born 1986, Taiwan) graduated from the Graduate Institute of Trans-Disciplinary Arts in Taipei National University of the Arts. Her early works focuses on Taiwan’s unique historical background and the modernity of relocation. Her works often involve the changing landscapes and people’s memories. She emphasizes on field research to get in touch with the sites and people, which form the base of her works.
Her creation currently deals with the relationship between personal life experiences and history. Using video, installation and painting, she illustrates the ways in which modernity is considered a concept of progress, but in its rise to dominance creates various remnants and legacies as it rewrites traumas. Her works penetrate tribe and nation, exploring realism in the collective consciousness, and the relationship between society, politics and the economy. On another level, she transforms art into a poetic narrative body that is a form of life in it of itself.
Recent exhibitions include: “Tobacco, Carpet, Lunch Box, Textile Machinery and Cave Men: the narratives of craftsmanship and technologies in contemporary art”(Hong-Gah Museum,Taipei,2017), “Tropical Cyclone”(Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts, Taipei,2017), “My Little Black Book | Kuo Yuping solo exhibition”(Michael Ku Gallery, Taipei, 2017), “RIVERRUN” (Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taipei, 2017), “Shattered Sanctity”(Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei, 2017), “Taipei Biennial 2016″ (Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taipei, 2016), “The Moment that Comes is about to Go- 6 Visions about Time”(Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei, 2016), “Taipei Arts Award” (Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taipei, 2015), “SunYat- sen Freeway” solo exhibition (Michael Ku Gallery, Taipei, 2015).
Kuo Yuping, The Wheel, 2018, Tissue paper, acrylic paint, ink, 97x70cm
Jian, Yi-Hong (born 1988, Taiwan) graduated from Taipei National University of the Arts, he has won the Merit Awards of the Taipei Arts Awards 2014 and the 1st Chang Kuang-pin Art Award. Through recurrent simple male nudes, his works based on ink wash depict the undercurrents of desire between teens and middle-aged men with a humorous flavor filled with imagination, while representing reflections of reality and surreal imagination about existence in Taiwan’s society today. Behind all this, there is a cultural context that traverses through past and now, the domestic and abroad. Compositions of his pictures represent deliberate parallels or appropriations of traditional Chinese painting, with lines of ink depicting simple scenes of life or exaggerated and absurd scenes which involve self and desire roaming in a delicate manner. Through techniques of ink wash such as lightness, emphasis, hanging above, pressing as well as implicit depictions that express to a proper extent, Jian, Yi-Hong imbues the experience of the self into a theatre of man and environment/culture that is both real and fantastic.
Recent exhibitions include: “Tropical Cyclone”(Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts, Taipei, 2017), “RIVERRUN” (Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taipei, 2017), “An Exhibition about Paintings and Transient Emotions”(Luodong Cultural Working House, Yilan, 2016), “Let us not be sad anymore”(Michael Ku Gallery, Taipei, 2016), “It Fells Like LOVE”(Nomad Museum, Taipei, 2015), TAIPEI ARTS AWARDS”(Taipei Fine Arts Museum , Taipei, 2014).
Jian, Yi-Hong, Angels Relieve No Violence II, 2017, Ink and color on paper, 36x38cm
About Michael Ku Gallery
Michael Ku Gallery was founded in 2008 in Taipei and is one of the city’s few galleries with a solid background in art history. Along with curating the exhibitions, Mr. Ku composes all related texts. Since its inauguration, the gallery has been presenting emerging as well as established artists with a clearly structured method, forming a systematical practice of curating. By establishing a perspective with both an independent spirit and a humanistic depth, Michael Ku Gallery explores the prospects of additional levels of meaning behind the artworks’ surface.
