Curator: Xia Kejun
Artists: Sang Huoyao, Wang Aijun, Tian Wei, Yu Yang
Duration: March 6th, 2016 – April 10th, 2016
Opening: March 6th, Sunday, 3PM
EGG Art Gallery is pleased to announce the opening of new exhibition “Tetrachromacy: The Beauty of Iridescence” on 06/03/2016, It presents the artworks of Sang Huoyao, Wang Aijun, Tian Wei, Yu Yang. We specially thank to Xia Kejun, a renowned curator, The Exhibition will continue 10/04/2016.
Contemporary Chinese painting is starting to make a turnaroundin the direction ofbeauty itself. This beauty is internal, but alsorelates to a refinement of color, the mindfulness of viewing. Otherwise put, througha perceptual link between temperament (xinxing)and nature (ziran), colors are onceagain allowed to let their auras radiate. These paintings are possessed of the naturaland poetic meaningfulness of the Chinese color palette, yet they also possessthe richness of Western contrasting colors as well as the conceptual qualitiesof monochromatic painting. The most important question is: how can the aural color-sense(se gan) be rediscovered in this ageof technical replication and proliferation? How does this relate to the metaphysicsof color? In this modern age of nihilism, Buddhist views on color and spacepossess all the more possibilities for stimulating an “introspectivemeditation” (neiguan, i.e. Vipassana)and deconstructionist thought. Given the repeated simplification of black andwhite, black isn’t really black. Rather, it becomes a profound color (xuan se), a mysterious darkness that swarmswith potential color. White isn’t really white either. Rather, it is animaginary color (xu se), a virtualcolor in which a chaotic turbidity is implied. The colors of modernism don’tjust reveal colors and hues. Rather, they open up spaces in which the depths ofprofound colors (xuan se) recede intomeditative thought of the innermost being, and the etherealness of virtualcolors (xu se) opens up thedimensions of nothingness.
Colors are festivalsof painting. They constitute a politics of poetry. Moreover, colors are therhythmic temperament of breathing. The color-sense of colors is generated in therespiratory rhythm between temperament and nature. Four artists present us witha new “tetrachromacy”: the black/white and turquoise/ochre of Chineseink wash painting. The color-sense of color schemes (she se) and monochromes (suse) is confronted with Western black/white monochromatic painting. Subtlyconnoted, rich color gradients are implied withinthe apparent monochromacy. Sang Huoshao uses overlapping pieces of silk, givingshape to transparent silk-like colors that possess an ethereal beauty anddisplay a superposition of abstract spaces, as well as integrate a modernistsense of imperfection. The artist allows for jade-like, turquoise and light crimsoncolors to regain their modern aural beauty. Wang Aijun uses a new”boneless” painting method to reinvigorate the aura of blank spaces.He lets giant blank spaces reverberate within the world’s subtlecolor-transitions and -fluctuations. The subtle beauty of the color of water (shui se) manifests itself in what appearto be oil paintings and watercolors. He sees to it our inner being remainsunperturbed and peaceful, even when confronted with unforeseen, huge events. Throughhis Buddhist cultivation practice, Tian Weize lets streaks of mysterious, whitelight dominate the canvas, thereby conducting a surge of color-layers. Hisseemingly monochromatic paintings actually implicitly contain endless subtle changesin color-layers. Confronted with a cacophonous reality, the artist helps usregulate our state of mind using the colors of introspective meditation. Finally,using the color combinations of his color strips, Yu Yang presents us with anabstract and minimalist aesthetic. With black/white and light crimson as hiskey colors, the artist carries out constant rearrangements and tonal changes.Through hollowing out and overlapping, he effectively reimagines planar depthsin his canvases.
By antitheticallypairing these works and letting them engage in fourfold response to oneanother, a contemporary ethos of “imaginary color” (xu se) appears. The works’ implicitlyconcealed colors reveal a subtle inframinceaesthetic, into which the traumas and fractures of modernity are admitted, aswell as tender care and love. “Tetrachromacy” serves as a testimonyto micro-metaphysics.
