Like Buddhist pilgrims who trek across vast terrain in search of enlightenment, artists Chen Linggang and Liang Weiyuan find meaningful insight through process. Between the Lines: Reading Chen Linggang and Liang Weiyuan presents contemporary works on canvas that express creation and contemplation, transcending legibility to fuel interpretation and introspection. The works contain an innate sense of inquisitive calm, marking traces of the artists’ hands and minds while inspiring viewers to participate in the reading process.
To read between the lines is to infer meanings or understandings that are never explicitly stated. The exhibition Between the Lines exists in this space of ambiguity,opening the works of Chen Linggang and Liang Weiyuan to individual reflections, while offering no clear answers or direction. The works are visually minimal and abstract, offering a depth and complexity in form and texture that one can read, delve into, and become lost in. What is presented on the walls is therefore a representation of their practice, which extends beyond the canvases into the modes of their creation and the myriad of readings they inspire.
Exhibition View
展览现场
By paying homage to the past through materiality, rice paper, calligraphy, and references to traditional philosophies, the two draw connections to a sense of time, history, and perspective. They deconstruct language into its parts (thought, surface, medium, stroke, image, and interpretation) to create new readings based on meandering forms and physical materiality rather than established semantics. Between the Lines exists between process and creation, moving fluidly between visual form and visual language to read that which is unwritten.
Artists
Chen Linggang is a Beijing-based artist born in 1978 who studied Environmental Art at the Jilin Forestry University. His works on canvas involve printed ephemera or book pages that are knotted and compressed into grid-like collages. His textured compositions play with our understandings of heritage, language, and reading, often incorporating fragments of Tang Dynasty poetry to promote a sense of uncertainty and reflection. He has been exhibited throughout China and Europe, including solo exhibition On the Paper (S.T.A.R.S. Gallery, Beijing, 2013) and participation in 100 Young Artists of Excellence (Xiaopu Art Museum, Beijing, 2011) and Spicy Asian Art Exhibition (HF Contemporary, Berlin, 2011).
Liang Weiyuan is a Chongqing-based artist born in 1985 who studied Chinese Painting at the Sichuan Fine Arts University. His works incorporate bold color and delicate, interweaving strokes in acrylic on canvas, which are inspired by the Buddhist art of the Dunhuang caves and the expressive strokes of traditional Chinese calligraphy that sway between language and art. Liang Weiyuan is an emerging artist whose works have been exhibited in Huang Jue Ping Young Artists Invitational Exhibition (Chongqing, 2011) and Empowering the Future (Chongqing Art Museum, Chongqing, 2012).
Liang Weiyuan, ” Forgetfulness.”, 100cmX150 cm, 2013
Liang Weiyuan, ” Deep”, 200cmX150 cm, 2012
