Art+ Shanghai Gallery’s dual exhibition Of Woods and Wonderlands features paintings of delicate trees, dark skies, and imaginative landscapes by Chinese artists Pang Yun and Li Yuming. The natural world, with its innate order and raw strength, has long inspired the minds of men, and Of Woods and Wonderlands continues this tradition by exploring the convergence of art, nature, and reflection in the contemporary mindset.
“In all things of nature there is something of the marvelous.” – Aristotle
In their first exhibition at Art+ Shanghai Gallery, Chongqing-based artists Pang Yun and Li Yuming offer introspective interpretations of landscape painting, which has roots in both Western Romanticism and Eastern shan-shui painting. With hints of sublime mystery and classical Chinese rational fluidity, Pang and Li capture the largess and limitless horizon of their imagined landscapes in scenes of dense layered woods and evocative wonderlands. Of Woods and Wonderlands offers insight to both the allure of nature and the artists’ individual perspectives.
From Dante’s dark wood to Frost’s road not taken, diverging in a yellow wood, woods and wonderlands have a history of spurring within us a sense of adventure and fervent contemplation. What is it about endless forests, vast expanses, and the combination of sky, mountains, and rivers that inspires such awe? Traversing the landscape tradition, Art+ Shanghai Gallery’s Of Woods and Wonderlands reflects upon the marvel inherent in the natural world, and man’s intrinsic attachment to it.
About the Artists
Pang Yun (b. 1975, Chongqing) graduated from the Oil Painting Department of the Sichuan Fine Arts Institute in 2005. Her works of oil on canvas inspire quiet reflection and a sense of resolute control with detailed but technically precise brushstrokes. Her latest series Portrait of Trees is inspired by the natural order and structure of trees with their upward-reaching illimitable branches that stand still and tranquil against surrounding storms. At once earthly, grounded, and spiritually transcendent, her style of painting offers a freedom from tension based on the power and serenity of the natural world. With an atmosphere akin to meditation, Pang Yun layers her canvases with an abundance of repetitive yet expressive strokes.
Li Yuming (b. 1984, Chonqqing) graduated from the Oil Painting Department of the Sichuan Fine Arts Institute with a master’s degree in 2008. Primarily working in oil and acrylic on canvas and mixed media, his works offer a sense of traditional Chinese landscapes from the Song and Yuan dynasties with a bold contemporary style, melding Chinese and Western styles, attitudes, and perceptions. Depicting tranquil imagery reminiscent of classical ink mountain and water shan-shui paintings, his works are rendered in hues of blues, grays, and pastels on stark black backgrounds, deeply reflective and penetrating.
