Venue
Address

T:
W:
Opening Hours
Director
Contact Person

>> See map

Shen Qin & Chen Qi:Zero Degree

Asia Art Center is pleased to announce the exhibition Shen Qin & Chen Qi: Zero Degree by artists Shen Qin and Chen Qi on September 3rd, 2016. This will be their first exhibition in Taiwan. Shen Qin, a Chinese national A-level artist, indulges in a painting style reminiscent of the Song dynasty which harks back to the days of an older era; Chen Qi is a professor at China Central Academy of Fine Arts, recognized for his conceptual view in watermark woodblock printing. The two have had creative styles that are closely akin since they were young, and now, nearly 40 years after the artists first met, they revisit their early creative thoughts to interpret them with a contemporary awareness. The dual solo exhibitions aim to examine what new momentum will converge by returning to “Zero Degree.” On September 3rd, the day of reception, the two artists will be travelling to Taipei from Beijing for a talk with Abe, Tsai You-ching, a researcher of the exhibition division at the National Museum of History. The exhibition is on view through October 9th.

Shen Qin, born in 1958 in Nanjing, is a painter at Jiangsu Traditional Chinese Painting Institute as well as a national A-level artist. Jiangsu Provincial Chinese Painting Institute is a budding site for Chinese painting, but Shen Qin had been immersed within the ’85 New Wave Movement and it was during the 1980s when Taiwanese artist Liu Kuosung was exhibiting in Nanjing, allowing Shen Qin to create distinctive works born out of the Chinese classical paintings but unrestrained by them. Contrary to the Tang dynasty painters who are trained to depict figures in Buddhism and

Taoism, the unique quality of Song dynasty painting lies within its poetic values. Shen Qin’s work bears resemblance to the style of Song dynasty painting; he is adept in the control of ink as well as the balance between figurative and abstract, visible through both technique and concept. Shen Qin spent his youth in southern China prior to reform and opening up; he ruminates over his work through repeated writings, as though his nostalgic and distant heart is attempting to retrieve memories from the tousled mind, while some things remain sharper than others amidst obscurities each time through various perspectives. Chen Qi praises Shen Qin’s paintings to be “clear, natural, pure and without a trace of ‘pretense’, like a spring with utter clarity.”

In 1963, Chen Qi was too born in Nanjing. He received a Ph.D degree from Nanjing Academy of Fine Arts and is now a professor at China Central Academy of Fine Arts. Chen Qi works primarily with watermark printmaking, experimenting with various atypical printmaking approaches. As a significant contributor to Chinese printmaking, Shen Qin was astounded when he first came across Chen Qi’s work: “My perception of printmaking still lingered in the expressions of Käthe Kollwitz and German Expressionism while Chen Qi’s work had been searching for expressive symbols unique to Eastern culture; he is undoubtedly the first to do so.” Chen Qi has abandoned printmaking ideologies and turned to polish its imagery, painterly qualities, literati values, thereby validating his continuous contribution to the expansion of printmaking visual experiences and concepts. The exhibition will present works created through the method of “displacement printing”; this is his first time undertaking the task of accenting the versatility of woodblocks as it does not depend solely upon the textures of the woodblock to create imagery but rather the distinct verves of both the woodblocks and prints, and with this concept propels his first exhibition in Taiwan.

Shen Qin and Chen Qi have known each other for close to 40 years and they have one thing in common, and that is the commitment to where their art had begun. Shen Qin is of the last generation to experience the rustic era of China, his past stays vivid even as he ages. He is like one who does not let go of the bygone times, revisiting the remaining impacts of intimate memories and the then artistic ventures through a contemporary approach, while Chen Qi deconstructs the woodblocks, reestablishing prints, “woodblocks/prints” are now endowed with new interpretations through reconstruction. It is as if the artists have returned to zero to consider again the connotation of “zero” itself, and their exchange presents “Shen Qin, Chen Qi: Zero Degree” dual solo exhibitions.

About the Artists

Shen Qin, born in Nanjing, China in 1958, is a Chinese national A-level artist. He studied painting under Zhao Xucheng as a young pupil. In 1978, he enrolled in the Academy of Chinese Painting at Jiangsu Traditional Chinese Painting Institute. He is one of the key figures in innovating Chinese ink during the ’85 New Wave Movement, he is now a painter at Jiangsu Traditional Chinese Painting Institute. His selected solo exhibitions include: Yin·Yin·Yin·Ying – Solo Exhibition of Shen Qin (Suzhou Museum, 2015) and Shen Qin’s Ink Painting Exhibition (Art Museum of Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, 1991). Selected group exhibitions include: Rest on Water and Gargle with Stone – Chinese Contemporary Literati Art (Asia Art Center, 2015), A Fragment in the Course of Time – Landscape of Chinese Ink Art in 1980s (Shanghai Himalayas Museum, 2014), Jiangsu 10 Artists Invitation Exhibition at China Central Academy of Fine Arts (National Art Museum of China, 1986). Shen Qin’s recent exhibition, Shen Qin & Chen Qi: Zero Degree, will be on view at Asia Art Center Taipei in 2016.

Chen Qi, born in Nanjing, China in 1963, received Ph.D degree from Nanjing Academy of Fine Arts in 2006. He is currently a professor at China Central Academy of Fine Arts and advisor to graduate students. Public Collections include: National Art Museum of China, Shanghai Art Museum, Guangdong Museum of Art, Jiangsu Art Museum, British Museum, Victoria and Albert Museum, Ashmolean Museum, Sotheby’s Institute of Art, New York Public Library, Fukuoka Art Museum and the Europe Muban foundation. His selected solo exhibitions include: The Time of Chen Qi – 1983-2016, (Shanghai Peninsula Art Museum, 2016), The Notation of Time – Exhibition of Chen Qi’s Art (National Museum of China, 2013), Chen Qi Woodcuts (Durham University, 2008), Woodblock Prints by Chen Qi (National Art Museum of China, 1993); selected group exhibitions include: Water · Print · Impression – International Woodblock Print Invitation Exhibition (Suzhou Art Museum, 2012), View of the City – International Print Invitation Exhibition (Shanghai Art Museum, 2011), Revival of Tradition – Chinese Contemporary Art Exhibition (Museum of Contemporary Art in Frankfurt, 2009), Kanagawa International Print Festival – The Contemporary Prints of Japan and the World –Steps in Post War 50 Years (Yokohama Museum of Art, 1995). Chen Qi’s recent exhibition, Shen Qin & Chen Qi: Zero Degree, will be on view at Asia Art Center Taipei in 2016.

  • 沈勤、陳琦:零度_主視覺

    沈勤、陳琦:零度_主視覺