The Ministry of Culture, Taipei Cultural Center of TECO in New York proudly presents Amanda Tseng's Modern Ink Wash Painting Exhibition and Yuan Chin-Taa's Ink Wash Paintings and Multi-Media Exhibition, two solo exhibitions held at Monroe and MacFeely Galleries, 2017 I Street, Northwest, Washington, D.C. from March 7th through March 29th, 2014 with an Opening Reception on March 7th, 2014 from 6:30-9PM. Funded by the Ministry of Culture of Taiwan, R.O.C. This show is organized by the Arts Club of Washington. These exhibitions comprise the following participating artists: Amanda Tseng and Yuan Chin-Ta
About the Artists
Amanda Tseng
Amanda Tseng, a Chinese-American artist, is not your conventional painter. She spent two decades of her life in the U.S., completely immersed herself in the way of western life, where she developed her critical thinking and creative energy and gained new perspective on life. Returning to Taiwan in 2006, Amanda devoted her artistic development in traditional Chinese ink wash painting, and was inspired by the Mother Nature and the power of Qi (life-force). Unlike the traditional Chinese ink wash painters, Amanda no longer needs to rely on paintbrushes as the sole medium but using the motion, the flow, and the tension of water to transform ink to the unique art of landscapes on the handmade Chinese Xuan paper. This unique style of wet-on-wet technique painting has never been seen in neither Western nor Eastern art form. Amanda Tseng has taken the traditional Chinese ink wash painting to a new height.
There are three basic fundamental elements constitute in Chinese ink wash painting: water, ink, and paper. All are simple but also very critical, especially interacted with each other. The change in temperature of the water, raw materials influenced by weather dictates the quality of the paper available, thus further influence the absorbability and dilution of the ink. The combination of all the factors is critical in my creation, and after much experimentation, striving to develop and perfect the technique, I’ve came to the understanding of Chinese “Qi”, which is a form of force exerted through the fluid of motion. The water pushes the ink, carries it in the universe that is paper, creating a landscape that can only be created in my mind. I call it “mindscape” if you will.
I invite you to enjoy the newest art form from the east and take a spiritual and mental journey through my paintings.
Yuan Chin-Taa
Yuan Chin-Taa was born in 1949 in Taiwan. He graduated from Fine Arts of National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU) in 1975 and later earned his Master of Fine Arts from the City College of the City University of New York. Yuan Chin-Taa formerly served as Chairman of the Department of Fine Art and Director for the Graduate Institute of Fine Art of NTNU. Currently, he is a professional artist. From the late 1980s, Yuan has participated in various exhibitions, including The 1999 Paris Exhibition by Masters of Today and New Artists (1999) held in France, Book: the Reconstruction of Contemporary Chinese Art (2006) held in New York, San Francisco and Hawaii, The 2008 Beijing Olympic Games Art Exhibition, and Touring Exhibition on Overseas Chinese’s 100 Years of Paintings held at the exhibition space of 2010 Shanghai Expo. Since 1992, Yuan's art works have been auctioned at Fine Modern and Contemporary Chinese Paintings of Christie's and Sotheby's (Hong Kong). During the past decades, Yuan has organized many solo exhibitions around the pacific region and international: The Footprints of History (1995.06) at National Art Museum of Taiwan in Taichung, Taiwan, Yuan Chin-Taa’s Modern Chinese Paintings (2000.11) at Le Bateau-Lavior in Paris, France, Marks of Life Series (2001.11) at Fukuoka Art Museum in Kyushu, Japan, Yuan Chin-Taa’s Arts (2007.07) at Jung Gallery in Seoul, Korea, Ecology Fashion Consumption (2008.07) at Shanghai Art Museum in Shanghai, China, Reflections of the Nature (2008.12) at The Museum of Kyoto in Kyoto, Japan, Taiwan Image (2009.03) at National Art Museum of China in Beijing, China.
Yuan's recent works, The Books Series, contains a new interpretation of ancient Chinese books. With the semiotics application, Yuan has reinterpreted text messages from the ancient Chinese Tao characters, Shang and Zhou bronze inscriptions, the Qin and Han bamboo Jane, Seal, and Li words to render contents of the books series such as the Book of Songs, the Book of Mountains and Seas, and the Book of Tea. Inspired from the comprehension reading of Chinese ancient poems “FISH”, the Book of Song is as a carrier, showing the symbolic images and new interpretation text links on, to explore the erotic world of human nature. Corresponding the ancient text of the Book of Mountains and Seas, Yuan has created the ultra-modern mythological animals to visualize the fantastical world of ancient China. He also focuses on ecological concerns and the cultivation of life aesthetic in the Book of Tea. To have more complex structures of casted paper art, he worked with local handmade paper mill and discovered new materials and fibers of the island plants. The partition layouts of the exhibition include handsheets, casted paper, stainless steel plates, ceramic series and Chinese paintings albums. Three-dimensional paper arts, technical-hollowed finish with incense-burnt calligraphy, transforming the shape of space images and the light and shadow of the texts transmitting through with pages opened.
For More Information: Please contact TECO at yenchou@tpecc.org