Weak Painting

by Su, Yu An

While images and techno art come to the center stage of contemporary art in Taiwan, what should the relatively old, more conventional art expression of painting respond to this trend with?

Before the rising popularity of electronic media and Internet entered people’s life, printing was the dominant medium to all knowledge, which led to the emphasis of intellectual development on individual disciplines. Art as a result was characterized by emphasizing the features, fineness and uniqueness of its own medium. However, the speedy transmission of information, the simultaneous display of various data and the interference on our perception and cognition by electronic mosaics in today’s world have played a big role, and changed art into a new genre of cross-disciplinary, full of linguistic messages rather than the material itself. Now that art creation is not confined by certain scope and certain medium, what could be done with painting? How do we look at painting again under such impact?

‘Painting’ differs from ‘images’ or ‘multimedia’ in the way that the latter provide a big quantity of information while the former is more like ‘written word’ which requires deeper involvement from the audience. Currently, either in many influential official exhibitions such as Taipei Biennale or in art schools, images and installations have been exalted to the mainstream, while the number of teachers and critics working on paintings keep declining. Painting has become the disadvantaged sector in art.

A group of Taiwan young artists born in the 70’s and 80’s insist their efforts on painting despite the unfavorable atmosphere of the contemporary art in Taiwan. Through working on their own and fulfilling their goal by practicing hard, these young artists present many aspects of works. For example, Huang Chia-Ning and Wang Liang-Yin are experimenting on subjects of consumed food in everyday life. They tried to convert the visual experience in paintings into other sensual experiences such as touch and taste. The greasy ‘Bendon’ – Taiwanese lunchbox – in Huang Chia-Ning’s work reminds us the hot and humid weather as well as the sticky feelings and smell of Taiwan’s summer. The shaved ice in Wang Liang-Yin’s shows the melting ice water and the sour-sweetness of fruits through her depiction with color-mix and dripping brushes.

The seven Taiwan young artists wish to see the continuous growth of painting in Taiwan, and present more diversity and aspects of contemporary paintings. Beside them, four more artists from the United States and Japan are invited in this exhibition. Rob James Kolomyski and Benjamin Duke teach in the Michigan Art University. Yuhi Hasegawa and Samuel T. Adams are graduates from the master program of New York Visual Art School. Together with the seven Taiwan artists, they bring up new possibilities of painting to the audience of the present day.

Participant artists:
王亮尹WANG LIANG-YIN / 李璧岐LEE BI-CHI / 黃嘉寧HUANG CHIA-NING / 范揚宗FAN YANG-TSUNG / 邱建仁CHIU CHIEN-JEN / 鄭博聰JHENG BO-CONG / 黃海欣HUANG HY-SHENE / 長谷川雄飛Yuhi Hasegawa / Samuel T.Adams / Rob James Kolomyski / Benjamin Duke