INK ASIA 2016: ‘Illustrious Ink’

Karin Weber Gallery and curator Peng Jie present an exquisitely curated exhibition, ‘Illustrious Ink’, for Ink Asia 2016. The exhibition showcases fine ink works by five Mainland Chinese artists: Qian Zhong Ping, Zhu Ya Mei, Wang Yi Chu, Li Ji Kai and Yang Fang Tao.

The featured artists’ styles are distinctive yet subtly interconnected. The female artists Zhu Ya Mei and Wang Yi Chu both come from families with a strong artistic tradition. Zhu’s landscape transcends the mundane with its calmness and naturalness. Wang sees in her dots and lines rhythms that are connected to demarcate an innovative space. Transformed and perfected among the depicted landscapes, both artists reenact their distinctive realms.

Qian Zhong Ping’s ink and colour works deserve deliberation. The everyday use of colours and distinctly simplistic composition of figures highlight a sense of internal tension. The works are consummated with humour, the robust figures are allegorical and imbued with the nuanced character of the literati. Li Ji Kai’s fan paintings are as untrammeled as Rabelais’ Gargantua and Pantagruel, the myriad figures indulge in rhapsodic delights. Strange are the figures and estranged are they from each other, much like the lonesome stars that shine upon them in a cold wintry night. This crisp sense of chilling detachment resonates in Yang Fang Tao’s works. Maze-like paths under heaven freeze into a frame for the viewer to engage in a process of retrospection.

Aptly named ‘Illustrious Ink’, the exhibitions brings together the illustrious realms of the artists’ mindscapes that are connected and constructed by ink.

About the Artists:
Qian Zhong Ping (b. 1966)
Qian graduated with a Master’s Degree in the Art Department of Capital Normal University in 2000. He currently teaches in the Department of Art at Central China Normal University. Qian Zhong Ping’s works are collected by Pinyi Art Museum, Beijing; Tianda Yunhua Art Museum, Beijing; Yangmotang Art Museum, Nanjing; Fine Arts Literature Centre, Wuhan; YX Art Space, Wuhan; Chu Tian Art Group and other art institutions and private collections.

Zhu Ya Mei (b.1969)
Zhu graduated from the Fine Arts Department of Huaqiao University, with a major in Chinese Landscape Painting in 1989. She taught at the Academy of Fine Arts of South Central University for Nationalities from 2012 to 2015. Zhu Ya Mei’s works are collected by the National Art Museum of China, Beijing; Today Art Museum, Beijing; Liu Haisu Art Museum, Shanghai; Zhu Qizhan Art Museum, Shanghai; Phoenix Publishing & Media INC., Nanjing; Hubei Museum of Art; Wuhan Art Museum; Yangmotang Art Museum, Nanjing; Pinyi Art Museum, Beijing and other art institutions and private collections.

Wang Yi Chu (b.1973)
Wang graduated with a Master of Fine Arts from East China Normal University. She currently teaches in the Department of Fine Arts of East China Normal University. Wang Yi Chu’s works are collected by Liu Haisu Art Museum, Shanghai; Deke Erh Art Center, Shanghai;  Zhu Qizhan Art Museum, Shanghai; Guan Shanyue Art Museum, Shenzhen and other art institutions and private collections.

Li Ji Kai (b.1975)
Li graduated with a Master’s Degree, majoring in Oil Painting, from Sichuan Fine Arts Institute. His works are collected by the Red Mansion Foundation, The Franks-Suss Collection, London; Museum of Contemporary Arts, Singapore; Long Museum, Shanghai ; China Minsheng Bank, Shanghai; Today Art Museum, Beijing; SZ Art Center, Beijing; He-Xiangning Art Museum, Shenzhen; RCM Art Museum, Nanjing; Sifang Art Museum, Nanjing; Qinghe Art Museum, Nanjing; Center of Contemporary Art, Shangdong; Fine Art Literature Art Center, Wuhan; Wuhan Art Museum, Wuhan; Hubei Art Museum, Wuhan; United Art Museum, Wuhan, and private and public collections worldwide.

Yang Fang Tao (b.1985)
Yang graduated from the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts in 2008, and has shown widely in Guangzhou, with some initial exposure in Beijing and Shanghai.

About the Curator:
Peng Jie (b.1977)
Curator and founder of Shenzhen-based art consultancy HUXIA PRJOECTS, Peng Jie holds a MA from the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts and a BA from Huazhong Normal University. Before setting up his own consultancy, Peng was active as the Executive Vice Director of the Zhi Art Museum in Chengdu, and Head of Research and Curation at the OCT Art and Design Gallery in Shenzhen, and Curator in Guangdong Art Museum.