Booth：A-07

We Need to Remember Her Name – Jo Hsieh

Booth：PA-05

To Have and Have Not：A Simultaneous Exhibition with the Venice Biennale by LEE Kuang-Yu

Booth：A-07

Topic：We Need to Remember Her Name – Jo Hsieh

Curator/ Dr. Shin-yi YANG

Jo Hsieh (1967﹣2017) was born and raised in Taiwan. She went to study in London in 1991, was awarded an MA by the Royal College of Art in 1998 and a PhD in Art Philosophy by the Falmouth School of Art at Falmouth University in 2002. She lived in the UK until she returned to Taiwan in 2015, where she completed the final stage of her art creation.

Throughout her career, Jo focused on abstract art. The author believes that Jo’s work can be roughly divided two stages: the early “free abstract” stage and the mono-chromatic painting “blue period.” The works of the free abstract stage were characterized by dispersion, disorder and serendipity. She used pencil, water colors, acrylic, greasepaint and other mediums to combine sketch, calligraphy, daubing and oil painting, giving the surface of her paintings multiple layers. To a certain extent, her style resembled the painting behavior of US artist Cy Twombly.

In 1997, Jo began to move onto mono-chromatic painting. To artists, blue is the embodiment of spirt and freedom. Unlike the Yves Klein Blue famous in art history, she used two kinds or multiple shades of blue. She gradually transitioned to even purer geometric abstract to express boundless time and space that she called None-Space. Later in this stage, she gave up ordinary paints and adopted a rare blue mineral pigments that she applied directly onto the canvas with her hands. At the center of the paintings, there is a circular symbol like seen in calligraphy, forming a light blue halo like a mysterious eye.

The author believes that Jo was the type of artist who pursues the merger of life and art. When arranging and looking back on Taiwanese and Asia art history, her strong individual style and her creativity in the field of abstract art really stand out. Her art deserves to be carefully unearthed from an academic perspective. This solo exhibition is divided four parts, namely Abstract Freedom, Blue Belief, Who is She? and Unearthing the Context of Asian Abstract. Since it was founded in 2012, Chini has strived to unearth Taiwan’s native art history and link it to a wider Asian and global vision. It is hoped that this exhibition will made a contribution to the Taiwan and Asian contemporary art history narrative.

Jo Hsieh None-Space P51  254x77cm  2013  Pigments and Polyacrylate on Canvas

 Jo Hsieh None-Space S22  61x91cm  2009 Mixed media on canvas

 Jo Hsieh None-Space M13  57×76.5cm  1995  Mixed media on canvas

 Jo Hsieh None-Space T1 . 55×74cm 19950620 Pastel on paper

Booth：PA-05

Topic：To Have and Have Not：A Simultaneous Exhibition with the Venice Biennale by LEE Kuang-Yu

Lee Kuang-Yu’s latest work, the Bullfighting series is the most important piece featured in Lee Kuang-Yu’s large-scale solo exhibition, To Have and Have Not, in the 2017 Venice Biennale. Bullfighting series demonstrates how the artist has employed realistic techniques to develop his sculptural aesthetics based on forms of openwork and metal-sheet structure. The artist shows a formal language of “the void” different from Western sculpture, and through contrasting the virtual and the real as well as the full and the void, creates a multi-layered virtual space informed with emotional intensity, embodying profound Oriental aesthetics and philosophical ideas.

This series is inspired by the artist’s experience of studying in Spain, his personal interpretation of Hemingway’s novel, and Picasso’s deconstructive aesthetics of Cubism. It praises how an individual shows power, courage, and vitality in the pursuit of freedom and immortality. Hemingway once said, “bullfighting is the only art in which the artist is in danger of death.” “Bullfighting” symbolizes the severe living condition one often faces and one’s wisdom exercised to cope with a critical situation at the moment of making a turn in a graceful manner. This unrestrained quality demonstrated with elegance stirs up the viewer’s passion for life; and amidst intense conflicts, the work also praises the strong force of life, the courage to pursue freedom and the immortal soul.

 LEE Kuang-Yu Tactful (left), Grenada(middle), Red Passion(right) 2016 245x122x129cm,32x26x157cm, 213x135x88cm Bronze

 LEE Kuang-Yu Majesty 2016 125x77x203cm Bronze