March 2022 HONG KONG -10 Chancery Lane will feature a selection of works by eight artists who represent the gallery program: Wang Keping, Huang Rui, Ma Desheng, Frog King Kwok (Kwok Mang Ho), Pan Jian, Jessica Zoob, Laurent Martin "Lo" and a monumental new photo weaving by Dinh Q. Lê. These artists offer an overview in continuity with the program and artistic identity of the gallery.
During these difficult times, 10 Chancery Lane looks to the artists for wisdom. The artistic direction of ABHK22 is related to the 4 Teachings of Taoism that "Will Help You Navigate Life"
1.) SIMPLICITY, PATIENCE, COMPASSION
2.) GOING WITH THE FLOW
3.) LETTING GO
4.) HARMONY
The artworks and artists selected incorporate these aspects in their practice juxtaposed with a striking work by Dinh Q. Lê commenting on Asian mythologies and war in Cambodia. Painters Huang Rui, Ma Desheng, Pan Jian, Jessica Zoob, and Frog King Kwok relate to one another in their abstract expressive paintings that encompass in their practices a thread of these principles.
Huang Rui (b. 1952) has created a new work for peace in Ukraine, recently exhibited at the Polish Embassy in Beijing promoting peace. "Absence of the Black Moon" was finished three days after the invasion. His latest work depicts the yellow and blue Ukrainian flag sliced into quarters by lines of red and white, meant to represent Russia. At the canvas' centre is a dark circle, a reference to the "I Ching" or Book of Changes -- an ancient Chinese text. The event, called "Together for Peace," was attended by multiple diplomats in a country where the authorities refuse to use the word "invasion" to describe the events in Ukraine. Huang Rui is one of the pioneers of the Chinese avant-garde art movement, The Stars-Xing Xing, in the 1970s considered a pivotal moment in the development of Chinese contemporary art in the post-Mao era. Huang Rui has exhibited at the Guggenheim in NY, The M+ in HK, and most recently he exhibited at the UCCA Beijing.
Ma Desheng (b. 1952) Ma Desheng is one of the most captivating artists from China. The gallery presents a series of his iconic stone paintings. Guimet museum curator, Jean-Paul Desroches has written, “Since 2002, great stones with polished contours spring up from the rough backgrounds of violent contrasts, structured like the works of Brancusi, volcanic like those of Matisse, but as existential as Morandi’s still lifes. He stacks up the stones to form his figures abolishing the boundaries between sculpture and painting. His stone beings are both fragile and robust, solidly planted, yet their balance is fleeting. Not in the least insensitive, they are able to express the most diverse feelings. The center of each stone being slumbers a volcano of tar and snow, a magma where uncontrolled energies confront each other.” From this, we can sense the Taoist philosophy on which all the basis of Ma Desheng's thought and inspirational influence is based. He is collected by the M+, the Centre Pompidou, and the British Museum.
Frog King Kwok (b. 1948) is mostly known for his energetic graffiti-inspired works, however, he is an accomplished ink painter trained by new ink Master Lui Shou Kwan. We will present two 3-meter Ink paintings by Frog King alongside a series of his works made from found objects, using a plaster paddle, Frog King will make a series of new works for Art Basel HK incorporating the teachings of Taoism. Frog King will be on hand throughout the show with live-action performances.
Pan Jian (b. 1975) is a professor of painting at the Xian Academy of Fine Art whose paintings of trees have taken on a new brightness and depth in recent years. He recently had a solo retrospective at the Himalaya Museum in Shanghai.
Hong Kong-based UK artist Jessica Zoob abstracted landscapes can take up to ten years to complete. this current series is entitled "This Moment" to bring to awareness the current chaotic world we are living in and the beauty of nature that is at great threat.
The gallery will present the SCULPTURES of Wang Keping and Laurent Martin "Lo" whose practices represent balance, flow, harmony, and simplicity. Their pairing is always a highlight of three-dimensional form of lightness and weightiness.
Wang Keping (b.1949) is an acclaimed sculptor of wood figurative forms. Presenting some of his latest works including a large woman. Wang states, “wood is like a human body – there are tender parts, hard parts, solid parts and fragile parts, you cannot go against its nature, but must follow it.” He is having an upcoming exhibition at the Musée Rodin in Paris.
Laurent Martin "Lo's" (b. 1955) bamboo sculptures are like paintings in the air the gallery will present a new series of works that have been inspired by contemporary art of Japanese basket weaving. Through tension and balance his works either float from above or are balanced on a single pin. He explains: "I explore bamboo, Its balance, lightness, and flexibility. Its mathematics, poetry and sensuality. I also work with the air and the light.”
Vietnamese American artist Dinh Q. Lê (b. 1968) has created one of his largest photo weavings ever that will be presented at Art Basel HK 22. Entitled Khmer Reamker #12, the work layers an ancient fresco of the epic tale of the Ramayana known in Cambodia as Reamker, their national epic poem. Upon the mythological characters of monkey warriors and gods is the portrait of a young girl with a number two dangling from her neck. She is the second photo of some 18,000 victims at S-21 Tuol Seng Prison in Phnom Penh before they were brutally tortured and later killed. There were just seven survivors. Dinh Q. Lê uses these juxtaposing images to emphasize that there is more about the young girl than those few moments before she was killed. Dinh Q. Lê explains, “I have never been satisfied with the way these S21 portraits have been presented. Part of me hates that they are only being remembered as the victims of the Khmer Rouge, at the last moments before they were all killed by the Khmer Rouge, at the worst moment of their lives. I hate that they are only been seen as victims. This is going back to my relationship with the way Vietnamese have also been represented during the war. We have been seen only through the war, as victims of war. By inserting the amazing and beautiful details of the Angkor Wat Temple complex, a rich and beautiful part of Cambodian culture along with the translation of India’s epic Ramayana into Cambodia’s important epic poem Reamker. It explores the ideals of justice and fidelity, the importance of morality and virtue in daily life and society. I want us to truly see these people within these portraits as they exist in relation to their Cambodian culture. To me, they became important witnesses of their own country’s best and worst.”
ABOUT 10 CHANCERY LANE GALLERY
10 Chancery Lane Gallery is committed to playing a major role in documenting the development of art within the Asia Pacific region by consistently holding survey exhibitions by country or theme of emerging, mid-career and established artists, talks, forums and publishing books that bring together the individual historical context of the artists with the development of the arts within Asia. The gallery focuses on the Asia- Pacific, however, keeps its eye on international opportunities around the world, bringing international cultural appreciation to Hong Kong.
Katie de Tilly is President Emeritus and one of the founders of the Hong Kong Art Gallery Association.
Booth 1B13, Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, Wan Chai, Hong Kong