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Nightmares lurk under the pillow
By Wang Jie |
April 7, 2012, Saturday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
THERE always seems to be a nightmare hidden under her pillow and Taiwanese artist Ava Hsueh captures them with real, fine-mesh fish nets containing dark abstracts.
"Flowing Reality," her solo exhibition or large canvases, is underway through April 10 at the Shanghai Art Museum.
"There is a feeling of eternity among all abstract paintings, since they are boundless," Hsueh says. "But this is easier seen than done."
"Her art is filled with struggle, pain, death and traps," Taiwanese art critic Xiao Qiong-rui observes. "I would say that a nightmare is always hidden under her pillow."
For example, "Gloomy Outlook over the Land" depicts a ghostly world where the sun seems to be black and the sky is filled with swirls, leaving the earth dried and burnt, as if the volcano is on the exact bursting moment.
Her works feature flowing colors, gradient hues, shadows and geometric patterns, notably from the fish nets used in her works as if to capture disturbing ideas. The nets cast odd visual effects.
"This is my kind of hybrid-reality, I wanted to add something energetic into my paintings, and the fish net is this kind of medium," she says.
"Abstract is an interesting thing," she says.
"Although not everyone can paint an abstract painting, no one can mistake it for realistic painting. Even a child can immediately tell this is abstract."
Hsueh started painting abstracts in the 1980s and continued her studies in 1983 in New York, where she obtained a doctoral degree in art.
A highlight of the show is a painting titled "Choose One."
Two vague lines are painted on the top left. On closer inspection, the lines contain the dates 1945 0806 (August 6, 1945) and 1989 1201 (December 1, 1989).
The artist says they are two dates of milestone events - the American bombing of Japan's Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 and the AIDS Day Without Art first held in 1989 to raise awareness of AIDS and mobilize action.
Many people don't recognize the dates, she says. One Western man said 1945 was his birth year and most Chinese know nothing about the AIDS Day Without Art when art institutions and galleries are closed, emphasizing the contributions to global culture by artists, many of whom are gay.
The canvas conveys the pain and agony of the two events.
"This painting reflects more narrative and realistic fusion in abstract works," exhibition curator Lu Hua says.
Date: Through April 10, 9am-5pm
Address: 325 Nanjing Rd W.
"Flowing Reality," her solo exhibition or large canvases, is underway through April 10 at the Shanghai Art Museum.
"There is a feeling of eternity among all abstract paintings, since they are boundless," Hsueh says. "But this is easier seen than done."
"Her art is filled with struggle, pain, death and traps," Taiwanese art critic Xiao Qiong-rui observes. "I would say that a nightmare is always hidden under her pillow."
For example, "Gloomy Outlook over the Land" depicts a ghostly world where the sun seems to be black and the sky is filled with swirls, leaving the earth dried and burnt, as if the volcano is on the exact bursting moment.
Her works feature flowing colors, gradient hues, shadows and geometric patterns, notably from the fish nets used in her works as if to capture disturbing ideas. The nets cast odd visual effects.
"This is my kind of hybrid-reality, I wanted to add something energetic into my paintings, and the fish net is this kind of medium," she says.
"Abstract is an interesting thing," she says.
"Although not everyone can paint an abstract painting, no one can mistake it for realistic painting. Even a child can immediately tell this is abstract."
Hsueh started painting abstracts in the 1980s and continued her studies in 1983 in New York, where she obtained a doctoral degree in art.
A highlight of the show is a painting titled "Choose One."
Two vague lines are painted on the top left. On closer inspection, the lines contain the dates 1945 0806 (August 6, 1945) and 1989 1201 (December 1, 1989).
The artist says they are two dates of milestone events - the American bombing of Japan's Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 and the AIDS Day Without Art first held in 1989 to raise awareness of AIDS and mobilize action.
Many people don't recognize the dates, she says. One Western man said 1945 was his birth year and most Chinese know nothing about the AIDS Day Without Art when art institutions and galleries are closed, emphasizing the contributions to global culture by artists, many of whom are gay.
The canvas conveys the pain and agony of the two events.
"This painting reflects more narrative and realistic fusion in abstract works," exhibition curator Lu Hua says.
Date: Through April 10, 9am-5pm
Address: 325 Nanjing Rd W.
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