｜EXHIBITION
The artworks of overseas Chinese possess unique cultural characteristics and profound social significance. Through subtle depictions, these artists express their experiences and emotions while living in foreign countries. Their creations not only reflect personal journeys and cultural memories, but also offer reflections and representations of the shared human experience. These works allow us to glimpse foreign life and discover universal human emotions and connections.
"Reinterpreting: An Exhibition of Works by Overseas Chinese Artists" features the works of nine artists, including artists Hsia Yan (1932-), Chan Kin Chung (1939-), Peng Wan-Chih (1939-), Han Hsiang-Ning (1939-), Chen Ying-De (1940-), Yao Ching-Jang (1941-2000), Hilo Chen (1942-), Christopher Cheung (1945-) and Leung Siu Hee (1953-).
In 1963 Hsia Yan went to Europe and developed his "Fuzzy Man" painting style. "Fuzzy Man" refers to the figures he depicts using trembling and chaotic lines. This blurred form suggests a sense of alienation in modern life, conveying the isolation and confusion individuals feel in a rapidly changing society. [Autumn Harvest] (1967) uses the "Fuzzy Man" technique, which also reflects Hsia Yang's feelings of loneliness and discomfort as a foreigner, capturing his emotional experience of not fitting in with the culture of the new environment.
In 1969, Chan Kin Chung went to Paris, France, where his artistic style primarily focused on realism. He developed two major series: the Composition Series, which uses minimalist compositions to depict ordinary corners of daily life, and the Landscape Series, which centers on natural landscapes. The Composition Series focuses on capturing unnoticed details of everyday life, such as doors, windows, leaves or the corner of a house. Using unique perspectives, Chan creates partial compositions that strive for natural expression while carefully controlling his use of color. This results in simple lines, forms and blocks of color that recall the visual style of modern art photography. [Composition No.8-82] (1982) depicts intersecting marks on a wall, reflecting traces of life. [Composition No.29] (1977) consists of white door curtains and green window bars, forming geometric planes in white, green and black, combining the rational structure of modern art with the formal beauty of classical oil painting.
Peng Wan-Chih traveled to Europe in 1965. His realistic paintings were deeply inspired by personal life experiences, often depicting his family life, things around him and his inner nightmares. His works focus on people, especially his closest family members, with recurring themes of parents and children. In [Mother and Child] (1982) he captures the scene of a baby in its mother's arms with delicate sketch lines. He deliberately blurs the baby's face, but vividly depicts the movements of the body through fine brushwork. Additionally, he skillfully uses blank space in the composition to guide the viewer’s gaze, enhancing the overall visual effect.
Han Hsiang-Ning moved to New York in 1967, where he was influenced by the Photorealism movement. This movement emphasized observing subjects in an objective manner, as if capturing a moment of reality through a camera, often focusing on urban landscapes to express the sense of alienation caused by modern urban materialism. In [Street Scene of Taipei] (1980), Han continued his pointillism technique and photorealist style, using delicate, densely packed color dots to construct the cultural streetscape of Ximending. The painting freezes the passage of time, capturing the bustling urban scene while conceptualizing the figures, blurring their individual characteristics. This creates a rational and detached atmosphere, simultaneously depicting the hustle and bustle of city life, while revealing a sense of calmness and emotional distance, allowing viewers to feel the isolation and sense of detachment within modern urban environments.
Chen Ying-De moved to Paris in 1969. His realistic painting style reflects the elegance and poetic quality of French classicism. He is skilled in the use of dramatic lighting and pure chiaroscuro. Chen once said, "I prefer uninhabited nature, for it foregrounds the primeval beauty of the landscape and the sense of eternity. Nevertheless, I do not purposely exclude human beings from my painting, but simply imagine that they stand outside the frame and admire the landscape in front of them. In this way, the viewers and the natural landscape will merge into one, thereby bringing the aesthetic delight described by Zong Bing (a painter flourishing in the Southern Song dynasty, 375-444) as ‘admiring landscapes with a pure mind’ and ‘discovering truths through a transcendental spirit’. "
In [Robust and Vigorous Pines], the firm and persistent pines occupy the entire composition. The evergreen pines stand tall in the mountains with bits of greenish-blue circling the trunks. The air and swirling mist seem to flow amidst these pine trees. This painting’s composition entices the viewers into the artist’s conception, in which the perfect fusion of personal spirit and natural ethereality finds expression.
Yao Ching-Jang moved to New York in 1970. [Cerutti] (1982) is a representative work from his photorealistic period. The painting focuses on the storefront buildings that define the modern urban landscape, capturing the reflections and interwoven images of New York street scenes through the glass. He uses bright and clear colors to vividly depict scenes of urban life while revealing details and corners often unnoticed in everyday views.
Hilo Chen's paintings focus on the themes of the female nude and flowers. His style is heavily influenced by the New York Photorealist movement, with an emphasis on meticulous detail and realism. His work [Breast 9101 - Blonde and Blue Sky] (1991) depicts a blonde woman with a bare torso gazing into the sunlight, seemingly on a beach. He not only accurately captures the contours of the female body, but vividly depicts details such as sweat drops and pores, demonstrating his exceptional realism. This work exemplifies how he strives to capture the detail and how he interprets beauty.
Christopher Cheung moved to Paris in 1970. Known for his extraordinary realism, his works are vivid, precise and meticulously detailed. Through unique arrangements and compositions, he creates scenes where clarity contrasts with unsettling atmospheres. In his work [Fish] (1994), a fish, already gutted and split in two, lies flat on a white round plate. Its mouth is slightly open and its eyes are clear, as if it retains the expression it had in life. The cut belly and exposed flesh symbolize the delicate line between life and death. The minimalist composition is filled with tension, with a clean yet subtly weighty atmosphere. In [Show] (1985), a slaughtered poultry is placed on a table draped with a white cloth, alongside two silk-wrapped objects, adding a layer of mystery to the scene. The overall composition is refined and calm, yet carries a subtle sense of unease.
Leung Siu Hee has long been based in Paris. His black-and-white charcoal works, executed with rigorous realism, depict plants and animals, often interspersed with everyday objects such as tables, chairs, and vessels. Unlike typical drawings, the objects in Leung's works are not simply placed statically; rather, they are subjectively arranged and freely positioned by the artist. Through the creation of monochromatic or black-and-white worlds, his works reveal a sense of aged stillness and mysteriousness.
