Valerie Artcommune Anhänge21.05.2024, 11:23 (vor 2 Tagen) an Pei Dear Sir/Mdm., Please kindly help put up the details in the attached press release for artcommune gallery. A complete version has been provided below for your convenience. Thank you. Please feel free to contact me for further queries. FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 21 MAY 2024 Zhuang Shengtao. Autumn Series, 1997, Chinese ink on paper, 96 x 179 cm
artcommune gallery presents White Clouds Drift Forever, a major exhibition of around 100 paintings by Lim Tze Peng, Wong Keen & Zhuang Shengtao. With works spanning from the 1950s to the present, the exhibition traces the significance of dynamic gesture in each artist’s practice and provides a broad survey of how notions of Chinese art and literati traditions permeate their aesthetic ideals and approaches to painting. The show opens on 1 June 2024 at Artspace@Helutrans and is on view through 23 June 2024.
The visual treat encompasses a notable room of oil paintings by Lim Tze Peng (b. 1921), which focusses on the lesser-known aspect of the artist’s oeuvre. While most known for his ink work, Tze Peng had delved into oil painting in as early as the 1940s. As a teenager studying at the Chung Cheng High School, he was introduced to pioneer artists like Yeh Chi Wei and Liu Kang, who piqued his interest in exploring oils. In the 1950s, while working as the principal of Sin Min Chinese School, he already sought to establish a serious practice in oil. The selection of oil paintings in this presentation highlights the centenarian’s robust experiments with oils spanning from the 1950s to the late 2000s and reflects his evolving expressions of recurring themes like Old Singapore landscape, trees, and kampong (village) life.
The exhibition also features a scintillating display of old and new works in paper and canvas by New York-trained artist Wong Keen (b. 1942), who has long captivated audience with his stylised and ever-evolving pictorial exploration that veers between the abstract and the figurative. Wong Keen was born and raised in Singapore, but his parents were Shanghai-educated diasporic Chinese educators who were well-versed in Chinese history and literati arts. Growing up, he observed his mother’s daily devotion to Chinese calligraphy and learnt ink and oil painting under pioneer master Chen Wen Hsi. This cultivated in him a deep reverence for Chinese ink and calligraphic aesthetics, which has remained an anchor for his artistic identity throughout varying periods and mediums.
Lastly, the exhibition pulls together a range of monochromatic ink series by Zhuang Shengtao (b. 1944), which reveals his transition from traditional literati outlook to erudite abstract ink expressions. The presentation centres on his experiments in contemporarising Chinese literati concepts, covering works from as early as 1970s to later in the 2010s. In his youth, Shengtao studied Chinese ink painting and calligraphy under the tutelage of pioneer artist and educator See Hiang To. His early ink works from the 1970s captures his attempt at transplanting conventional literati art style to a modern Chinese context. This includes the adoption of haipai techniques and landscape-style traditions to express images of local environments and buildings.
Venue: Artspace@Helutrans | 39 Keppel Road, #01-05, Distripark, Singapore 089065
When: 1 - 23 Jun 2024, 12noon - 7pm
