Ink Art in a New Age
MON - FRI 10:00 AM - 6:00 PM
SAT 11:00 AM - 6:00 PM
SUNDAY CLOSED
Ink art, in all its forms, has been characterized by constant metamorphosis and development since the beginning of modern time. Today, its essence represents the cultural, historical and symbolic aesthetic of East Asia. Although the art form is still closely associated with Eastern tradition, artists of the recent modernity who choose ink as their medium or a source of inspiration are increasingly seeking an alliance between ink art and modernity to rescue it from its status as an antiquity, a dying relic.
Still, ink art will always carry with it the cultural and historical weight of the East Asian artistic legacy, which has faced its own challenges in the past century of rapid modernization. What is remarkable about contemporary ink art is how it has managed to break the binary oppositions between East and West, the native and the non-native, the traditional and the non-traditional, and continues to test the boundaries of different mediums, concepts, and subjects of discussion. Like an illusionary wonderland, it carries many imaginations and reinterpretations of a long-forgotten past, while still maintaining a bridge to modernity and real life.
Featuring around twenty works in various mediums by ten different artists, this exhibition aims to present the art of ink amidst its ongoing metamorphosis. Specifically, it explores how these artists work with and are inspired by ink, and how they are presenting themselves on a modern international stage, through different themes, subjects matters, visual motifs, and techniques.
Curator: LI Lin
Academic Advisory: ZHENG Shengtian
Co-organized with Annual Review of China Contemporary Ink Painting
水墨艺术仍旧处在一个转型与发展的时代。尽管仍旧是代表东亚文化、历史和美学的重要艺术形式之一，在新的时代，以水墨为艺术媒介或灵感来源的艺术家们，越来越努力尝试将水墨艺术与西方和当代艺术世界连接起来。由此，水墨不再是一个虚幻的视觉符号，或者说，一个来自过去的历史的幻灵。
不可否认的是，水墨艺术仍旧承载着一部分东亚艺术的历史文化价值，以及在上个世纪东亚的特殊历史背景以及现代化进程下，逐渐变得更加模糊的文化记忆。如今，我们看到当代水墨艺术正逐渐试图打破东方与西方、本土与非本土、传统与非传统的二元对立，也正在尝试跨越题材、观念和媒介的限制。在许多语境下，水墨艺术仍然像一个虚幻的境界，承载着对过去的诸多想象和重新诠释。与此同时，作为当代艺术舞台上的一个角色，水墨艺术也越来越多地跟本世纪的生活和问题产生共鸣和联系。
本次展览将展出十位不同艺术家跨越了不同媒介的二十余副作品，旨在呈现水墨艺术不断变化的创作环境，特别是以水墨艺术为创作手法或灵感来源的艺术家们，如何通过新时代的主题、视觉符号与创作手法，在国际舞台上展现自己的艺术语言。 就和“水墨”一词在上个世纪八十年代的再次流行一样，当代水墨并非“古老的艺术”，并且还将在未来的十几年、几十年，不断探索全新的发展道路。
策展人：李琳
学术指导： 郑胜天
合作出品：中国当代水墨年鉴