2024.05.08 - 2024.06.08
        

Exhibition statement

                                           

In December 2022, Touch Gallery hosted my solo exhibition, showcasing the mental images I have continually explored since 1966. Apart from a few practices works from the 1960s, most are ink paintings in various artistic styles that I started from 1970. This presented the path of my learning in art and the mind of the development of new ink creations.

 

Due to my Bauhaus aesthetic foundation and the influence of the Pop Art trend, Pop Ink painting was my earliest exploration. When I stepped into the wave of the Hong Kong New Ink Movement with an avant-garde persona, I often reflected on how to inherit and innovate; luckily, I received guidance from my teacher Lui Shou-kwan: "Learn from the ancients, learn from natures, and then gather and pursue self-creation." I began to repeatedly copy the ancient paintings I admired (since 1974), or recreate artworks from natural landscapes (since 1978), while reconstructing or expanding my personal imagery according to my inner perceptions.

 

In the 1990s, inspired by my travels to famous natural landscapes and touched by the sensation of clouds moving and water flowing, I was enlightened by the vast natural world. I expressed my thoughts in the interplay of reality and illusion, and composed abstract visual melodies in the rhythm of motion and stillness.

 

In the new century, I have been developing text landscape painting for more than 20 years, integrating calligraphy with landscape into a unique style. In 2018, I returned to the simplest geometric compositions for landscapes, “proudly reciting and singing with pines and quiet flowers,” seeking a tranquil state of mind amidst the turmoil of the world.

 

After turning eighty, I rediscovered my original intention, freely cultivating it that I have tended for 50 years. This May, I will share my achievements with everyone at my solo exhibition in Touch Gallery.

 

Kan Tai Keung

February 26, 2024