This week, new works of Wu Chi-Tsung’s will be showcased in Taipei Dangdai Art Fair represented by Galerie du Monde. A fan-shaped Cyano-Collage Serieson aluminium board will be presented together witha newDrawing Studies – MAO Bodhissatva Guanyincreated in Turin, Italythat is commissioned and collected by Museo d’Arte Orientale di Torino.
Calligraphy Study 001 書法習作001 Single-channel video, 2min, 2022
Recently, Wu Chi-Tsung debuted his new work series, the Calligraphy Series, at 2023 Hengshan Calligraphy Biennial. Co-organized by Taoyuan Museum of Fine Arts and Hengshan Calligraphy Art Center and co-curated by Wu Chao Jen Philip and Chen I Tso, the inaugural biennial, titled “Era of Principle and No Principle Interwoven”, is centered on the development and future prospect of Chinese Calligraphy in the context of contemporary art.
‘In this video, a length of a paper is attached to a modified treadmill. After turning the treadmill on, Wu uses a brush to write on the moving paper. As he attempts to transcribe the famous Letter of Loss and Confusion ( Mil Whi) by Wang Xizhi, the speed of the paper’s motion makes writing futile as all characters turn out to be entirely illegible. The speed of the treadmill represents the rapid changes in the spatiotemporal setting. Not only is the brush unable to cope with the circumstances, but it is also incapable to engage in a meaningful conversation with the paper. ‘ （Quoted from curatorial statement by Hengshan Calligraphy Art Center）
Calligraphy Study 001 書法習作001 Single-channel video, 2min, 2022
Shang Xia FW fashion show at Paris Fashion Week Shang Xia 上下巴黎時裝周走秀現場Shang Xia FW fashion show at Paris Fashion Week Shang Xia 上下巴黎時裝周走秀現場Shang Xia FW fashion show at Paris Fashion Week Shang Xia 上下巴黎時裝周走秀現場Shang Xia FW fashion show at Paris Fashion Week Shang Xia 上下巴黎時裝周走秀現場
Wu Chi-Tsung’s Cyano-Collage Series was featured in Shangxia’s FW23 courture collection which debuted at Paris Fashion Week recently. Shang Xia is a Chinese luxury fashion brand backed by Hermès offering high-quality products with a contemporary twist on traditional Chinese aesthetics and crafts. In its FW 23 collection, it reinforces the brand’s exploration of ‘duality’ and how symmetry and asymmetry coexist.
Shang Xia FW fashion show at Paris Fashion Week Shang Xia 上下巴黎時裝周走秀現場Shang Xia FW fashion show at Paris Fashion Week Shang Xia 上下巴黎時裝周走秀現場
Galerie du Monde｜Booth 3D17 VIP Preview Mar 21-22, 2023 Public Days Mar 23-25, 2023 Venue Convention & Exhibition Centre, Hong Kong
Next week, a new Cyano-Collage will be presented at Galerie du Monde’s booth at Art Basel Hong Kong. This piece will be showcased alongside the works of 14 other prominent artists, all of whose creations exudes an ambiguity and with that comes thought provocation, inspiring viewers to question the sense of self.
Summoning Memories: Art Beyond Chinese Traditions Exhibition Period February 10, 2023 – July 2, 2023 Venue 1370 Southmore Blvd. Houston, TX
Wrinkled Texture 113 is featured in Asia Society Huston’s recent group exhibition “Summoning Memories: Art Beyond Chinese Traditions”. Curated by guest curator Dr. Susan L. Beningson, the exhibition highlights works by over 30 contemporary artists of Chinese descent who reinterpret traditions in dynamic and innovative ways. Across painting, sculpture, and photography, these works were created by both established and emerging artists of different generations who use experimentation to draw on both Eastern and Western art-making practices and materials.The Asia Society’s is a global non-profit organization whose purpose is to navigate shared futures for Asia and the world across policy, arts and culture, education, sustainability, business, and technology.
Curator Susan L. Beningson stated, In his Cyano-Collage series, Wu Chi-Tsung explores the essence of Chinese ink landscape painting, moving beyond the brush to utilize innovative new materials and techniques. To create these evocative landscapes, Wu prepares layers of cyanotype photographic papers, a method used since the mid-1800s. He treats the xuan paper, the material used in traditional Chinese ink landscapes, with a photosensitive coating. The multiple pieces of paper are crumpled, exposed to sunlight, and then mounted into collaged images that resemble the craggy mountain peaks of traditional Chinese ink shan shui (mountain and water) landscape painting – thus creating ink landscapes without the ink. Wu replaces the traditional materials of ink and brush with experimental photography in order to reinvent the process. Wu has said that his landscapes resist any fixed reading: “They could be anything, because they are not representing any real landscape. This is the spirit of a Chinese landscape.. The best works always come from some kind of coincidence… Most artists have a strong ego. We try to control our work. But the more you try to control it, the more likely you lose the possibility. Let the work grow in the way it should.”
《皴法習作113》正於亞洲協會休士頓分會最近的群展《召喚記憶：超越中國傳統的藝術》中展出。本展由客座策展人Susan L. Beningson博士策劃，集中呈現了三十餘位華裔藝術家的當代藝術作品。作品涵蓋繪畫、雕塑、攝影等類別，均實驗著結合東方與西方的藝術傳統與材料，以創新的方式重新詮釋著傳統。亞洲協會總部位於紐約，是美國一個非牟利組織，創辦宗旨是向世界傳播亞洲文化。
策展人Susan L. Beningson介紹道，「在《氰山集》系列中，吳季璁探索了中國水墨山水畫的本質，運用創新的材料和技術超越了傳統筆觸。為了創造這些意境深遠的山水畫，他使用光敏劑處理宣紙，這是傳統中國水墨山水畫所使用的材料。這些宣紙被揉皺，曝露在陽光下，然後拼貼成山峰嶙峋的山水圖像，與傳統中國水墨山水畫頗為神似。吳季璁用實驗攝影取代了傳統的墨水和筆觸，他不用墨水便創造出了水墨山水對傳統書畫進行了當代的重新詮釋。藝術家表示，他的山水畫抵抗任何固定的解讀『它們可以是任何東西，因為它們不代表任何真實的風景。這就是中國山水畫的精神。最好的作品總是來自某種隨機性…大多數藝術家都有很強的自我。我們試圖控制自己的作品。但是你越想控制它，你就越有可能失去可能性。讓作品按照它應有的方式成長』。」
Crystal City – Hong Kong & Shenzhen Bi-City Biennale for Urbanism\ Architecture 水晶城市-深港城市\建築雙城雙年展 Size variable, 2022 Photo credit: Shangqi Art
The 9th Hong Kong & Shenzhen Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism\Architecture (Shenzhen) Longhua Sub-Venue
“Between Warp and Weft”
Exhibition Period: 30 December 2022 – 30 March 2023
Venue: Dalang Fashion Town, Shenzhen Longhua District
Wu Chi-Tsung is invited to participate in The 9th Hong Kong & Shenzhen Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism\Architecture (Shenzhen) at Longhua Sub-Venue, titled “Between Warp and Weft”. Founded in 2005, the biennale aims to build a communication platform for international art scenes in Shenzhen and Hong Kong. The Longhua Sub-Venue is curated by Yang Yong and Ji Harou, a series of workshops, forums, screenings and thematic exhibitions will be organized in responding to the theme of sustainability.
Crystal City – Hong Kong & Shenzhen Bi-City Biennale for Urbanism\ Architecture 水晶城市-深港城市\建築雙城雙年展 Size variable, 2022 Photo credit: Shangqi Art
The work is constructed of numerous transparent plastic boxes whose shadows resemble geometrical skyscrapers when a moving light casted on. The ordinary materials used in this artwork remind viewers of the realistic world; however, it leads people to a further imaginary scene. Chi-Tsung introduces, “there is another invisible world in which we live every day. It is made up of electronic equipment, programs, networks, media and information, and I call it ‘Crystal City’… It is becoming our new spiritual home in the contemporary world”
Crystal City – Hong Kong & Shenzhen Bi-City Biennale for Urbanism\ Architecture 水晶城市-深港城市\建築雙城雙年展 Size variable, 2022 Photo credit: Shangqi Art
2023 Hengshan Calligraphy Biennial Exhibition Period Jan 20 – Apr 24, 2023 Venue Hengshan Calligraphy Art Center Address No. 100, Daren Rd, Dayuan District, Taoyuan City, Taiwan 337
Wu Chi-Tsung will debut his new work series, the Calligraphy Series, at the upcoming 2023 Hengshan Calligraphy Biennial. Co-organized by Taoyuan Museum of Fine Arts and Hengshan Calligraphy Art Center and co-curated by Wu Chao Jen and Chen I Tso, the inaugural biennial, titled “Era of Principle and No Principle Interwoven”, is centered on the development and future prospect of Chinese Calligraphy in the context of contemporary art.
Wrinkled Texture – Folding Screen 002,《皴法習作 屏風之二》 2022, 215 x 79 x 6pcs
Stand BA04, Galerie du Monde VIP preview days Jan 11, 2023 Public days Jan 12-15, 2023 Venue Marina Bay Sands Expo & Convention Centre, 10 Bayfront Avenue, Singapore
Presented by Galerie du Monde, Wu Chi-Tsung’s new works will be shown at the inaugural edition of Art SG. Founded by The Art Assembly, an affiliation of major international art fairs with a particular focus on the Asia Pacific region comprising Taipei Dangdai, India Art Fair, PHOTOFAIRS Shanghai and the forthcoming Tokyo Gendai, the new international art fair will feature over 150 of the world’s leading galleries, from Singapore and across the globe. Art SG offers a meeting point in Southeast Asia for collectors from the region and beyond to convene and engage with one of the world’s most dynamic cultural landscapes.
Among the new works from the Cyano-Collage Seriesand the Wrinkled Texture Seriesspecially created for the new fair, it is noteworthy that the Wrinkled Texture – Folding Screen 002 marks the artist’s first attempt to compose on a traditional folding screen. The series applies the classic cyanotype technique to xuan paper. During this process, the artist treats xuan paper with a photosensitive coating that is then crumpled and exposed to sunlight, revealing images that bring to mind the mountainous landscapes often found in Chinese shan shui paintings. Folding Screen 002 was created amidst continuous rain where light, the key catalyst, was insufficient. The artist adjusted the exposure under the low light conditions and eventually achieved the delicate and subtle palette seen in this work.
本週，世界畫廊將攜吳季璁《氰山集》及《皴法習作》系列新作亮相首屆新加坡國際藝術博覽會（Art SG）。藝博會由旗下包括台北當代、印度藝術博覽會、影像上海藝術博覽會及東京現代等國際藝博會的The Art Assembly聯手瑞銀集團呈現，將匯聚來自全球30個地區逾150間全球頂級世界畫廊，為東南亞及世界各地的藏家提供了齊聚一堂的機會，共賞世界上最有活力的文化景觀。
Sean Kelly Gallery | Booth D11 Preview November 29 – 30, 2022 Public Dates December 1 – 3, 2022 Venue 1901 Convention Center Drive Miami Beach, FL 33139
New works from Cyano-Collage Serieson aluminum board will be presented at the upcoming Art Basel Miami Beach by Sean Kelly Gallery on the fair’s 20th anniversary and Sean Kelly’s 20th year of participation. Since 2002, Art Basel Miami Beach has been a highlight of the global art world calendar, connecting collectors, galleries, artists, and more in an engaging celebration of contemporary art.
In 2019, when Chi-Tsung joined Sean Kelly Gallery, his Cyano-Collage 064 was exhibited at Art Basel Miami Beach. Being exhibited in the Meridian Section, which is a new curatorial section for large-scale artworks and performances, the artist was able to challenge himself to complete a largest-scaled composition.
Installation view of Sean Kelly’s booth in Art Basel Miami Beach Meridians Section, 2019 Cyano-Collage 064, 《氰山集之六十四》,2019, 300x600cm 2019年邁阿密巴塞爾藝術展「藝匯經線」展區
Wrinkled Texture 127,《皴法習作之一百二十七》,2022, 72 x 88 cm
Para Site’s 2022 Fundraising Auction has come to a fruitful end. Together with Galerie du Monde, Wu Chi-Tsung has donated his Wrinkled Texture 127 to the auction, whose proceeds will directly support our exhibitions, programmes, and educational initiatives. The auction also features artworks by renowned international artists such as John Armleder, Antony Gormley, Qiu Zhijie, and Zhao Gang.
Para Site is Hong Kong’s leading contemporary art centre and one of the oldest and most active independent art institutions in Asia. It produces exhibitions, publications, discursive, and educational projects aimed at forging a critical understanding of local and international phenomena in art and society.
Wu Chi-Tsung began the Wrinkled Texture series with the intention to reinterpret the traditional texturing method called cun fa in traditional Chinese landscape painting. Instead of using ink and brush, Wuemploys the classical photographic technique cyanotype, to render the textures.
Wu Chi-Tsung Solo Presentation ADAA Art Show 2022 Sean Kelly Gallery | Booth A10 Preview November 2, 2022 Dates November 3 – 6, 2022 Meet the Artists November 6, 2022, 12:00 pm to 3:00 pm (Wu Chi-Tsung will be present) Venue Park Avenue Armory, New York
Sean Kelly Gallery will present Wu Chi-Tsung Solo Presentation at the ADAA Art Show in New York as the artist’s debut at the Art Show.
Founded in 1962, ADAA is a national non-profit membership organization of art galleries that promotes the highest standards of connoisseurship, scholarship, and ethical practice in the industry. In the classical and elegant neo-Gothic building of the Park Avenue Armory, the exhibition will feature works of art from the Renaissance to the present, including oil paintings, sculptures, prints, drawings and photographs.
The Art Show is distinctive for its focus on solo exhibitions since its inception, allowing galleries to present a comprehensive overview of an artist’s career and explore their aesthetic connotations. This year, 55 of the 78 participating galleries will present solo exhibitions of artists.
This is why Chi-Tsung is particularly looking forward to this solo exhibition. With a historical anchor crossing from the classic to the present, as well as the refined and sophisticated aesthetic taste, ADAA’s focus is in alignment with Chi-Tsung’s professional training and artistic pursuit, where he was trained in the traditions of calligraphy, ink painting, watercolor painting and drawing at a young age, and reflects these time-honored idioms in his contemporary practices.
With new works from the Cyano-Collage Series and a work from the Still Life Series, the solo aims to reveal how Chi-Tsung’s work reflects “the influence of traditional aesthetics in his contemporary works, and at the same time critically consider how the development of media and technology affect the relationship between people and the world.
Artnet featured Wu’s work as one of the 7 must-see works to seek out at the ADDA Art Show. As described by editor Eileen Kinsella, “So much goes into the creation of Wu Chi-Tsung’s meditative, serenity-inducting Cyano-Collages, such as this giant fan-shaped one, which anchored the works in the solo presentation of the booth, created specifically for the show.”
Drawing Study – Limestone Head of Bodhisattva, Sui Dynasty， 《寫生習作 － 隋 灰石菩薩首像》2021， 00;21;01
Buddha10： A Fragmented display on Buddhist visual evolution Dates October 20, 2022 – September 3, 2023 Preview October 19, 2022 Venue Via San Domenico, 11 10122 Torino Italia
Invited by Davide Quadrio, curator of the exhibition who is renowned for working closely in the East Asian art scene over decades, Wu Chi-Tsung’s Drawing Study Series will be presented at Buddha10: A Fragmented display on Buddhist visual evolution at MAO – Museo d’Arte Orientale di Torino (Museum of Eastern Art).
The MAO exhibition will feature collections from different geographical areas and expand through a wide chronological period in the museum’s collection, among which Buddhist sculptures from the Chinese collection will be the highlight, with the aim to offer different perspectives and reflections on the museum and its proud collection of Asian art. The antiques will be echoed by a number of contemporary art practices and new works including the Drawing Study Series. The series originated in 2021 inspired by Chi-Tsung’s collaboration with TAO ART SPACE for his solo exhibition in Taipei, in which he uses a flashlight as a paintbrush to capture the silhouette of ancient Buddhist statues and records the tails of light in space, allowing the outlines of the statues to gradually appear. The gentle movement and the dim glow have created a yūgenism (profound grace and subtlety) atmosphere, symphonizing the timeless quality of the statues that were created centuries ago.
Museum of Eastern Art of Turin 杜林東方藝術博物館
Buddha10 展覽日期 2022年10月20日至2023年9月3日 預覽 2022年10月19日 地址 Via San Domenico, 11 10122 Torino Italia
本次展覽中，策展人從博物館引以為豪的亞洲藝術收藏中精選出來自不同地域、跨越古今的展品，並同時展示與之呼應的當代藝術作品，旨在為亞洲藝術史提供新穎的解讀視角與反思，此觀念與《寫生習作》的創作初衷不謀而合。《寫生習作》佛像系列起源於2021年吳季璁與台北藝術空間TAO ART SPACE的合作，他用手電筒作為畫筆，捕捉古代雕塑的輪廓，記錄空間中的光跡，輕柔的光線緩緩照亮昏暗的佛像，使其輪廓逐漸顯現，創造了一種幽玄的氛圍，映照出佛像幾個世紀以來的永恒與靜謐。
Represented by Sean Kelly Gallery, Wu Chi-Tsung’s Cyano-Collage will return to Frieze London 2022 after its debut in the world-renowned fair last year.
Sean Kelly Gallery | Booth 120 VIP Preview Sep 8, 2022 Public Days Sep 9-11, 2022 Venue Javits Center, 429 11th Ave, New York, NY 10001, United States
Represented by Sean Kelly Gallery, Wu Chi-Tsung’s new workCyano-Collage 135 will be participating in the Armory Art Show in New York. Founded in 1994, The Armory Show is New York City’s premier art fair and a leading cultural destination for discovering and collecting the world’s most important 20th- and 21st-century art.
This June, the first Cyano-Collage Series created on a bronze panel will be exhibited at Sean Kelly Gallery’s booth which marks Wu Chi-Tsung’s debut in Art Basel in Basel. As the development of the series, the artist has experimentally worked with aluminum panels in 2021 and bronze panels this year as a substitute for wooden baseboards to achieve better durability of the works. The metal quality of the baseboard creates a distinct reflection that leaks through the Cyano-Collage landscape and broadens the potential of the series.
Cyano-Collage 145, 《氰山集之一百四十五》, 2022, 225 x 90cm x 4pcs
Galerie du Monde｜Booth 1C11
VIP Preview May 25-27, 2022
Public Days May 28-29, 2022
Venue Convention & Exhibition Centre, Hong Kong
In late May, new work from the Cyano-Collage Series in a quadriptych composition will be presented at Galerie du Monde’s booth in Art Basel in Hong Kong.
Cyano-Collage 145, 《氰山集之一百四十五》, 2022, 225 x 90cm x 4pcs
Wrinkled Texture 118, 《皴法習作118》 , 2021, 213.5 x 92 cm
Galerie du Monde｜Booth A08
VIP Preview May 19, 2022
Public Days May 20 – 22, 2022
Venue Taipei World Trade Center Hall 1
New works of Wu Chi-Tsung’s will be showcased in Taipei Dangdai Art Fair represented by Galerie du Monde. This will be the premiere of the Cyano-Collage Series on aluminum in Taiwan. Speaking of the Wrinkled Texture Seriesand Cyano-Collage Seriesthat both replace the traditional ink and brush used in Chinese Shan Shui painting with experimental photography, Chi-Tsung once shared that “I started to do Cyanotypes simply because I am not satisfied with digital photography nowadays’, and the process of making the two series ‘really similar to how ink painters do Chinese landscapes: they are constructing a world they want to project themselves inside.”
Opening Reception 18:30, Thursday 05 May 2022 at EMASI Nam Long Public Days May to December 2022 Opening Hours 10:00 ~16:00, Monday, Wednesday and Friday, by appointment only Venue EMASI Nam Long and EMASI Van Phuc, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Cyano-Collage 051 will be exhibited in the group exhibition Illuminated Curiosities. Presented by Nguyen Art Foundation (NAF) and Lan Tinh Foundation and featuring 46 artworks from within and outside NAF’s Collection, the exhibition aims to highlight the unique intersection between art and science, especially in today’s world where artistic experimentation and production continue to be ever more diverse, research-driven, and interdisciplinary.
Established in 2018, the Nguyen Art Foundation has worked to build an alternative infrastructure for the arts in Vietnam. It was founded by Quynh Nguyen, under the advisory of Cam Xanh and focuses on artists connected in any way to Vietnam.
Chi-Tsung met Cam Xanh in Korea in 2016 at the Asia Young 36 exhibition and was later invited by her for an artist residency at MoT+++ which she co-founded. In May 2020, Chi-Tsung and Cam Xanh co-established a studio in Ho Chi Minh City. Except for the Cyano-Collage 051,Still Life 007 – Daffodil and Still Life 012 – Buttercup Treewere also acquired by the foundation.
The opening reception of the group exhibition will take place on May 5 at EMASI Nam Long where Wu Chi-Tsung’s work will be exhibited. Please RSVP via this link.
Still Life 014 — Yellow Mai Flower, 《小品之十四 黃梅》，2020, 6 min 55 sec Acquired by Santa Barbara Museum of Art
Still Life 012 – Buttercup Tree and Still Life 014 – Yellow Mai Flower, both acquired by Santa Barbara Museum of Art, are now on view in the group exhibition Mediated Nature of the museum till December. In an exhibition review in Santa Barbara Independent, it is stated that the works have “challenged our media consumption habits at a different level.”
“Chi-Tsung enacts a faux-pas in an entertainment landscape where plants are mere mute extras meant to signify exoticism. His shots linger on a stationary plant for more than six minutes. In his work, the medium of video is camouflaged as painting. Although celebrating the mundane can be an oversubscribed concept, the elaborate care in Chi-Tsung’s work — the crispness of the colors, the subtle mist-like atmosphere enveloping the plants — bends time. The viewer wonders, ‘Have I been watching this flower for six minutes or 20’?
When the medium changes, so does the message. Chi-Tsung’s “Still Life 012 — Buttercup Tree” carves new depths within our experience of mundanity. A shivering leaf becomes a noteworthy event, and mist traveling slowly along a plant’s wet roots becomes an erotic experience.”
Still Life 012 – Buttercup Tree，《小品之十二彎子木》, 00;06;58, 2019
吳季璁的兩件錄像作品《小品之十二 彎子木》和《小品之十四 黃梅》被美國聖塔巴巴拉美術館收藏，並將於美術館群展《媒介化的自然》中展出至十二月。當地媒體《Santa Barbara Independent》對該展覽的展評稱《小品》系列影像作品從不同角度挑戰了人們的媒介使用習慣。
Cyano-Collage 078, 《氰山集之七十八》，85 x 200cm, 2020 Acquired by the UBS Art Collection
In a recent article featuring the rise of water-themed art in the Financial Times, Wu Chi-Tsung’s Cyano-Collage Series was introduced in detail as a supporting argument for the potential cultural and philosophical depth of Art of this theme.
It was stated that Wu Chi-Tsung didn’t originally intend his cyanotypes to be about water. He began the works with mountains in mind, but soon saw that his photographic blue spaces resembled tumultuous waves. As the series grew he began to explore ways the works could be interpreted as traditional Shanshui paintings, ocean views and natural landscapes.
Chi-Tsung shares that “I was thinking I could try the possibilities of combining earlier techniques and materials, and hoping I could work with Xuan paper.” Regarding the production process that is direct and analogue, “I’m basically like a farmer,” he laughs, “it’s physical. I crumble the paper, I feel the paper. When the humidity is different it affects the paper. If it’s drier, it’s harder. If it’s more humid, it’s softer. There are lots of coincidences that I cannot control. That’s the best part.”
The writer continued to state that the results are abstract but appear like seascapes. “I cannot say if [the work] is concrete or abstract,” Wu adds. “Chinese landscapes never really represent specific mountains. An artist draws their own interpretation of the scene.” Chi-Tsung’s works are growing ever larger: his recent show at Sean Kelly in New York included a triptych of pieces reaching up to 9m high. The works also reflect the artist’s love of rock climbing in Taipei – “facing a giant wall every day and a sea wave just behind me”. Similarly, his aim is to immerse the viewer in the space.
Still Life 014 – Yellow Mai flower, 《小品之十四 黃梅》，2020, 6 min 55 sec
Reimagining: New Perspectives Date January 27 – May 30, 2022 Venue 1285 Avenue of the Americas, New York
We are delighted to share that Wu Chi-Tsung’s Still Life 014 – Yellow Mai Flower was recently acquired by the UBS Art Collection and is featured in the latest exhibition Reimagining: New Perspectives in the UBS Art Gallery in New York.
Located in UBS’s Midtown New York Headquarters, the UBS Art Gallery was initially established in 1985 and has been closed to the public since 2009. This exhibition marks the reopening of the gallery and provides an opportunity for the public to once again discover in person works from one of most important corporate collections of contemporary art in the world.
The exhibition united new acquisitions of the UBS Art Collection. With over 30,000 artworks by some of the most influential artists of our time, the collection aims to collect the most relevant art made today that both challenges and connects people. In 2020, Cyano-Collage 078 was also acquired by the Collection.
Sean Kelly Gallery | Stand A8 Preview February 17, 2022 Public Days February 18-20, 2022 Venue 9900 Wilshire Boulevard,Beverly Hills, CA 90210
Represented by Sean Kelly Gallery, Wu Chi-Tsung’s new works from the Wrinkled Texture Series and the Cyano-Collage Series will be exhibited at Frieze Los Angeles. Last October, upon Chi-Tsung’s first participation in Frieze London, the fair interviewed him in his Taipei studio and produced a documentary video in collaboration with Sean Kelly Gallery. Titled “Wu Chi-Tsung Reinvents Tradition”, the official website of the Frieze featured this video with an article that introduces how he re-evaluates the tradition and his abiding concern with process, perception and vision.
About Frieze
Frieze Art Fair is an international contemporary art fair in London, New York, and Los Angeles.Frieze London takes place every October in London’s Regent’s Park. In the US, the fair has been running on New York’s Randall’s Island since 2012, with its inaugural Los Angeles edition taking place February 2019.[2][3] The fair was launched by Amanda Sharp and Matthew Slotover, the founders of frieze magazine, and is led by Victoria Siddall, global director of Frieze Fairs. Frieze Art Fair features more than 170 contemporary art galleries, and the fair also includes specially commissioned artists’ projects, a talks programme and an artist-led education schedule.
Cyano-Collage 127,《氰山集之一百二十七》，2022，90 x 210 cm
Sean Kelly Gallery | A8展位 公眾開放 2022年2月18~20日 地址 美國加州洛杉磯比佛利山市威爾榭大道9900號，90210
Wu Chi-Tsung’s solo exhibition jing-atmospheres was listed in the Editor’s Pick by Artnet News. Each week, the website search for the most exciting and thought-provoking shows, screenings, and events, both digitally and in-person in the New York area. Here are editor Sarah Cascone’s introduction to the exhibition:
In his first show at Sean Kelly, Wu Chi-Tsung presents his “Cyano-Collage” series, which reinterprets he traditional ink and brush landscapes of Chinese shan shui paintings—which translates to “mountain-water-pictures”—through the lens of experimental photography. The artist crumples up cyanotype paper that has a photosensitive coating, exposes it to sunlight, and mounts it on aluminum to create collaged images that recall mountainous landscapes.
Wu Chi-Tsung, Cyano-Collage 119 (2021). Cyanotype photography, Xuan paper, acrylic gel, acrylic, mounted on aluminium board in two parts. Each panel: 225 x 91.4 cm; approx. overall: 225 x 180 cm. Courtesy the artist and Sean Kelly.
For his first solo exhibition in the United States at Sean Kelly in New York (jing-atmospheres, 5 November–18 December 2021), Taiwanese artist Wu Chi-Tsung reimagines traditional Chinese landscape painting through film, installation, and photography.
Within this stunning, formally innovative body of works, his ‘Cyano-Collage’ series (2021) utilises Xuan paper treated with photosensitive coating and hung outside to expose them to sunlight. After developing the papers under liquid, the artist combines and mounts them on aluminium.
Exhibition view: Wu Chi-Tsung, jing-atmospheres, Sean Kelly, New York (5 November–18 December 2021). Courtesy Sean Kelly, New York. Photo: Jason Wyche, New York.
Each work in the series contains multiple pieces of Xuan paper, seamlessly collaged into unified compositions with no discernable boundaries. Cyano-Collage 120, for example, resembles a monumental painting of the ocean with thunderous, cerulean waves. These five ‘Cyano-Collage’ works range in size, though the largest ones span entire walls. (The artist built a vast studio to produce this series.) To complete their surfaces, Chi-Tsung applies white acrylic as a mist, which lends a sense of depth to the landscapes. Sometimes this spectral white acrylic resembles an intense energy surge. The beauty of these cyanotype collages is that they are both hyper-realistic and indeterminable, resisting any fixed reading.
‘They could be anything, because they are not representing any real landscape’, the artist has explained. ‘This is the spirit of a Chinese landscape.’
The ‘Cyano-Collage’ works are based on Chinese shan shui paintings, which literally translates to ‘mountain-water-pictures’. And like shan shui, which do not follow Western linear perspective, the ‘Cyano-Collage’ works encourage mobile viewing, inviting the eye to move around the work and construct the image in the process.
Exhibition view: Wu Chi-Tsung, jing-atmospheres, Sean Kelly, New York (5 November–18 December 2021). Courtesy Sean Kelly, New York. Photo: Jason Wyche, New York.
Formally trained in Chinese calligraphy and ink art, Chi-Tsung explores the essence of Chinese landscape painting and what it might offer the viewer. In 2012, he turned to photography to do this. Unsatisfied with the medium’s contemporary formats, Chi-Tsung turned to cyanotype—a method that has been used since the mid-1800s.Various artists, most notably Robert Rauschenberg early in his career, have experimented with the cyanotype process. Drawn to its use of light rather than the dark room, the sun is as important a material to Chi-Tsung as Xuan paper.
Developing the images by exposing them to sunlight, cyanotype offers Chi-Tsung a time- and chance-based process, with the paper’s crumpled surface encouraging different tonalities.
‘The best works,’ the artist has noted, ‘always come from some kind of coincidence . . . Most artists have a strong ego. We try to control our work. But the more you try to control it, the more likely you lose the possibility. Let the work grow in the way it should.’
Exhibition view: Wu Chi-Tsung, jing-atmospheres, Sean Kelly, New York (5 November–18 December 2021). Courtesy Sean Kelly, New York. Photo: Jason Wyche, New York.
While invigorating the Chinese landscape tradition, cyanotypes also offer an exercise in ego depletion, with Chu-Tsing relinquishing control to put faith in the material instead.
The artist’s deference to the life and agency of materials is also evident in the installation Dust (2006), situated in the lower level of the gallery. A camera is positioned at one end of the darkened room with its lens focused on the light of a projector installed at the opposite end.
The camera feeds a live video signal to the projector, which projects this recording of the circulation of dust particles in the room onto the wall behind the camera. As viewers move through the space, they disrupt and speed up the flickering and glimmering of the enlarged dust particles projected on the wall.The result is unexpectedly spiritual: an effervescent projection of colourful, shimmering dots that swirl and move energetically in an otherworldly ambiance.Particles of dust are transformed into an entire cosmos. The material here is not only the technological support of the camera and projector, but also dust itself—something so banal and ubiquitous that Chi-Tsung animates with life and verve of its own.
Chi-Tsung refers to the Buddhist term zi xing (自性), which translates to ‘self-being’, or one’s own nature. ‘If I could just lower my ego,’ he says, ‘and let the material show what it is, at the same time I could get real freedom through that. In this way I am helping the material to find its own being.’
The brilliance of Chi-Tsung’s works lies in the fact that he elevates materials—dust, Xuan paper, and sunlight—beyond human meanings and uses, with an unerring sense that the material is as in control of the final outcome as the artist himself.
Exhibition view: Wu Chi-Tsung, jing-atmospheres, Sean Kelly, New York (5 November–18 December 2021). Courtesy Sean Kelly, New York. Photo: Jason Wyche, New York.
Exhibition view: Wu Chi-Tsung, jing-atmospheres, Sean Kelly, New York (5 November–18 December 2021). Courtesy Sean Kelly, New York. Photo: Jason Wyche, New York.
Produced by Frieze Studios in collaboration with Sean Kelly New York Frieze Studio製作、尚凱利畫廊協製影片
‘I started to do Cyanotypes simply because I am not satisfied with photography nowadays’ explains artist Wu Chi-Tsung in this video, filmed in his studio in Taipei, Taiwan. A technique drawn from the early era of photography, Wu executes his Cyanotypes by applying chemicals to Xuan paper, which is crumpled by hand and exposed to sunlight on the roof of his studio; the artist then arranges the glacial forms that emerge onto aluminium mounts. The resultant ‘Cyano-Collages’ recalling the landscapes of the traditional shan shuior ‘mountain water’ tradition.
‘It’s really similar to how ink painters do Chinese landscapes,’ says Chi-Tsung, ‘they are building up, creating the worlds they want to project themselves inside.’ Trained in the traditional idioms of calligraphy and brush and ink Chi-Tsung’s commitment to innovative use of new and historic media and technology has seen him engage photography, projection, installation and moving image in works such as Dust (2006) and Wire VI (2021). Despite this diversity, his practice is united by an abiding, almost spiritual concern with process, perception and vision. ‘I’m helping material to find its own being ’ Chi-Tsung explains, ‘at the same time I open up myself’.
