Practice on Paper

Artists:Chen Qiang, Chi Qun, Dong Dawei, Guo Mengyao, Lisa Chang Lee, Zhang Fan

Exhibition Dates：5th January to 9th  March 2019

Gingko Space is proud to present the winter group exhibition “Practices on Paper”, which runs from January 5th to March 9th, 2019. The exhibition will feature the works of seven artists (Chen Qiang, Chi Qun, Dong Dawei, Guo Mengyao, Lisa Chang Lee, Zhang Fan) who employ paper as the primary medium.

The exhibition explores the respective cultural backgrounds of each artist presents and the unique role that paper – either as a primary or a supporting medium – plays in their artistic journeys.

In Chen Qiang's work, Chinese rice paper and ink resonate with Western canvases and oil paint, where their respective characters confront and cancel out each other: hence, the sensibility of the artwork is refined through a rational process. Chi Qun's watercolor creates strokes that are simplistic yet rich in texture, demonstrating the artist's calm, restrained sense of expression and deliberate skill. Du Jie's method of applying ink to paper articulates her openness towards “undesired” mistakes in a frank negotiation with her unconscious. Her work visualizes an authenticity and a sense of reality. Meanwhile, Dong Dawei makes use of marker pens and blotting paper: an irreversible approach to navigate intersecting colors. Thus, the medium is used to transform the materials from the two-dimensional to the three-dimensional space. Guo Mengyao's piece documents and investigates the way in which the “rationality of printing” impacts the dynamic process of painting; Lisa Chang Lee closely observes the brush and the paper, for they, from the very beginning, imply the necessity of maintaining unpredictability in artistic practices, and the significance of following one's intuitions. Lastly, Zhang Fan dissolves repetitive but subtly varying strokes on the paper: the rhythm, texture, mood, and dynamics of the act of painting, are all manifested in these traces on paper.

The works on view by these artists sample the diverse creative processes they employ on “paper” - a ubiquitous and yet unique medium. All emotional expressions – dot, line, surface, color, structure and concept – are channeled through rational processes, creating rich organic works on the two-dimensional surface of paper.