TAO ART introduces Jeng Jundian's Solo Exhibition "The Rose of Time"
06/03/2021
TAO ART announces with delight that artist Jeng Jundian’s solo exhibition “The Rose of Time” will be held from March 6 to April 17, which is co-organized by TAO ART and the artist’s studio, showcasing Jeng Jundian’s latest works in the past two years and presenting the artist’s matured painting style. TAO ART specially recreates part of the artist’s studio and exhibits photographs that have played a key role in the artist’s creative process in the exhibition, allowing audience to reexplore Jeng Jundian’s profound painting expressions.
Jeng Jundian is an important established artist in Taiwan. Since the 1990s, Jeng has held exhibitions at a number of Taiwan’s most iconic galleries, and in 2004, he held a solo exhibition at Marlborough Chelsea in New York City. The artist’s style has evolved from early abstract paintings full of tension to his signature color lines paintings that are pure and meticulous. In recent years, Jeng has further refined his painting vocabularies to weave together all his past tracks of figurative and abstract paintings onto the canvas.
Jeng Jundian’s art is accumulated through long period of working and careful observation in daily life, and, with the artist’s exploration of own unique aesthetics, has blossomed into a beautiful scenery. This artist, who is fully devoted to painting and continually reflects the external world through own gaze, borrows the title of Bei Dao’s collection of poems, “The Rose of Time,” for this exhibition, displaying his perpetual pursuit to manifest that this very moment is eternity in paintings that transcend time.
Re-Evolution of the Aesthetic Relationship between Artists and Art Space
During the preparation of the exhibition, TAO ART founder Vicky Chen frequently visited the artist’s studio, gradually shaping a new model of cooperation between artist and art space; thus, “The Rose of time” is not just an ordinary solo exhibition of an artist, but more like the process of artist retracing own creative works through exhibition space. The cooperation between Vicky and Jeng Jundian shows how an art space operator can approach the works of a senior artist through sharp eyes and dedication, as well as how an artist can engage in an intense and profound dialogue with an art space while exhibiting paintings.
“What artists are concerned with is still the space after all. Space and space, the lights and shadows in a space, the colors, forms, lines, proportions, sizes, and materials, within a space,” shared Jeng. “Artists must regard exhibiting in different spaces as a part of creation. Different spatial conditions will affect how works are interpreted. Works must establish relationship with the space, and the success of exhibition depends on how works converse with each other and form connections. Even lighting conditions will influence how works are ultimately interpreted.”
Arrangement of Scenes
Cross Section of Daily Life in Pictures
Jeng Jundian’s paintings always excavate surprising looks from aesthetic experiences in daily life, such as work “Flower 230519 – Born for the Blue Sky,” which expands greater room for imagination beyond intuitive aesthetic experience. The artist deliberately enlarge the proportion of flower, presenting on canvas a surrealist representation of flower; also, through the intentional upward angle, he uses the blue sky to set off the flower. In a stroke of genius, the little angel at the center and the lion at the bottom of the painting add to the room of interpretation and imagination for the imagery of the painting. What Jeng really cares about are how to complete the brushstrokes and lines, and color structures, and how to create paintings that are complete on their own. “Painting theme, to me, is essentially an excuse that allows me to convey my views on art while also projecting within it my sentiments, vitality, and life,” said Jeng.
Another series, “Orchids” (2019 – 2020) is based on a photo of orchids taken by Jeng in a botanical greenhouse in Berlin. To the artist, the austere and cold atmosphere in the post-war Berlin could still be felt on this trip, and he was reminded of hometown Kinmen where he grew up—it was a period of time that made people feel depressed and stressed due to external political unrest and social instability. The psychogenic association has become the force propelling this set of works forward, and the unknown horizontal bars in the original image have transformed into the element that suppresses the subjectivity of the orchids on canvas; with the strongly suggestive sense of space, the form of the orchids is no longer much-associated with beauty here. The artist has begun to break away from the photographical record and explore the possibility of the painting, and this possibility has gradually shifted to the spatial and chromatic aspects.
Painter’s Photography Sudden
Instantaneous Inspiration
The photographs publicly exhibited for the first time have in fact long been an indispensable procedure in Jeng Jundian’s creative process. Regardless of the color lines paintings or figurative works, his paintings are often conceptualized based on the photographs. The viewfinder is his canvas, through which he exercises composition. In his pictures, Jeng captures coincidental moments, and through the pictures, he made detailed drafts and then translate them into the painting language on canvas. “The pictures I have taken are more like ‘painter’s photography’,” shared Jeng Jundian. His photography is not “what he sees,” but comes from the painter’s masterful conversion as well as gradual accumulation through time.
From the age of mechanical image duplication to today’s consumption age with overflowing electronic images, in the artist’s eyes, gaze actually shortens the distance between phenomena and the mind, while also giving the artist sufficient time to think, discovering the inspirations that mesmerize him. Photography is not just the extension of Jeng Jundian’s painting, but in photography, he sees something that cannot be achieved by painting. This is also why TAO ART founder Vicky wants to exhibit “Painter’s Photography,” for she sees in these pictures random yet full aesthetics and hopes that the artist explores another broad view beyond painting.
The transformation and derivation of painting language can be regarded as constant innovation of art, as well as fearlessness towards challenging oneself. Jeng Jundian’s paintings always display his powerful personal vocabularies; the style remains consistent. He meticulously develops creative models of painting, allowing different vocabularies to form unique contexts, and through the dialogues between the paintings, new imageries and connections are formed. He manifests his care for people through depictions of environment and nature, and his pursuit of tranquility and purity has become a unique style in today’s art circles.
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About TAO ART: Jointly founded by Vicky Chen and her father, TAO ART is a new kind of art space that combines the functionalities of collection and showcase. The space is designed by famed Japanese architect Jun Aoki, who has created a living space that fuses classical, classic, and contemporary arts, through the concept of “urban garden.” Through the white-cube space, tea room, and living room, the design manifests the possibilities of blending art with life. TAO ART strives to become an art space of diverse possibilities, and introduces art to audience through fun and everyday means, supporting Taiwanese contemporary arts on the international stage on one hand, and introducing international resources to Taiwan on the other. TAO ART regularly organizes contemporary arts exhibitions, seminars, and exchanges, acting as a platform where Taiwan connects with the world.
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