Recent Exhibitions
After Tradition
Wednesday, May 24th-Saturday, June 17th, 2023
Studio Gallery (Washington, D.C.) · Curated by Adah Rose Bitterbaum
It’s the Journey
Acrylics on paper mounted on board
12” x 12”
Pleading Child
Acrylics on canvas
24” x 18”
Important Event
Acrylics on canvas
24” x 24”
I have always painted Chinese landscapes. Sometimes I have introduced new elements into the classical paintings - stronger colors, adding collages of my own calligraphy and my paintings, or less traditional textures. Over time my landscapes have become less traditional, but still the classical landscape was there.
In this body of work, the landscapes are no longer the main focus, the collages are. The landscape starts at the middle ground, then recedes into the distance, while the collage is in the foreground. There is a transparent layer of written poetry between the landscape and the collage. The poetry is written in very light tone, not necessarily to be read by the viewers. This gives the landscape a feeling and a memory. The collage pieces are bolder than the landscape - they are abstract shapes from the calligraphy of a poem, often the characters are not recognizable.
The poem that ties all the paintings together was written by Zhu Yun-Ming a 16 th century poet during the Ming dynasty. He was a scholar and calligrapher, known for his ‘wild’ cursive script inspired by the Tang dynasty master Zhang Xu. I fell in love with his simple poem and wild calligraphy. Unlike the carefully executed and graceful characters of classical calligraphy, Zhang’s characters are written with thick and rounded brushstrokes that project an unrefined strength. The poem is simple, and says that in the fifth month of the year, he was alone in his modest home watching the petals of the cherry blossoms fall in the evening wind. It feels contemplative and introspective. I resonated with his sentiment, and loved his wild cursive script, and I appreciate the breaking with tradition.
Window into the Past
Wednesday, September 2nd-Saturday, September 26th, 2020
Studio Gallery (Washington, D.C.) · Curated by Bill Carroll
Gallery view of “Window into the Past” at Studio Gallery
In this show I explain the way to read a Chinese Painting. It is quite different from reading a European or non-Asian work. A Chinese landscape painting is not a snap shot but a journey where there is no vanishing point, no perspective with multiple light sources. The painting is read from right to left when it’s in a horizontal orientation and from bottom to top in a vertical orientation.
Islamic Blue
Wednesday, September 29th-Saturday, October 23rd, 2021
Studio Gallery (Washington, D.C.) · Curated by Bill Carroll
Gallery views of “Islamic Blue” at Studio Gallery
In our joint show, Langley Spurlock and I chose “Blue” as the theme. We each chose a path from there. I chose the “Blue” used in Chinese blue and white ceramics. There is a lot of very interesting history to this blue, and it is this history that inspired my work. The Chinese called the cobalt blue used in their beautiful ceramics Hui-Hui Ching, which refers to the “Hui people” who were the Islamic peoples of central Asia; and so, I called this color “Islamic Blue”. This cobalt pigment is one of the few that can withstand the extremely high firing temperatures required for porcelain. The blue and white ceramics became known as early as the 7th century CE, and were made possible by the export of cobalt oxide from Persia along the Silk Road. This pigment was very precious and worth twice its weight in gold.
The first Chinese blue and white ceramics were produced in or around the seventh century CE in Jing-de of Henan province during the Tang dynasty (7th to 10th century). The Chinese of that time had a very advanced kiln design and constructed kilns capable of firing 12,000-15,000 pieces at a time. An indication of the popularity of these ceramics and their importance in trade was the discovery of a ship wreck off the coast of Indonesia that dates back to the 9th century CE in which 70,000 ceramic items were found! From the 14th to the 16th century, these blue and white ceramics were extremely popular in China as well as outside China. Massive production of this fine, translucent, blue and white porcelain was exported via the Silk Roads by the Muslim traders to Central Asia and the West.
From the 2nd century BCE to the 18th century CE the Silk Roads formed a network of trade routes on both land and sea that connected the East and West. These routes connected East Asia with south Asia, Persia, the near East, Africa and on into southern Europe. Silk was the major export from China for trade from the Han Dynasty (207 BCE-200 CE) onward. Beginning in the 16th century CE, a large Chinese export trade with Europe developed, and the blue and white ceramics were exported to Europe in massive quantities. However, much of these “export” ceramics were rather low quality but showy in style.
In my work shown here, I used only one large piece of ceramic to represent the 70,000 pieces in transit to either Europe or central Asia. Since the Silk Road included both land and sea routes, my ceramics also appear on both sea and land. Just for fun, I also thought maybe there are many present-day things known to us in plastic, paper or metal that could be made into beautiful blue and white ceramic pieces as decorations.