Dear Friends and Patrons,
"Meditation in contemporary landscape paintings" is the exhibition subject on which I was focused from 2008 to 2010. Time passed; in this artist-to-watch, Los Angeles artist Wu Lan-Chiann has once again unveiled the subject to our eye and mind.

Also, mark your calendar April 23 noon, for an online cross-continent panel talk about Eleen Lin and her reimagining in terms of Asian art of scenes inspired by the classic novel Moby Dick . Lin brings you Moby Dick and mystery from a thousand years. (See below.)

Afterwards, if you happen to be in NY, just walk to Dumbo open Studio and Triangle Studio, to talk to Taiwanese residency artist Wu, Chien Hsing.

Of course, follow www.Formosart.io to collect NFTs in a boundless metauniverse.

Wu Lan-Chiann, The Good Earth, 2004
Ink and colors on paper
Signed by the artist with one seal
16 ¾ x 13 ¾ inches
Wu Lan-Chiann:
Smooth the image of the world

by Luchia Meihua Lee

Invention from tradition in a discourse complicates artistic subconscious expression. The perception of cultural influences affects technique; as context in brush ink painting as a medium might be relevant, and its importance might be intensified by intercultural confrontation. In Wu Lan-Chiann’s work, the challenge from the medium has been disguised by texture, composition, and format. Hybridity has been engaged in these landscape paintings, resulting in overall play with the viewer’s perception of time and space. As Jonathan Hays wrote about Mu Xin’s art, “The particular stillness of the image and the velvety smoothness of the image field” (1) are apparent whether Wu’s works address the season, light and air, or the calm of night.

In these past few years, horror and delight have alternated, and swelling painfulness has tested our endurance. Perhaps we haven't changed enough to ameliorate the inequities in many social subjects. In Wu’s art work, we find a view of a world not ordinarily seen, an alternative to the endless violence of our time space. Her extraordinary paintings possess a mythical quality and profoundly touch the core value of nature that is missing from urban life, and function as a salve beyond the material world.

above: Plum Blossom, 2008
Pencil on paper
13¾ x 10¾ inches
A New Dawn, 2013
Ink, colors and gold on paper
Signed by the artist with one seal
25 ¼ x 36 ¼ inches
Precious Light, 2012
Ink, colors and gold on paper
Signed by the artist with one seal
23 x 29 inches
"Precious Light painting series, the recurring presence of light, or sometimes only glimmers of light, in my work are metaphors for human resilience: the love, hope and strength that we carry within." - Wu Lan-Chiann
Reflections of the Past, 1999
Ink and colors on paper
Signed by the artist with one seal
17 x 36½ inches
Born and raised in Taiwan, Wu lives and works in Los Angeles. She holds an MA from New York University’s Fine Art Department. Cross-cultural fusion has operated remarkably in her art to form a sensuous, organic, sleek and hermetically wider embrace as a contemporary Asian women artist.
Lucy R. Lippard" mentioned in 1975 "It is no coincidence that the women artists’ movement emerged in a time of political travail and political consciousness," (2) also pointing out the emphasis by the women’s movement on social structures that have oppressed women. In this vein, I identify this Taiwanese American woman artist, Wu Lan-Chiann as a minority's minority immigrant in US society. This is not an attempt to create distance from the official ideological universe about the patriarchal hegemony, but to lay emphasis on national identity among Taiwanese-Americans.(3) However, Wu has also averred with Lippard that these social movements can provide heightened awareness of the multi-cultural model, which "could indicate a way to move back toward a more basic contact between artist and real life.”(4)

Wu’s art is notable for a certain veracity resulting from the "deliberate modesty of format [and] displacement of literary sensibility into the fabric of the visual." (5) I eschew an intellectual statement about female artists in general, while trying to make sense or identify sources that communicate with Wu's statement and experience, and thus follow her emotionally. When we embrace art by a woman, we too often celebrate delicacy, elegance, and softness. Thus, we can acknowledge the uniqueness of this great visual representative imagery.

Her work is subtle in its details and tactile in its veiled-like application. Upon first impression, the strength of Wu's painting is its connection with traditional brush ink painting. I do not intend to examine the nature of her precedents, but underline the way in which she has modernized and advanced the brush ink tradition. Wu has not only chosen entirely different subjects than classical shan shui (literally, "Mountain and water" which means landscape) exponents,(6) but also given an entirely different treatment of light.
above: Lantern Festival I, 1999
Ink and colors on paper.
Inscribed and signed by the artist
with one seal, 37 ¼ x 24 inches
from the Artist Statement
"In recent years, I started creating a new painting series depicting tree leaves in different shapes and states, as metaphors for human life. In my Leaves Series, each leaf has its own lifecycle displaying unique shapes and color intensities, and, during Autumn, each descends on its individual path floating through the air and touching earth in its own way. The leaves represent human beings, and some have a clear direction, but others are hurt and lost. While some lives are peaceful, others are turbulent, all captured in these paintings.
Therefore, my paintings are not mere images; they are layered with content and represent universal themes that each and all of us experience in life."

above:
Detail of Before the Storm, 2015
Hanging scroll, ink and metal leaf on paper
Signed by the artist with two seals
74 x 38 inches
Collection of The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art
above: Li Bai’s Moon, 2009
Ink and colors on paper
Signed by the artist, with one seal
22 x 17 ¾ inches
right: Full Moon (a pair), 2014
Ink, colors and gold leaf on paper
Signed by the artist, with two seals
29 ½ x 112 inches
I have found undeniable pleasure in these paintings’ visual expression, from the pictorial techniques to the aesthetics and philosophy. In her Precious Light series, one can easily find the commitment to smooth muscle base. Cursory inspection might deem these paintings flat, but further study reveals subtle colors and application of foggy gradients. Sometimes jet black in blurred light, they strongly develop a quiet depth of harmonic power in the dark night.

In Perseverance, one’s gaze is directed to the tree’s vigorous bark recalling a snake skin, around which interlocking pine needle-laden branches stagger. In traditional Chinese brush ink painting of pine trees, the artist aims not for a realistic effect but a symbolic representation of the independent stance of the literati. So Wu’s detailed rendering of the bark of her pine tree underlines the freshness of her approach, and a reorientation of the pine’s significance.
The nature landscapes display a type of rhythm which seems discordant but not struggling. They are the basis on which she seeks to transcend cultural boundaries and create a timeless commentary on humanity. Wu believes in her art’s power to heal and unite, to express universal humanistic values through and her core conviction that we are one people.

The artist writes that, "art speaks a universal language that people understand across time and place. People enter this world defenseless and curious, share the same hopes and fears, act out of kindness or spite, and go through the same stages of sorrow and grief. "


Perseverance, 2021
Ink on paper
38 x 74 inches

The evergreen nature of pine trees is a symbol of longevity and perseverance in Chinese culture.
Wu painted Perseverance in response to the global pandemic; while people around the world long for life to return to normal, it takes real perseverance to wait for that day. Perseverance is an innate human strength that Is evident only in difficult and challenge times.

References:
  1. Hay, J. "Mu Xin and Twentieth-Century Painting", The Art of Mu Xin: Landscape Paintings and Prison Notes. Yale University Gallery, 2001. pp. 28-39
  2. Lippard L.R. "The Women artist' movement-What next? The pink Glass Swan, The New Press, 1995. pp.81
  3. Salecl R. "National Identity and Socialist Moral Majority", New Formations. Routledge, 1990. pp. 25-31. I have tried to avoid simple criticism of the nationalism of Chinese in PRC, but this essay about the opposition moral majorities and authoritarian-populist Communist parties which "have built their power by creating specific fantasies of a threat to the nation and so put themselves forward as the protector of 'what is in us more than ourselves - our being part of the nation.' This analysis applies exactly to the record of the Chinese Communist Party, which has relentlessly and radically assaulted all traditional points of social identification, leaving a chauvinistic nationalism intertwined with support for the party and identifying all foreigners as the feared "Other" as the only remaining public fantasy available to the Chinese.
  4. ibis. Lippard L.R. pp. 81.
  5. ibis. Hay, J. pp. 36
  6. Lee, L. & Sibergale, J. Zhang Hongtu: Expending Visions of a Shrinking World, Duke University Press. 2015. p160.
  7. Lee, L. Meditation in Contemporary Chinese Landscape, 2008 Godwin-Ternbach Museum, Queens College, CUNY



" In my work I explore universal themes and values, which I transform to imagined realities that link past and present across different cultures. We all confront questions such as why are we here and what is our purpose in life. The depth of human intellect and emotion is an inexhaustible resource. The innate strength we possess to overcome personal or collective challenges deeply fascinates me.
While each of us experiences life in a personal way, we all have difficult moments to overcome. I transform my struggles into art that make conscious connections between emotion and place. .... (to continue to the full statement click Wu Lan-Chiann’s Artist Statement]

Wu Lan-Chiann (吳嵐倩）
Snowflakes Quietly Descending, 1999
Ink and colors on paper
Signed by the artist with one seal
52 ½ x 37 inches
Collection of the Royal Ontario Museum

Born and raised in Taiwan, artist Wu Lan-Chiann received her BFA -with highest honors from the Chinese Culture University in Taipei, Taiwan. She holds an MA from New York University’s Fine Art Department.
Wu has exhibited her art, and lectured on the subject of Chinese ink painting, since 1995 in Taiwan, Japan, New York, the Los Angeles area, San Francisco, and the United Kingdom. She is a grant recipient of the Durfee Foundation, the Hakka Foundation, and the Taiwanese American Art Council.
A selection of her work was featured in: Reflections - Contemporary Ink Paintings by Wu Lan-Chiann, a solo exhibition at The Museum of East Asian Art in Bath, United Kingdom from November 2015 to May 2016.
Wu’s work has been collected in Australia, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, Taiwan, Hong Kong, United Kingdom, and in United States. In 2018, the Nelson Atkins Museum in Kansas City acquired Before the Storm (2015) and, in 2020, the Princeton University Art Museum added Old Street in Sanxia (1993) to their collection.
[image above: Wu Lan-Chiann at Work]
Eleen Lin
  • Exhibit at C-24 Gallery until May 7
  • Panel Discussion: Saturday April 23 at Noon,
A Panels discussion about the literary Moby Dick and cultural context and social component. (Zoom talk, register need, check more in www.c24gallery.com

Mythodical, a two-person show with works from Eleen Lin and Tammie Rubin. C24 Gallery in Chelsea, 560 W 24th Street, New York, NY 10011. 

Taiwanese-born painter Eleen Lin 
Lin’s body of work is a nearly decade-long project investigating the cross-pollinations between the classic novel Moby Dick and Asian culture. Rubin’s sculptures are fantastical totemic objects created from ubiquitous forms found in the visual language of modern consumer culture.


Eleen Lin, Fluke, 2021, Oil and acrylic on canvas, 36 x 24in. (91.4 x 61cm)
Eleen Lin along with Tammy Rubin both explore the evolution of myths that emerge through total immersion in mainstream narratives, their vision manifested through a deeply methodical and detailed creative process. Their respective identities offer additional layers of perspective about both the immigrant and ethnic minority experience in the United States, and how essential these points of view are to developing truths that cross both time and geographic boundaries. Together, their work points to a shift away from a culture that centers the majority experience and designates all other perspectives as “other,” while providing fascinating commentary on some of modern society’s most cherished myths and traditions.

Eleen Lin, Strange Shapes of the Unwarped Primal World, 2022
Oil and acrylic on canvas, 72 x 96 inches
NFTs - TAAC store at http:// Formosart.io
  • artists NFTs on view and to be collected: https://www.formosart.io/store/taac
  • Chin-Chih Yang, Shih-Pao Lin, Te-Sian Shih
Contact: info@taac-us.org if you are interesting to support this artist in any creative way.
A recommended visit:
More than 100 artists across DUMBO will welcome the public into their studios and workspaces.
In conjunction with @artindumbo Open Studios 2022. Triangle NY, Spring open studios on Saturday, April 23rd from 12-6 PM.
https://www.triangleartsnyc.org/wu-chien-hsing

Don't miss the Triangle studio of Taiwanese resident artist Wu Chien-Hsing (吳建興）Wu's practice uses "domestic objects" to inscribe the memories of his own family history interwoven with the histories of the average middle-class family in the context of Taiwan's modernization. Wu Chien-Hsing was born in Taiwan in 1987 and grew up in Puli, Nantou County, in central Taiwan. Wu Chien-Hsing obtained his Master's degree of Arts from Taipei National University of the Arts in 2017.

image: Wu Chien-Hsing, This stop, light up your lights, 2021, Full HD video projection, color, stereo sound, 4”20 minutes loop
Upcoming Exhibition: Urban Reverence
The phenomenon of migrants forming an international cross-cultural "urban tribe" is one of the urgent topics in the 21st century. Analyzed historically in the context of the planet and symbiosis, this involves the survival of human beings and maintenance of balance among various living things. The discourse thus moves to valuing human nature, preservation of multiple cultures, the environment, and the new multi-faceted unity. Potential political, economic, and cultural crises can be averted only by an emphasis on the diversity of life that promotes interactive relationships.

Curatorial team:
Chief Curator: Luchia Meihua Lee, Executive Director, TAAC
Co-curators: Jennifer Pliego, Director of Special Programs and Head of the House of Art, El Taller Latino Americano, NYC
Sarah Walko, Curator, Director of Education & Community Engagement, Visual Art Center of New Jersey

Urban Tribes-II Urban Reverence Participating artists 
Herberto Turizzo Anaya, Reinhard Blank, Eric C. Chang, Dennis Redmoon Darkeem, Catherine Lan, 
Wei Lee, Yen-Hua Lee, Stephanie Cheung/Chengwen Lin, Shih Pao Lin, Eleng Luluan,
Sarah Haviland, Diana Heise, Hiroshi Jashiki, Alexander Khimushin, Rosalía Mowgli,
Walis LaBai (Dingwu Wu), Sarah Walko, j. maya luz, Chin Chih Yang, Yeh Fang
artist: Turizzo. Second Avenue Subway Mural, 1998, Bernardo Palombo, Donna Light, Turizzo Anaya for the MTA, 192 x 200 inches
artist: Dennis RedMoon Darkeem,
Healers, 2019
Gouache paint, drawing, marker, collage on water color paper, 33 x 24 inches
artist: Diana Heise, Drum Speak, 2012, Archival pigment print, 24 x 16 inches
In case you missed our Artist-To- Watch series, check out TAAC.

 
TAAC -- Building bridges between communities, national and internationally through art and culture to deepen our senses of beauty, inspiration, and empathy.
The TAAC team together with all our artists wishes you a safe remainder of 2022