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Hanart TZ Gallery was established in Hong Kong in 1983 as Hong Kong’s first major gallery for Chinese contemporary art. Since that time, the Gallery has been a pioneer in exploring the Chinese cultural map for almost 40 years, introducing both established and emerging Chinese contemporary artists from mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and the international diaspora to a global audience.
In 1988, Gallery founder and curator Chang Tsong-Zung opened Hanart (Taipei) Gallery, mounting over 130 cutting-edge exhibitions over twelve years at its sites in Yangmingshan and downtown Taipei, and becoming an active participant in the vibrant contemporary art ecology evolving in Taiwan. Additionally, a series of landmark exhibitions curated by Chang were presented at major exhibition venues in Taiwan, including The Stars 10 Years (1989); Power of the Word (1999, National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts); and Yellow Box: Taiwan Contemporary Shuhua (2002, Taipei Fine Arts Museum).
For the 2022 Taipei Dangdai Art Fair, Hanart is proud to present a special exhibition of works by six seminal artists from Taiwan and Hong Kong, reflecting the powerful development of artistic practice in these two spheres, and illuminating the deeply humanistic sensibility innate in each the voice of each artist. These are works that are both rich in artistic conception and in localized narrative symbologies. Presenting these six artists in the dynamic context of Taipei Dangdai opens up new perspectives from which to review Hanart TZ Gallery’s promotion of Chinese contemporary art and its imprint in the art scenes of Taiwan and Hong Kong.
Artist
Luis CHAN
Luis CHAN (Chen Fushan, 1905-1995) was the first major Hong Kong artist whom Hanart TZ Gallery exhibited in Taiwan. Luis Chan shares a common ground with the late Taiwan artist YEH Shih-Chiang (1926-2012): these two brilliant and eccentric artists can be described as two of the most challenging figures in Chinese modern art history, as their work does not fit neatly into prevalent art historical narratives. Yet each artist has achieved almost legendary status in their respective spheres in Hong Kong and Taiwan.
Artist
Hing-Wah CHU
Hong Kong artist Hing-wah CHU (b. 1935)’s early life as a painter developed in tandem with his long-term career as a professional psychiatric nurse. His works are deeply emotional soliloquies that are rooted in the artist’s sense of connection with and compassion for the everyday life of the common people.
Artist
Tsai-Tung CHENG
Deeply affected by the Taiwan nativist movement of the 1970s, Tsai-tung Cheng
(b. 1953) was among the first group of artists to create unique visual vocabularies that privileged the experience of Taiwan quotidian life over the visual and thematic language of the Western avant-garde. Cheng Tsai-tung’s work evolved into a wider embracement of the flavors of life in the East, confronting the void of contemporary nihilism with the elegance of the historical literati.
Artist
Lai-Hsing CHEN
Deeply affected by the Taiwan nativist movement of the 1970s, Lai-Hsing CHEN (b. 1949) was among the first group of artists to create unique visual vocabularies that privileged the experience of Taiwan quotidian life over the visual and thematic language of the Western avant-garde. Cheng Tsai-tung’s work evolved into a wider embracement of the flavors of life in the East, confronting the void of contemporary nihilism with the elegance of the historical literati.
Artist
Shih-Chiang YEH
In his first few years there Yeh studied fine arts at the Taiwan Provincial Teachers’ College (now National Taiwan Normal University) in Taipei, where his talent and originality as a painter were immediately recognized. However, as time passed and the political rift between Taiwan and the PRC made return to his home impossible, Yeh grew increasingly reclusive and finally shunned official art circles to seclude himself in the countryside, where he lived a simple, ascetic life, practicing Zen Buddhism, teaching and painting. Every aspect of Yeh’s daily activities was informed by a conscious awareness of the ideal of inner cultivation shared by both the literati and Zen traditions. In 1975 he learned to craft traditional guqin instruments, and began to practice this as his main art form.
Artist
Wei-Li YEH
Wei-li YEH (b.1971) focusses on the temporal aspect of life as his main creative subject, developing multi-dimensional narratives within extended and often cross-sectional time frames. His projects combine video, text and spatial transformation to explore the dynamics of the individual within collective practices and sociopolitical networks.
