Lot Essay
The Hong-Gah Museum, a well-known private art museum in northern Taiwan, enjoys similar stature as the stunning Chimei Museum in southern Taiwan. Museum founder Mr. Andrew Chew mainly collected Chinese paintings and calligraphy at the begining. It was until the 1990s he gained interest in Taiwanese contemporary art through a friend in the business. Chew then started his own art gallery as well as a system for managing artists and acquiring their best works. Chew's Culture Foundation was founded in 1990, committed to promoting Taiwanese arts and deepening cultural roots. Later on, it gave birth to the Hong- Gah Museum, named after Chew's father. The museum regularly holds exhibitions and forums, continuously spreading the seeds of art.
The auction this season offers a strong selection of leading Taiwanese artists working from the 80s into the 21st century. Wu Chi-Tsung's Wire II (Lot 311) provokes of a fluid landscape in the uncanny mountains, through the cold metallic net responding to the proximity of human touch; today, the attribution of spiritual meaning to the digit al realm, constitutes of a contemporary experience of the 'projected' image. As relevant as Plato's Allegory of the Cave, the work questions of the nature of one's perception. In Coil (Lot 312) by Huang Chia-Ning, the artist unearths a jumble of mass-produced objects, to materialize the dense complexities of our modern psyche; images are collated to instill a new sense of aesthetic qualities, recognized in her distinctive style of Photorealism. Su Wong-Shen (Lot 313) uses the imagery of stray animals, to construct of the metaphorical habitat of political unrest in Taiwan, and the social dynamics of rural-urban interactions for the past decades. Chiu Tze-Yan (Lot 314) and Alixe Fu (Lot 317) demands on the conceptual thought of the audience that is essentially implied by visual narratives, to defy the representations of expressionism. The early works of Lu Hsien-Ming and Lien Chien Hsing (Lot 315, 316) explore of the Taiwanese societal context, and the contingency of its identity.
The auction this season offers a strong selection of leading Taiwanese artists working from the 80s into the 21st century. Wu Chi-Tsung's Wire II (Lot 311) provokes of a fluid landscape in the uncanny mountains, through the cold metallic net responding to the proximity of human touch; today, the attribution of spiritual meaning to the digit al realm, constitutes of a contemporary experience of the 'projected' image. As relevant as Plato's Allegory of the Cave, the work questions of the nature of one's perception. In Coil (Lot 312) by Huang Chia-Ning, the artist unearths a jumble of mass-produced objects, to materialize the dense complexities of our modern psyche; images are collated to instill a new sense of aesthetic qualities, recognized in her distinctive style of Photorealism. Su Wong-Shen (Lot 313) uses the imagery of stray animals, to construct of the metaphorical habitat of political unrest in Taiwan, and the social dynamics of rural-urban interactions for the past decades. Chiu Tze-Yan (Lot 314) and Alixe Fu (Lot 317) demands on the conceptual thought of the audience that is essentially implied by visual narratives, to defy the representations of expressionism. The early works of Lu Hsien-Ming and Lien Chien Hsing (Lot 315, 316) explore of the Taiwanese societal context, and the contingency of its identity.