A Dream Within A Dream
Tang Contemporary Art, Bangkok
Artists: Ai Weiwei, Ayka Go, Dinh Q Le, Gerald Davis, Raffy Napay, Wang Jian Wei, Yue Minjun, Yunizar Curators: Michela Sena
Exhibition Dates: 31 March - 03 May 2022
Venue: Tang Contemporary Art Bangkok
Opening Reception: Thursday, 31 March at 4:00 PM
Tang Contemporary Art is proud to announce the opening of “A dream within a dream,” a group exhibition curated by Michela Sena and featuring the works by Ai Weiwei, Ayka Go, Dinh Q Le, Gerald Davis, Raffy Napay, Wang Jian Wei, Yue Minjun, Yunizar at Tang Contemporary Art in its Bangkok space. The exhibition is running from March 31st through May 3rd, 2022.
"A Dream Within A Dream", this is how Edgar Allan Poe titled his poem in 1849; not only is this poem one of his most famous, it’s also one of the darkest. It expresses doubt and uncertainty about the nature of reality, questioning whether life itself is just an illusion: “a dream within a dream”.
In the same way, the artists on show are all confronted with the concept of reality. Confrontation can be disarming, inevitably leading to introspection. This is the case with Wang Jianwei. His artworks subvert the concepts of time and space to give new life to an indecipherable reality. Returning us an individual and sublime perception of his own artistic world. So magnificent from an aesthetic point of view and equally profound on a conceptual level.
Similarly introspective is Yue Minjun who, with his obsessive repetition of “self”, is in search of a lost identity. His laughter, the hallmark of his work, is Yue Minjun’s representation of a state of helplessness, detachment from contemporaneity. The same laughter gave birth to artworks that are milestones in the history of contemporary Chinese art. The works on show in our exhibition belong to his mature season. The color palette becomes more vivid, the flowers and shapes suggest a dreamy atmosphere allowing the aesthetic factor to prevail, giving life to absolute masterpieces.
“Unique” is Ai Weiwei's approach to reality. A reality he no longer recognizes and where he feels lost, using his own words, while referring to refugees : “I am a refugee, every bit... Those people are me. That’s my identity.” Struggling to feel at ease in a society that changed much faster than the human pace, he finds himself an orphan of his own context.
His reaction meets his characteristic “self-centered” practice: art and identity coincide in his works. His vision of reality molds his identity, leading him to incontrovertible active practices. In Ai Weiwei’s art, the collision with reality generates active reactions towards the outside, without boundaries between the reality and what he feels, what he sees and what he returns to us.
Extroverted reaction to reality is also shown in Dinh Q Lê’s practice. Born in 1968 in Vietnam, Lê’s works and art practice revolve around the themes of identity, history, and memory, which span from his well-known woven photographs to different media. He questions how visual culture may influence the perception of a national identity. As a refugee who migrated to the US, Lê lived and studied in California. Sparked by America’s prevailing perceptions of the Vietnam War, he draws inspiration from the war and its lingering consequences on the Vietnamese community.
In the same way, the artists on show are all confronted with the concept of reality. Confrontation can be disarming, inevitably leading to introspection. This is the case with Wang Jianwei.
Coming directly from the natural world that surrounds him, the elements depicted in Yunizar’ canvas, become characters of his artistic imagery. Conceived from the holistic concept of “rasa” (the act of perceiving the whole at once, involving simultaneously feelings, emotions, sensations, perceptions and judgments), his works depict visions of a lost world, so natural and archetypal as to become mythological. Unaffected by any trend coming from contemporary society, Yunizar silently witnesses the transformation of Indonesian traditional culture, gradually eroded under the pressure of modernity, yet present contingencies can’t override his own dimension.
Davis's works are among the best examples of the recent return to figurative painting. Through the element of beauty, he gradually brings the viewer to dig into an intimate dimension, made of dreams, fantasies, memories. The external reality is no more important than the intimate dimension, where his paintings originate.
So are Raffy Napay and Ayka Go’s works. Napay uses cotton threads to realize his famous textiles and the reason why he chose this material is probably to be found in his childhood. Growing up with a seamstress mother, he was exposed since a very early age to textiles and fabric. The memory of a lost childhood is resonating through colorful threads in his works.
Ayka Go’s world is the construction of a metaphysical reality: in a suspended atmosphere, random details of everyday life are enlightened by the lenses of her unconsciousness and suddenly reality appears as we had never seen it.
Critical essay by: Michela Sena
About the Artists
AI WEIWEI
Ai Weiwei is renowned for making strong aesthetic statements that resonate with timely phenomena across today’s geopolitical world. From architecture to installations, social media to documentaries, Ai uses a wide range of mediums as expressions of new ways for his audiences to examine society and its values. Recent exhibitions include: Ai Weiwei: Resetting Memories at MARCO in Monterrey, Ai Weiwei: Bare Life at the Mildred Lane Kemper Museum in St. Louis, Ai Weiwei at the K20/K21 in Dusseldorf, and Good Fences Make Good Neighbors with the Public Art Fund in New York City.
Ai was born in Beijing in 1957 and currently resides and works in Berlin. Ai is the recipient of the 2015 Ambassador of Conscience Award from Amnesty International and the 2012 Václav Havel Prize for Creative Dissent from the Human Rights Foundation.
AYKA GO
Ayka Go was born in 1993 Manila, Philippines. Ayka Go has early on been part of numerous noteworthy group exhibitions held in galleries Kaida, West, Finale, Ayala Museum, and in a site-specific exhibit curated by Mark Justiniani in Manila North Cemetery. Invoking memories of home and childhood, she uses paper sculptures to reconstruct the spaces of such intimate habitation. Selected solo Exhibitions: Some things we call home, Finale Art File, Makati City; Play, Cut, Stick, Paint, West Gallery, Quezon City 2021; Longings, Underground (Gallery 1), Makati City 2020; A Visual Diary of Sorts/ One Day; DayOne, Underground (Gallery 2), Makati City 2019; Ephemeral Landscapes, Finale Art File, Makati City2018; Memory Palaces, Finale Art File Booth, Asia Now Paris, Paris, France; That Play House, KaidaContemporary Gallery, Quezon City; Home: A Never – Never Land, Finale Art File, Makati City2017; A Drawing A Day, West Gallery, Quezon City. Selected Group Exhibitions: Fear No More, SaysTheHeart ,Nunu Fine Art , Taiwan, 2019; Ayka Go is a Filipino artist. Nunu Fine Art featured Ayka Go's work in the past. The maker's first piece to be offered at auction was "Untitled" at León Gallery, Makati in2021.
DINH Q. LE
Dinh Q. le was born in 1968 in Vietnam. Lê’s work and art practice revolve around the themes of identity, history, and memory, which span various mediums from his well-known woven photographs and tapestries to handmade paper, and video and mixed-media installations that question the reception and consumption of images and how visual culture may inform a national identity. Lê and his family left Vietnam in 1978 and lived in refugee camps in Thailand before relocating to the United States. In California where he lived and went to art school, Lê was sparked by the prevailing perceptions of the Vietnam War and its lingering consequences on the Vietnamese people. Lê has been invited to exhibit at the 50th Venice Biennial, as well as Documenta (13) at Kassel, Germany. In 2012 he exhibited a major solo project at the Museum of Modern of Art, NewYork. Lêhasparticipated in numerous international exhibitions, recent solo exhibitions include San Jose Museum of Art, California, USA (2018); Singapore Tyler Print Institute (2018); Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, Netherlands (2017); Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, UK (2016); Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art, Japan (2016); Site Gallery, Centre for Contemporary Art, Sheffield, UK (2016); Artangel, London, UK (2016); Mori Museum, Tokyo, Japan (2015); P.P.O.W. Gallery, New York, USA (2014); San Francisco Camerawork, USA (2013). Selected group exhibitions include Hong Kong Art Centre (2017); Nam June Paik Art Center, Yongin-si, South Korea (2017); Asia Society and Museum, New York, USA (2017); Trapholt Museum, Kolding, Denmark (2016); Centre for Contemporary Art, Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw, Poland (2016); Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia (2015); Carré d’Art, Nîmes, France (2014); Houston Museum Of FineArts, Texas, USA (2012); The Annenberg Space for Photography, Los Angeles, USA (2012); The Brooklyn Museum, New York, USA (2012); National Museum of Art, Osaka, Japan (2011).Dinh Q. works and lives in Ho Chi Minh city, Vietnam.
Gerald Davis
Gerald Davis was born in 1974 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He lives and works in Los Angeles, California. The artist graduated from the Art Institute of Chicago in 1999 with an MFA in Painting and Fine Arts, in 1997 from the Pennsylvania State University School of Painting and Fine Arts, and in 1996 from the Yale University Summer Art Institute in New Haven. The selected solo exhibition includes "Painting" solo exhibition, Lundgren Gallery, Parma, Spain, 2017; "Buried Man's House", LTD Gallery, Los Angeles, USA, 2016; "Painting", Mallorca Landings Gallery (Lundgren Gallery), Parma, Spain, 2012; "No One Cares" , Salon 94, New York, USA, 2010; "Vase of Worry", Parker Jones Gallery, Los Angeles, USA, 2010; "1986", John Connery Gallery, New York, USA, 2006. Selected group exhibitions includes "Forward", LTD Gallery, Los Angeles, USA, 2016; "Pissing in the Sink", LTD Gallery, Los Angeles, USA, 2015; "Black and White", Ameringer Gallery, New York, USA, 2015; Mallorca Lansings Gallery, Mallorca, Spain, 2014; "Paper", Saatchi Gallery, London, UK, 2013; "Attitudes - Initial Access: The Frank Cohen Collection", Babel Library, Wolverhampton, UK / "Inner and Outer Spaces: The Zabrodowitz Collection", London, 2010. Portfolio includes The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, USA, The Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, USA, San Diego Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, USA. Monograph 2016 Megan Abraham, "Gerald Davis, "Buried Man's House", Art Limited, July/August 2016.
RAFFY NAPAY
Napay was born in 1986, Manila, Philippines. Napay originally used oil paints, until he developed an adverse allergy to the medium. Whilst recovering, he explored the potential of other materials, and explored working with the available threads and textiles at home. Growing up with a seamstress mother, Napay was exposed to a wide variety of threads, cotton and fabrics and these materials gave him a strong ground into a different world of creativity. The artist realized the creative process was quite similar - from early conceptualization to finishing touches on an artwork. Now equipped with a needle for a brush, thread and fabric as his paint, the artist approaches his canvas as he would a painting. His composition stays true whilst playing with shadow and light, in effect transcending any intuitive boundary between painting and creating a tapestry.
In 2013, Napay was awarded the prestigious Ateneo Art Award, emerging as winner in the Contemporary Artists category, besting artists from all over the Philippines. The award granted Napa Two Artist–in-residence programmes at both Liverpool Hope University in the United Kingdom, and at Artesan Gallery + Studio in Singapore. He has held five solo exhibitions, including a solo presentation at ArtStage Singapore with Artesan Gallery in January 2015, and a solo exhibition entitled Sanctuary at the Ateneo Art Gallery in August. In October 2015, Napay won first prize in the much covetedIl LorenzoMagnifico art awards at the 10th Florence Biennale in Italy.
WANG JIANWEI
Wang Jianwei was born in Sichuan province, China, now is living and working in Beijing. Since the 1990s, he has been researching the influence of multiple sciences and cross-sectors' knowledge on contemporary art. He borrows and engages the methodologies of different disciplines in order to develop a new language for art. With this cross-fertilized knowledge, he launches philosophical inquiries to practice a cross-sector method to view the reality. Simultaneously, he transforms these visions into art forms, engaging in multiple mediums, including film, theater, multimedia, installation, painting and text etc.
Wang Jianwei has been invited to participate in many film and theater festivals, arts exhibitions and important academic events both within China and internationally. In 2008, he was awarded by Foundation for Contemporary Art (FCA) the "Grant Recipient".
YUE MINJUN
Yue Minjun was born in 1962, Daqing, Heilongjiang province, China and currently lives and works in Beijing, China. Minjun graduated from Hebei Normal University, Department of Oil Painting in 1985. Artist selected solo exhibition includes “Smile at the Flower Sermon”, Tang Contemporary Art, Hong Kong, China, 2022; “This is the Puzzling Laughter of our Time”, Hangaram Art Museum, Seoul, South Korea, 2020; “Primary From in Re-idol: Yue Minjun”, Hubei Museum of Art, Hubei, China, “Walk out of the maze”, Art Gallery of Luxun Academy of Fine Arts, Shenyang, Liaoning, China, “Daniel Templon,portrait d'une galerie”, Bernard Magrez Cultural Institute, Bordeaux, France and “Summit Dialogue", Yue Minjun x Qu Jianxiong Double Solo Exhibition, Tianjin Museum of Art, Tianjin, China in 2017. “The Nightingale”, Brandts, Odense, Denmark and “Character Garden – Yue Minjun Solo Exhibition”, LinbArt Gallery, Shanghai, China, 2015; “Big Face”, Art Museum of Nanjing University of the Arts, Nanjing, China, 2014; “Yue Minjun - Neo Idolatry”, Macau Museum, Macau, China, 2013; “Yue Minjun: L’Ombre du fou rire”, Foundation Cartier pour l’art contemporain, Paris, France “The Tao of Laughter - Yue Minjun Solo Exhibition”, Gallery by the Harbour, Hong Kong “Trap”, Chengdu MOCA, Chengdu, China, 2012. Selected group exhibitions includes “Signs”, Pace gallery, Hong Kong, China and “The Realm of Existence: An Exhibition of Chinese Contemporary Art”, Tsinghua University Art Museum, Beijing, China, 2021; Les Extatiques 2020 Contemporary Art Exhibition, Paris, France, 2020; “Rostros Que Desde El Silencio Nos Rondan”, Rombillo Museum of Art, Cuba and “The Last Supper After Leonardo”, Fondazione Stelline, Milan, Italy, 2019.
YUNIZAR
Borned in 1971 in Talawi, West Sumatra, Indonesia, Yunizar is a graduate from the Indonesian Institute for the Arts (ISI) in Yogyakarta, Yunizar is a prominent member of the Jendela group, Indonesia’s most prominent contemporary art collective. 2007 marked Yunizar’s first solo museum exhibition at the National University of Singapore Museum (NUS), Singapore. He has also been awarded Best Painting by the Peksiminas III Exhibition (1995) and received Best Painting from the Philip Morris Award V (1998).
Natural elements are subjects of Yunizar`s large canvases and bronze sculptures; coming directly from the natural world that surrounds him, they become characters of his artistic imagery. Conceived from the holistic concept of “rasa” (the act of perceiving the whole at once, involving simultaneously feelings, emotions, sensations, perceptions and judgments), his works depict visions of a lost world, so natural and archetypal as to become mythological. Unaffected by any trend coming from contemporary society, Yunizar silently witnesses the transformation of Indonesian traditional culture, gradually eroded under the pressure of modernity, yet present contingencies can’t override his own dimension.
Tang Contemporary Art
Tang Contemporary Art was established in 1997 in Bangkok, later establishing galleries in Beijing and Hong Kong. Tang Contemporary Art is fully committed to producing critical projects and exhibitions to promote Contemporary Chinese art regionally and worldwide, and encourage a dynamic exchange between Chinese artists and those abroad. Acting as one of the most progressive and critically driven exhibition spaces in China, the gallery strives to initiate dialogue between artists, curators, collectors and institutions working both locally and internationally. A roster of groundbreaking exhibitions has earned Tang Contemporary Art internationally renowned recognition, establishing its status as a pioneer of the contemporary art scene in Asia.
Tang Contemporary Art represents leading figures in Chinese art including Ai Weiwei, Huang Yongping, Shen Yuan, Wang Du, Liu Xiaodong, Yang Jiechang, Xia Xiaowan, Sun Yuan & Peng Yu, Yan Lei, Wang Yin, Wang Yuping, Yangjiang Group, Guo Wei, Zheng Guogu, Lin Yilin, He An, Zhao Zhao, Wang Yuyang, Weng Fen, Yang Yong, Xu Qu, Xu Xiaoguo, Ji Zhou, Cai Lei, Ling Jian, Liu Yujia, Zhu Jinshi, Qin Qi, Chen Yujun, Chen Yufan and Chen Wenbo, additionally collaborating with international artists such as H.H.Lim, Rirkrit Tiravanija, Sakarin Krue-On, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Adel Abdessemed, Dinh Q.Le, Michael Zelehoski, Jennifer Wen Ma, Rodel Tapaya, Natee Utarit and Heri Dono.
For more information, please contact Tang Contemporary Art:
Location: Room 201 - 206, River City Bangkok, 23 Soi Charoenkrung 24, Talad Noi, Sampantawong, Bangkok, 10100
Hours: 11AM - 7PM, Tuesday - Sunday
Email: bkk@tanggallery.vip
Tel: +662 000 1541
Website: www.tangcontemporary.com
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LINE: @tangbkk
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