Mind Set Art Center is set to launch a new group exhibition this coming fall, titled “Variation”. The exhibit features the latest works on paper and paper-based arts by 12 artists from Taiwan and abroad, four of whom are making their first-ever appearance at the gallery. The list of artists includes Rui Miguel Leitão FERREIRA, Rao FU, LEE Jo-Mei, LIN Chuan-Chu, Mia LIU, JHONG Jiang-Ze, SHI Jin-Hua, SHI Jinsong, Juin SHIEH, TZENG Yong-Ning, YANG Yu-Ning, and CHOU Kai-Lun. The artworks on display span a wide range of disciplines, including oil painting, ink brush painting, three-dimensional art, performance and concept art, through which the artists explore the variations of time and space in art. The exhibition is scheduled to open at 3:00 p.m. on September 17. We eagerly await your gracious presence.

The exhibition’s title “Variation” is inspired by the formal technique where melody or rhythm is altered in music. The participating artists express their creativity on or with paper and collectively explore the various shifting aspects of visual art. Through their different perspectives, techniques and interpretations, we get to witness their creative energy that would hopefully help change the stale impression of paper-based arts. Some of the standout works at the exhibition include SHI Jin-Hua’s latest drawing Pen Walking #182 Ocean I. For this particular work, SHI first draws a layer of underpainting with ink brush, and then proceeds to lay down countless lines of color pencil drawing. It is through the tumbling, interwoven lines that SHI expresses his romantic sentiments and freeze a moment in time. The drawing not only presents his expressive imagination of ocean, earth, soil and mountain ridges, it immerses the audience in an ever-expanding and fluctuating universe. Mia LIU’s Thought of Flying White, on the other hand, is an assembly of a large number of slivered pieces of paper within a square that creates an illusion of sketching that extends into three-dimensional space. The various colors and textures on the paper adds to the flow of the energy and the sense of dialogue between the ink, the light and the space.

Making their debut at Mind Set Art Center are TZENG Yong-Ning, YANG Yu-Ning, ZHOU Kai Lun, and Rui Miguel Leitão FERREIRA. They respectively use a ballpen, ink brush, pencil sketching and oil painting to create their unique works. TZENG Yong-Ning has been working with ballpens for a long time. And this time around, he has brought Landscape-Uphill 35, an epic polyptych art of which the composition shows characteristics of collages, sharp geometric lines and contrasty colors. The work brings the viewers into a trip through a modern concrete jungle. YANG Yu-Ning’s “Ink Wash Painting” is a painting that, in terms of its composition, brushstrokes, contrast between light and shadow and the three-dimensionality, has more in common with an oil painting than with an ink brush painting. By applying oil painting techniques, the artist has managed to construct a whole new visual experience that challenges our expectations for ink brush paintings. CHOU Kai-Lun, being the youngest of the bunch, is presenting a series of small but lively sketchings. Rui Miguel Leitão FERREIRA, an artist from Lisbon, will showcase several spectacular paintings that frame human subjects at the center. Bright, abstract lines fill the frames to the brim, exuding a vibrant sensation that accentuates the young, muscular subjects. The visual structure and the brushstrokes strikes a delicate balance between abstraction and expressionism, both serve to highlight the erupting energy and the youthful vigor.

Also for the first time, German-based Chinese artist Rao FU is presenting his paintings on paper in Taiwan. Compared to his usual massive oil paintings that tackle historic and transcultural themes, his new work is much closer to our everyday life. With vibrant colors and free-flowing brushstrokes, FU introduces us to a world filled with characters and landscapes that wander among dynamic visual elements and colors. He also allows us, the viewers, to approach the inner world and the hidden emotions of the characters by placing them at the intersection of history and present, of reality and imagination. In Chantey, the erratic emotions conveyed through colors evoke the strong energy of Edvard Munch’s work. It portrays a moment where a man traverses through a forest and crosses a creek while his loud chanting reverberates in the area and illuminates a path to the distant land.