Florae: The Women Artists-The Special Project for MSAC 10th Anniversary III: LIU Feng Ling, Mia LIU, LO Yi-Chun, Juin SHIEH, E.Y. Shih-Chih YANG, Marina CRUZ, Lesley-Anne CAO, Geraldine JAVIER, Christina Quisumbing RAMILO, Jem MAGBANUA

Mind Set Art Center is honored to present “Florae: The Women Artists”, the third special exhibition to wind up the gallery’s 10th anniversary. It gathers ten talented women artists. They are: LIU Feng Ling, Mia LIU, LO Yi-Chun, Juin SHIEH, E.Y. Shih-Chih YANG from Taiwan and Marina CRUZ, Lesley-Anne CAO, Geraldine JAVIER, Christina Quisumbing RAMILO, Jem MAGBANUA from the Philippines. The exhibit consists of oil paintings, sketches, embroidery, sculptures and dimensional works of mixed media, which reflects the endurance characteristics of female and their deep engagement in daily lives through the exquisite expression of weaving and mending. Their works further transport us back to the primitive body experience and perception in art. 

Flora (plural. Florae), a collective name for regional plants, is early reference of females in art history. There have been innumerable connotations and intercontextualities between flowers and women since ancient times. Either the character and figure of Flora appeared in classic paintings or the seamless infusion of flower, female body and space in the modern paintings by American painter Georgia O'Keeffe progress in the feminine nature and cultivation. It creates a unique maternal space intertwined with flowering plants. The exhibition speaks and concludes the following feminine representations: Reproduction–a biological process creates offspring, also a metaphor of complex formality and decentralization; Flower–a symbol of resplendent and splendid expressions; Divine– the spirituality extracted from the context of religion or reality may also refer to the divine virtues separated from heavy household chores; Allure–born beautiful, a symbolization of glamorous youth. 

The Origin of Life by E.Y. Shih-Chih YANG in 2017 based on materials of ink painting combines the techniques of cutout and collage, and the composition of concealed analogy with landscape. YANG’s improvised wanders on the textures of layered papers create a realm of freedom between figuration and abstraction that releases the imagination of spirituality from the resemblance of nature. The similar textures and lines of layered papers appear in Juin SHIEH’s Crumpled Memory III. Yet, this work of complicated structure and narratives interprets the philosophy of life and aesthetics attributes occurred with women’s daily immersion in the world of tedious household chores. Filipino artist Christina Quisumbing Ramilo makes two heart-shaped sculptures out of colored pencils, signifying her gender identity with the use of rainbow colors— symbols familiar to the public. Their titles “Fruit” and “Flower” inverses and adopts derogatory terms that refer to people in the LGBTQ community. By presenting a perspective from queer culture in contrast to the conventional view of heterosexuality, her art celebrates diversity in defining what is female.