Mountain Is Like a Monster: LEE Chu Yuan, LIAO Wei Li, LIN Chih Chien, WANG Wei Ho, and WU Tseng Jung

 “Mountain is Like a Monster” curated by ROAN Ching-Yueh invites five artists with solid architecture training. They are: LEE Chu Yuan, LIAO Wei Li, LIN Chih Chien, WANG Wei Ho, and WU Tseng Jung who have been renowned for their architectural achievements and also had impressive performances in artistic creation. Their wide variety of works unfold the homage to traditional landscape paintings, the great admiration for mountains in Taiwan and the abstract interpretation of daily objects, as if a mountain range but each mount has its unique landscape. The exhibition is scheduled from 20 February to 3 April, 2021. We cordially invite you to join us at the reception, set for 3:00 p.m. on opening day. The curator and five participating artists will be present. 

As the curator mentioned, the exhibition serves as a reaction to the current situation during the coronavirus pandemic. People are forced to disassociate from the familiar world. When traveling abroad is no longer considered a safe option, many of them choose to walk into the woods to seek the chance to speak to their mind by immersing the body in the inclusive nature. By virtue of the visual influences from the hilly surroundings and this era’s constant calling of gazing at oneself and the environment, mountains naturally emerge in the artistic presentation. Therefore, the exhibition is in the name of mountain and monster regarded as a footnote to not only honour vigorous and enigmatic peaks and forests but also enthusiastically respond to the very moment of unpredictability. Naming the exhibition after Qi Deng-Sheng’s story “Mountain Is Like a Monster” is how the curator Roan Ching-Yueh expresses his gratitude and pays tribute to the recently deceased novelist who had influenced him greatly. 

The body of works by the participating artists includes oil and acrylic on canvas, ink paintings, and dimensional works. Oneness No.7 by LEE Chu Yuan interprets hexagram in the Book of Changes through the employment of ink brushes, exuding the artistic contemplation on life. The watercolor Mount Sylvania by WU Tseng Jung has a distinct array of hues and shades imbued with his admiration for nature, using the large color blocks, simplified strokes to mirror majestic and vast mount. LIN Chih Chien’s depiction of hilly landscapes speaks for his personal comprehension of the earth. The oil work Spring Mountain structured in a vertical composition akin to oriental ink paintings combines the rock textures in Chinese paintings with the dripping technique, of which there exist strokes and colours of powerful expressions and also the nostalgia of ancient literati. Furthermore, the paintings by WANG Wei Ho form the study of interpretations of daily signs and material space into the minimal composition that probes in the intrinsic value and notion of life. LIAO Wei Li applies exquisite lines on ink-wash background in his watercolor and ink painting which, in the delineation of a mountain or human landscape, seemingly envisions the awareness that our existence is a drop in the ocean.