Art Beatus is pleased to present “Line Up!”, a group exhibition with a special focus on drawing as art.  New works by four stylistically and thematically diverse contemporary Asian artists will be featured.  Pieces range from pencil crayon drawings to vinyl (intaglio) prints, pencil sketches and sumi-ink drawings.  The exhibition runs from July 16 – September 10, 2010.

Refreshing one’s vision of the ordinary, Berlin-based Canadian, Nam Nguyen’s pencil crayon drawings start with a digital photograph.  Copying and transformation of the original image is integral in the process.  A work succeeds when the image appears unfamiliar, imploring an investigative examination of the piece.  London artist, Wuon-Gean Ho’s ‘mask’ prints are inspired by memory, identity, events and place.  The masks do not hide or generalize but reveal individual and specific truths, initiating and celebrating transformation. 

Hong Kong-born and Vancouver-raised, Jonathan Man finds drawing animals to be relaxing; they provide him the enjoyment of a similar independence because of their stress free nature.  Natural and expressive, sketching pencils are Jonathan’s primary tools of choice.  Vancouver artist Janice Wong, created several sumi-ink paintings before she realized her pieces were connected to music.  The soft, gentle curves, lines and markings in her works invite quiet moments and contemplation.

“Line Up!” has been organized to run in conjunction with DRAWN 2010, Vancouver’s annual drawing festival.  A reception will be held to officially open the exhibition on Friday, July 23 from 3pm-6pm and the gallery is pleased to have artist, Janice Wong in attendance.  On August 20, London-based artist, Wuon-Gean Ho will be in Vancouver to give a talk on her art as it pertains to drawing.  A small reception will be held following the talk from 4pm-6pm.  The public are encouraged to attend all events.

About the Artists

Nam Nguyen was born in Edmonton, Alberta and received his BFA at the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design.  In 2008 he received his MFA at the Nscad University in Halifax, Nova Scotia.  The act of copying is a central procedure in his work.  He has sought to embody the history of painting through an appropriation and repetition of modes and effects of painting within his own work.  Whether deploying conventions of abstract flatness, or illusion and rendering, the act of copying from a virtual maquette creates a distance from the work, resulting in a simulation of effects, or reproduction of various painterly conventions.  The discourse of the copy allows for a indifference that allows for a freedom to synthesize and experiment with painterly tradition, while being reflexive to the historical underpinnings embedded in technique.  The conventions of spatial effects are deployed to reshape the resistant structure of the photograph.  Yet, the initial photograph persists, informing the substructure and the composition at a molecular level.  Its meaning and subject are present as an erasure, a palimpsest of meaning that creates a dialectical tension between the visible image and the invisible origin.  In 2008, Nam received the Joseph Plaskett Foundation Award of $25,000 to travel to Europe.  He is currently working and living in Berlin, Germany.

Wuon-Gean Ho graduated with a BA in History of Art and a professional licence as a veterinary surgeon from Cambridge University before taking up a Japanese Government Scholarship in 1998 to study woodblock printmaking in Japan.  She makes silkscreen, woodcut, linocut and etchings, artist’s books, and teaches woodblock techniques in the UK and USA.  In her recent series of work, LUCID MASK, Ho unveils the hidden stories and experiences behind one’s face, under one’s skin.  For the artist, this comprises a jumble of memories and little prayers for past and future events and situations.  These thoughts have been projected and magnified on the surface of the skin, showing the space inside the head with an inner movie playing past the features.  Sometimes the sound reel morphs to actual bits of anatomy; sometimes the storyline hijacks real and imagined stories and places. As the work has progressed, the features of the face have become more descriptive and concerned with tone and reality, yet in some images the essence of location and memory have taken over the vessel of the face altogether, and all that remains is a snapshot of an event in a head-shaped format.  Wuon-Gean Ho was born in Oxford, Great Britain and lives and works as a studio technician for East London Printmakers in London. 

Jonathan Man was born in Hong Kong and grew up in Vancouver, BC.  Many of his subjects tend to be, but are not limited to animals.   Living in the wilderness, animals have a lot of freedom - drawing them relaxes the artist and provides him with the enjoyment of a similar independence because of their stress-free nature.  “The creative process can be intensely freeing and joyous, and at the same time unnerving and unpressured”.   Jonathan’s artwork focuses on sensation and emotions.  Sketching pencils are his primary tools of choice because they are so natural yet expressive. Over the last few years, Jonathan has been developing his drawing skills under a private art teacher.  After graduating high school, Jonathan was accepted to the Emily Carr University where he also currently studies.  There he has experienced a variety of art processes, further nurturing his creativity and potential.

Janice Wong’s sumi-ink drawings evoke an array of feelings.  The works are fresh, playful, and spirited yet also meditative, inviting quiet moments and contemplation.  Gentle curves, subtle marks and lines are elegantly geometric and reminiscent of music theory; the drawings bear strong resemblance to strings, staffs, scales, and notes.  It was only after creating several pieces that the artist realized her works were connected to music; a likely influence from music lessons in childhood.  Janice Wong studied Fine Art at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, and received her BFA with Distinction, Honours in Painting from the Alberta College of Art and Design in Calgary, Alberta.  She is the recipient of numerous awards and scholarships, including three Canada Council Visual Arts Mid-Career Grants, an Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Grant and Federal and Provincial Project and Travel Awards.  Janice Wong is the author of “Chow: From China to Canada: Memories of Food and Family” which was awarded Gold in the Food Culture category of Cuisine Canada's Culinary Book Awards for 2006.  Her artworks are exhibited and collected in Canada, Europe, Asia and the United States.  Born in Saskatchewan, Janice Wong has resided in Vancouver since 1986.