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For
Immediate Release
Winter Group Show
Works by
Frank Tam, Qin Feng, Cha Guojun, Taiga
Chiba and Junichiro Iwase
December 1, 2017 - January 12, 2018
*Please note there will not be an opening
reception for this exhibition
Art
Beatus (Vancouver) Consultancy Ltd
is delighted to present a special
exhibition to celebrate the holiday season
with our Winter Group Show.
We invite you to take a break from the
wintery cold and the holiday bustle to see
our featured selection of ink on paper
works, mixed media paintings and
sculptures.
Highly respected and well-renowned, Frank
Tam draws on his experience as an
artist caught between two cultures. His
abstract ink on rice paper works use
Eastern tradition to deconstruct Western
modernism so as to reconcile the
differences. Pieces from Tam's Lotus
series in this exhibit are a fine example
of the artist merging forms and creating
balance within the highly studied yet
effortless, spontaneous brushstrokes that
only a true master can do. ♦ Qin Feng,
an internationally acclaimed contemporary
ink painting artist, also employs
traditional Chinese ink painting and
calligraphy with abstract expressionism.
His Civilization Landscape series
is part of a larger body of work that also
includes installation and performance in
which the artist uses his own “...language
and system of symbols and signs to
re-create and represent ancient cultures
and civilizations that have long
disappeared in the wind...”.
Cha
Guojun's mixed media on paper
works are evocative of a sumptuous and
mysterious world. “I exert myself to
use abstract language as a way to
enter the boundless and wondrously
exquisite universe in relating the
story of Oriental mysticism”.
These abstract but formally rich works
reveal his masterful use of tone, colour
and texture with the right amount of
harmony and contrast. ♦ The subjects in
Taiga Chiba's monochrome Japanese
sumi-e ink paintings are fluid,
spontaneous, playful, and expertly
executed. The artist's unwavering
fascination and curiousity with the
origins of life, micro and
bio-organisms, and their morphology is
always present in his work. Inspired by
the rich deposits of paleontological
fossils found in the Burgess Shale in
Field, British Columbia, one is never
quite sure if the subjects in Chiba's Ancestors
and Ancient Life series are
entirely creations of the artist's
imagination or if they really did exist
once during a geological period that has
now been long extinct. ♦ Sculptures by Junichiro
Iwase are constructed with
transparent acrylic materials and filled
with brightly coloured water. Minimalist
and calming, the works, which resemble
spirit levels, are intended to be used
as tools for meditation in order to
strive for 'Mu' or 'nothingness', a Zen
Buddhist concept which recognizes there
is no right or wrong, good or bad, in
order to transcend one's dualistic
paradigms and to find one's centre.
According to Iwase, the
actual sculpture is the 'empty
space' or 'nothingness' inside the air
bubble within the coloured solution.
Everything else is the supporting
structure to the work.
The late Frank Tam (1941-1998)
was born in Taishan in the province of
Guangdong, China and moved to Hong
Kong in 1950 before immigrating to
Canada in 1972. As a youth, he was
mentored in traditional Chinese
painting by a great master of Lingnan
School and of Song Dynasty landscape
painting, Chao Siao-Eng and then he
went on to study graphic design at
Chinese University of Hong Kong. His
work has been exhibited in Asia, North
America, and Europe and his work can
be found in numerous private
collections and public institutions
such as the Museum of Civilization in
Ottawa, Canada and the Hong Kong
Museum of Art.
Born in Xinjiang, China in 1961, Qin
Feng graduated in 1985 from
Shandong Art Institute in Shandong,
China where he studied mural painting.
In 1996, he began teaching at Berlin
University of Art before moving to the
United States in 1999. An acclaimed
international artist, Qin Feng
has been exhibiting and performing all
around world and his work can be found
in collections such as the
Metropolitan Museum of Art in New
York, The British Museum in London,
United Kingdom and the US State
Department.
 Cha
Guojun was born in 1943 in
Kunshan, China near Shanghai. Before
becoming a professional artist in
1989, he graduated from the Shanghai
Drama Institute in 1967 and went on to
become a university lecturer in China,
USA and Canada. Cha Guojun has
exhibited his work in numerous solo
and group exhibitions throughout North
America, Asia and Europe and has over
500 pieces of work in various private
and public collections such as the
International Bank of Paris, The
Chinese Consulate General in New York
and the United Nations.
Born in Shizuoka, Japan in 1950, Taiga
Chiba earned a Bachelor of Arts
from Musashino Art University in
Tokyo, Japan in 1974 and, after
immigrating to Canada in 1981,
completed a Master of Fine Arts from
Concordia University in Montreal in
1986. Chiba has exhibited
extensively for over 30 years in North
America, Asia and Europe and has
received several awards, grants, and
artist residencies. His work can be
found in public and private
collections in Canada, USA, Japan,
Brazil, Mexico, Thailand, and India.
Junichiro Iwase was born in
Tokyo, Japan in 1971 and, during the
following year, he and his family
immigrated to Richmond, BC where he
currently lives and works. Iwase
graduated from Johnson Atelier
Institute of Sculpture in New Jersey
in 1997, and has since participated in
local and international art
exhibitions, residences, biennials,
workshops and has had public
commissions in Asia, Australia and
North America.
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Art Beatus, with a
location in Vancouver, Canada and two locations in
Hong Kong, showcases international art with a
focus on contemporary Chinese art. Art Beatus
(Vancouver) is located in the Nelson Square Office
Tower at 108 – 808 Nelson Street. For more
information, please contact Media Relations, Tamla
Mah or Ellinda Siu.
Art Beatus (Vancouver) is open Mon-Fri,
10am-6pm and is closed on weekends and holidays
Underground and street parking is available. Free
admission. Please use this information in any of
your press release and/or announcement material.
Visual material is available upon request.
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