Art Beatus Gallery is proud to present to you, Spring Group Exhibition, featuring the works of several internationally recognized artists starting January 11, 2002 with a 6 pm reception.  The featured artists include:  Chen Dan-qing, Dong Biao, Gu Wen-da, Hou Wen-yi, Huang Yong-ping, Liang Shao-ji, Ma Ke-lu, Qin Yu-fen, Wang Gong-yi, Yan Pei-ming, Yue Min-jun, Zhang Da-li, Zheng Guo-gu, Zhu Jia.

Chen Dan-qing, a New York based artist, titles his series, Still Lives.  Chen arranges and positions his objects into new and different perspectives – Chinese paintings are placed with Western paintings, a recognizable symbol-laden object with velvet.  Gu Wen-da praises the landscape painting styles used back in the Tang and Song Dynasties and tries to combine the styles of Tang, Song, Ming, and Qing.  He also strives to incorporate both past and future in his paintings but does not link them; he pushes them to the two extremes.  Hou Wen-yi feels that paper is an extremely feminine medium because it is light, flexible, translucent, delicate, and elegant. Her art is the paper that she creates, her focus, to reveal her feminine character.  One of the best known international artists, Huang Yong-ping’s works often focus on the mythical, exploring the relationship between reality and belief; the juxtaposition of order and chaos in his work reveals the contradiction between man’s spiritual world and external reality.  Liang Shao-ji’s, Nature Series, implies sculpture of time, of life, and nature.  He believes that since nature keeps living forever and ever, his creations are bound to go on and on.

Despite the ink landscapes and elongated orchid blossoms, Ma Ke-lu’s work is a tangle of thread, spanning the artistic traditions of East and West.  By choosing to reproduce the style and sometimes even the compositions of Bada Shanren, a 17th century Chinese painter, Ma, in a subversive way, grafts Chinese formal language onto Western abstraction.  Qin Yu-fen’s, Where is Home? Series, is executed with fine copper wire attached by a few stitches to small rectangles of handmade paper.  The three-dimensional drawings range from curlicued lines resembling Arabic script to simple outlines of reclining figures.  In some instances, the thin wire line is interrupted momentarily by tightly wound spirals, snippets of linked paper, or tiny feather-like petals.  In others, a piece of wire mesh evoked the form of an umbrella or an upturned boat.  Yan Pei-ming paints in a violent and energetic manner.  He considers his work to be a kind of universal portrait; a portrayal of humanity.  He believes that one must betray one’s own decisions and desires.  Treason plays a major role in his work – there is no opening without treason.

Yue Min-jun’s paintings contain versions of a single figure whose face is contorted somewhere between a forced smile and a terror-stricken grimace.  He hopes his laughing characters will be seen everywhere, whether it be through mass-communications or through the interaction of our daily lives.  If everybody would laugh from their hearts, the world would be a better place.  Zhang Da-li makes his mark with graffiti all over the streets in Beijing.  His works have been criticized as they are not considered beautiful.  He feels that the reality of art has been separated from its true self – that art, nowadays, is judged on what is considered to be beautiful and what is not.  He believes that art should be about caring and understanding people’s lives and situations.  As long as people continue to react upon seeing his work, his work is complete.  Zheng Guo-gu’s printed images are prepared by placing negative film directly onto large pieces of photographic paper, and then carefully cutting out the dark margins with a knife, demonstrating a delicate craftsmanship that recalls Zheng’s experience in printmaking.

Art Beatus, with galleries in Vancouver, Canada and Hong Kong, showcasing international arts with a focus on contemporary Chinese art. The Vancouver Art Beatus gallery is on the upper plaza at 888 Nelson Street.