立夏之際，谷公館很榮幸地推出畫廊最新群展 - 「水」。

「水」集結了五位藝術家的作品：羅智信、韋嘉、蔣勳、劉安民，以及簡翊洪。展覽以「水」串連，有水的描繪，也有水的意象。

就像南宋畫家馬遠（1160-1225）的《十二水圖》，「層波疊浪」、「雲舒浪捲」等，那是對水的描寫。馬遠另一件留傳的作品《山徑春行》，岸邊拖枝垂柳，柳上雙鳥「避人幽鳥不成啼」，湖景帶入內心活動的世界，成為水的意象。

展覽中，韋嘉的布上丙烯作品，《無名》在綠色的碧潭邊，雙人走向不知或不需姓名的世界。《尿尿小童》的小噴泉，對照出整個的世界騷動萬千的山河。羅智信的裝置《Coconut Escape》（椰子逃離）是迴轉廣告看板，上面的宣傳式標語是藝術家的詩句，蜜月度假海濱的遙想裡，飄出人造椰子香味的夢鄉。

劉安民畫作《僧侶的桌子》，規律的麻繩與均等的龜裂，敷上半透明膠膜，白淨中一清如水。
簡翊洪的《微風吹過大坡池》水氣蕩漾，寫景。另幾幅速寫點出情慾的暗流，不小心愛如潮水。

蔣勳水墨作品，《雲山》是水氣與山巒的纏綿擁抱、《山水》淡墨簡筆，彷彿僧人漸江（1610-1664）筆意，寫下心中過眼雲煙。另外《牡丹亭》書法「裊晴絲吹來閒庭院，搖漾春如線」，「漾」字飄出了瀲灩。

數月來經歷疫情變化，或許展覽中這些帶「水」的作品，像是一扇窗戶，重新於夏日，打開生命種種面貌。


WATER - a group exhibition
Luo Jr-shin / Wei Jia / Chiang Hsun / Lao Lianben / Jian, Yi-Hong

5.10 - 7.26, 2020

At this summer’s beginning, Michael Ku Gallery is pleased to announce the opening of our latest group exhibition: Water.

Featuring work from artists Luo Jr-shin, Wei Jia, Chiang Hsun, Lao Lianben, and Jian Yi-Hong, the exhibition centers around water and its physical and metaphorical manifestations.

The painting Twelve Waters of the Southern Song Dynasty painter Ma Yuan (1160-1225) comes into mind. In the composition, calligraphic verses “waves upon waves” and “clouds unfurl as waves twirl” pronounce the physical properties of water. Another of Ma’s masterpieces Walking on a Mountain Path in Spring depicts a pair of birds on a weeping willow by a lake, momentarily “halting their songs to hide from passersby.” The tranquil waterside vignette reflects humankind’s internal longing for solitude.

Included in the exhibition are two of Wei Jia’s acrylic on canvas pieces: Untitled reveals two figures by a lush green pool walking into an unknown world, whereas Manneken Pis juxtaposes a stream of piss emerging from a cherub against a majestically chaotic landscape.

Luo Jr-shin’s Coconut Escape is a scrolling advertisement panel set near an artificially fragranced coconut air freshener. The panel’s poetic slogans written by the artist fantasize over a honeymoon escape by the beach.

Lao Lianben’s painting Monk’s Table bears the rhythmic marks of hemp ropes and crackling paint, its translucent gelled surface pale and clear like a pool of spring.

Jian Yi-Hong’s Gentle Breeze Over Pond renders a landscape rippled with water. Jian’s other sketches exhibit an undercurrent of love and lust that threaten to overwhelm like a tidal wave.

Chiang Hsun’s ink piece Cloud and Mountains marries mist and mountains in a pictorial embrace, and Landscape contemplates life’s transience while referencing the subdued style of the monk painter Jian Jiang (1610-1664) with light, elegant ink strokes.

As the anxiety brought by the coronavirus outbreak slowly subsides, the weather also clears to reveal rays of sun and delicate insect silk glistening breeze-bound in daylight. It is our hope that during this time of regeneration in the summer, work containing qualities of water in this exhibition will help welcome new possibilities in life.