Programmes

 

15 & 16 December 2017
Hong Kong Convention & Exhibition Centre, Hall 5B

(Scroll down for the biographies of the speakers) 

 

Friday, 15 December, 2.30 pm to 4 pm

Chinese ink painting at LACMA

Dr. Stephen Little, Florence and Harry Sloan Curator of Chinese Art, Head, Chinese, Korean, and South & Southeast Asian Departments, Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA)

This talk examines the history and development of the Chinese art collection at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), the largest art museum on the west coast of the United States. Starting in the 1920s the museum's permanent collection focused primarily on traditional Chinese art of the Shang through Qing dynasties, but in the 1970s the museum began to collect works of such modern Chinese artists as Chen Shaomei, Pu Ru, Huang Binhong, Fu Baoshi, Zhao Shao'ang, Zhang Daqian, Liu Guosong, and Wang Jiqian. Since 2011 LACMA has begun to collect more recent works by Li Keran, Li Huasheng, Lu Yushun, Zhang Hong, and Zheng Chongbin. This talk will also introduce a major promised gift to the museum of over 250 works of contemporary Chinese ink art, including important works by Gu Wenda, Li Huayi, Li Jin, Liu Dan, Qiu Deshu, Qiu Shihua, Qiu Zhijie, Lin Tianmiao, Wang Dongling, Wang Keping, Xu Bing, Zhan Wang, and Zhang Yu (among others) - all of which will establish LACMA as a leader in the promotion of Chinese ink painting in the United States.

In English with simultaneous Mandarin interpretation

 

Friday, 15 December, 4.30 pm - 6 pm

Time-Honoured Medium and Time-Based Media: Can They Talk to Each Other?

Prof. Eugene Wang, Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Professor of Asian Art, Harvard University

What does Chinese ink painting, a time-honoured medium, benefit from time-based media, such as film? In European tradition, drawing has largely been grouped with prints, the two tend to be compartmentalized together. Does Chinese ink painting have more affinity to draftsmanship or is it better aligned with time-based media? Is there something deeply process-driven about ink painting that its effect lends itself for cinematic amplification? With Liu Guosong’s [Liu Kuo-sung] ink paintings as a test case, the affinity and synergy between the ink medium and film as time-based medium can go a long way.

In English with simultaneous Mandarin interpretation

 

Saturday, 16 December, 11.30 am to 1 pm

Exploring the British Taste in Chinese Painting: Notable Collectors and Museum Collections in Britain

Dr. Michelle Huang, Assistant Professor of Art History and Museum Studies, Lingnan University

The collections of Chinese painting in the British Museum, being the largest in size and having the longest history among British institutions, represent the joint efforts of pioneering collectors, curators and scholars of Asian art who have played an important role in promoting an appreciation of Chinese painting in Britain. Since 1881, the British Museum made several significant acquisitions of early Chinese painting and introduced this new subject to Western audiences through exhibitions, publications and public programmes. In the 1960s, the British Museum and especially the Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology became more enthusiastic about acquiring works of modern Chinese painting by prominent living Chinese artists that helped illustrate recent developments in Chinese painting and its relationship with Chinese calligraphy and other inspiring models from earlier times.

This talk throws light on the reception of Chinese painting in Britain. It introduces major collections of both early and modern Chinese paintings acquired by national and provincial museums in Britain, including the British Museum and the Ashmolean Museum, in the 20th century. It will also examine the contribution of individual curators, collectors, scholars and artists in developing the British understanding of Chinese painting.

In English with simultaneous Mandarin interpretation

 

Saturday, 16 December, 2.30 pm to 4 pm

Establishing Authenticity in traditional Chinese painting 

Dr. Stephen Little, Florence and Harry Sloan Curator of Chinese Art, Head, Chinese, Korean, and South & Southeast Asian Departments, Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA)

How does one determine an authentic Chinese painting from a copy or forgery, and what determines the difference between a copy and a forgery? These questions have confounded Chinese collectors and connoisseurs for centuries. This talk examines some of the key issues and techniques involved in the connoisseurship of Chinese painting. The talk will include a discussion of artist's materials and styles, the formation of artistic lineages, the traditional Chinese literature on connoisseurship, the theoretical and technical relationship of painting and calligraphy, and a case study of copies and forgeries in the work of the Ming dynasty painter Qiu Ying (ca. 1494 - 1552).

In English with simultaneous Mandarin interpretation

 

Saturday, 16 December, 4.30 pm to 6 pm

The “experimental ink art” of Liu Kuo-sung and the creation of a new modernity in Chinese ink painting in the 20th century: A discussion between Liu Kuo-sung, Prof Pi Dao-jian and Dr Lesley Ma

This discussion will reflect on Liu Kuo-sung’s significant contribution to modern ink painting that began in the late 1950s, as well as his revolutionary approach towards the ink-painting tradition. Liu’s creation of a unique and contemporary visual language of ink painting, which goes beyond the representational, narrative and graphic, will also be discussed.

In Mandarin with simultaneous English interpretation

 

Biographies

Prof. Pi Daojian

Pi Daojian is one of the best-known art scholars and critics in China. Pi received his master's degree from the Art History Department of Professional Arts Institute of Hubei. He is currently the Associate Director of the Curatorial Committee of China Artists Association, member of the Academic Committee of “The Guangzhou Triennial” at Guangdong Museum of Art, Research Fellow of Hubei Museum of Art, and the Artistic Consultant of Redtory Art & Design Factory in Guangzhou.

 

Dr. Michelle Huang

Dr Michelle Ying-Ling Huang is an Assistant Professor of Art History and Museum Studies at the Department of Visual Studies, Lingnan University. She previously taught at the University of Hong Kong and the Hong Kong Baptist University, and has been an intern at the British Museum and the Hong Kong Museum of Art. She has also been a visiting scholar at the Victoria and Albert Museum, the University of Oxford and the University of the Arts London.

Michelle obtained her PhD in Art History from the University of St Andrews and has undertaken extensive research into the reception of Chinese painting in Britain c.1880-1980, with special focus on important collections, collectors, curators, scholars and artists associated with the British Museum and the Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology. She has edited two books, Beyond Boundaries: East and West Cross-Cultural Encounters (2011) and The Reception of Chinese Art Across Cultures (2014), and published a number of articles in edited books and periodicals such as the Burlington Magazine, Museum History Journal and the Journal of the History of Collections.

 

Dr. Stephen Little

An authority on East Asian art, Stephen Little grew up in Southeast Asia and the Middle East. He received his BA from Cornell University (1975), MA from UCLA (1977), and PhD from Yale University (1987). He served as Curator of Chinese Art at the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco (1977–1982) and the Cleveland Museum of Art (1987–1989); Curator of Asian Art at the Honolulu Academy of Arts (1989–1994); Pritzker Curator of Asian Art at the Art Institute of Chicago (1995–2002); and Director of the Honolulu Academy of Arts (2003–2010) before coming to LACMA in 2011. His research interests include Chinese and Japanese painting, Chinese and Korean calligraphy, Chinese ceramics, and the classical arts of Southeast Asia. His publications include Chinese Ceramics of the Transitional Period (1983), Visions of the Dharma: Japanese Buddhist Paintings and Prints in the Honolulu Academy of Arts (1991), Spirit Stones of China (1999), Taoism and the Arts of China (2000), Chinese Paintings from Japanese Collections (2014), and 17th-Century Chinese Paintings from the Tsao Family Collection (2016). Little has taught at the University of Virginia, the University of Chicago, the University of London, and Harvard University.

 

Liu Kuo-sung

Born in Bangbu, Anhui province, Liu Kuo-sung moved with his school, Nanjing National Revolutionary Army Orphan’s School, to Taiwan in 1949, at the age of seventeen. Liu later graduated from the National Taiwan Normal University. In 1956, he co-founded The Fifth Moon Society. The progressive group sought to create a new language of ink painting by synthesizing Western and Chinese artistic practices. Liu’s use of vibrant colour, textured papers and distinctive collage method are significant contributions to modern ink painting. Since as early as the 1960s, Liu’s works have been widely exhibited in Hong Kong, Europe and the US. In the past year, Liu Kuo-sung received three prestigious awards: he was elected by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (AAAS) as a Foreign Honorary Member – the first Chinese artist to earn this honour; he was inducted into The China Federation of Literary and Art Circles (CFLAC) as an Honorary Member; and he received Taiwan National Cultural Award for his lifetime achievements in art.

 

 

Dr. Lesley Ma

Lesley Ma is the Ink Art Curator at M+ and is responsible for the museum’s latest exhibition at the M+ Pavilion, The Weight of Lightness: Ink Art at M+. She was also involved in organising the 2015 Mobile M+: Live Art events. Ma previously worked as Project Director for artist Cai Guo-Qiang in New York, and was Curatorial Coordinator at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. She holds a bachelor’s degree in history and science from Harvard University, a M.A. in museum studies from New York University, and a PhD in art history, theory, and criticism from the University of California, San Diego. She is a recipient of the Fifth Yishu Awards for Critical Writing on Contemporary Chinese Art.

 

 

Dr. Eugene Wang

Eugene Y. Wang is the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Professor of Asian Art at Harvard University. A recipient of the Guggenheim Fellowship and other awards, he is the art history editor of the Encyclopedia of Buddhism (Macmillian, 2004). His book, Shaping the Lotus Sutra: Buddhist Visual Culture in Medieval China (2005), garnered the Academic Achievement Award from Japan in 2006. His extensive publication covers all periods and aspects of Chinese art. His current research interests include the exploration of artful mind and its materialization. He has served on the editorial board of the Art Bulletin, and the advisory board of Center for Advanced Study in Visual Arts, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. He is currently in the process of founding Harvard CAM (Chinese Art Media) Lab that is devoted to the production of multimedia designs of Buddhist and other cultural experiences. The lab’s pilot projects include “Mind in Caves,” a series of multimedia exhibitions and films of Buddhist cave programs in the manner of “virtual theater,” and an essay film about the contentious rise of the “abstract painting” in Asia in the 1960s.

 

16-17 December 2016
Ink Asia, Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, Hall 3G

DIALOGUES ON INK offers a spotlighted view of the diverse developments in contemporary Chinese ink art. It seeks to situate the current state of ink art within its historical and cultural lineage.

It will be jointly presented by the Art Museum of the Chinese University of Hong Kong and The Ink Society.

Registration is required:

http://www.inkasia.com.hk/index.php/programme/academic-programme/

Session 1: Calligraphy: From Tradition to Innovation
Friday 16 December  11:30am to 1pm
In Cantonese and Mandarin with simultaneous interpretation

• Fung Ming Chip, Artist
• Chui Pui Chee, Artist
• Phil Chan, Research-Assistant Curator (Painting and Calligraphy) of the Art Museum, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
• Wu Kuo Hao, Director and Research Fellow, Ho Chuang-Shih Calligraphy Foundation, Taipei

Moderator: Harold Mok, Chair and Professor, Department of Fine Arts, The Chinese University of Hong Kong

The panel will discuss the development of calligraphy from tradition to innovation. Looking at the practice and through the perspective of the two artists, the discussion will also explore the notion of the written word and its power to serve as a rich terrain for artistic exploration.

Fung Ming Chip

Born in 1951 in Guangdong province, Fung Ming Chip is a self-taught artist. Over the course of his career spanning more than 30 years, Fung has garnered critical acclaim for his calligraphic works, which draw from and reinvent traditional calligraphy with a novel and radical vision. Fung began to invent his own style of calligraphic script in the mid-1990s. By deconstructing and reassembling the lines and strokes of each written character, as well as experimenting with different ink tones and compositional arrangements, Fung has created over one hundred of his own unique scripts.

Fung’s works have been widely exhibited and collected around the world. His works are in the collections of the Hong Museum of Art; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Princeton University Art Museum, New Jersey; Asian Art Museum, San Francisco; Harvard University Art Museum, Cambridge; Ashmolean Museum, Oxford University; among others.

Chui Pui Chee

Born in 1980 in Hong Kong, Chui Pui Chee studied calligraphy with Jat See-Yeu and Wang Dongling. Chui received his BA from the Fine Arts Department, The Chinese University of Hong Kong and PhD from the China Academy of Art, Hangzhou, in 2010. Highly accomplished in a wide range of calligraphy scripts, Chui creates works that are rooted in the calligraphic tradition and yet are contemporary in their approach.

Chui is an executive member of the Jiazi Society of Calligraphy in Hong Kong and Friends of Shizai. He is also a research fellow at the Modern Calligraphy Research Center of China Academy of Art.

In 2015, he joined China Guardian Hong Kong as a specialist in the Chinese paintings and calligraphy department.

Chui has held solo and group exhibitions in Hong Kong. His works are in the public collections of the Hong Kong Museum of Art and the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford University.

Phil Chan

Phil Chan Kwun-nam received his BA, MPhil and PhD from the Department of Fine Arts, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, majoring in the history of Chinese art. Currently, he is the Research-Assistant Curator (painting and calligraphy) of the Art Museum, CUHK. His research interests mainly focus on the Ming, Qing and Modern Chinese calligraphy and painting, including the relation between Chinese poem and painting, and the history of connoisseurship and collecting. The catalogues and publications he has been involved in include, Chinese Painting and Calligraphy (an online catalogue of the Seattle Art Museum, sponsored by the J. Paul Getty Foundation), The Bei Shan Tang Legacy: Chinese Calligraphy, The Bei Shan Tang Legacy: Rubbing of Stone Engraving and Model Calligraphy, Double Beauty III: Qing Dynasty Couplets from the Lechangzai Xuan Collection, and Minghua quanji.

Wu Kuo-Hao

Wu Kuo-Hao received his PhD from the Chinese Culture University in Taipei. His research area focuses mainly on late Ming dynasty calligraphy. He is currently Director and Research Fellow at the Ho Chuang-Shih Calligraphy Foundation, Taipei, as well as Assistant Professor in the Department of Fine Arts at Huafan University, Taipei. In 2010, he was an appraiser at the Asian Civilisations Museum, Singapore. He was a Senior Visiting Scholar at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2008-2009. Wu has curated numerous exhibitions of calligraphy both within Taiwan and abroad. His writings on calligraphy have been published extensively. He has also edited numerous books, including Zhu Shunshui and The Legacy of Calligraphy in Taiwan. In addition, Wu Kuo-Hao is a calligrapher. In his practice, he seeks to assimilate elements of daily life to create works that are innovative and distinct from traditional calligraphy.

 

Session 2: Building and Curating Collections in the 21st century
Friday 16 December 3pm to 4:30pm
In Mandarin with simultaneous interpretation

• Lesley Ma - Curator, Ink art, M+, Hong Kong
• Eve Tam, Museum Director, Hong Kong Museum of Art
• Wang Huangsheng, Director, Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA) Art Museum, Beijing
• Qing Pan, Deputy Director for Curatorial Affairs and Exhibition Design, National Museum of China, Beijing

Moderator: Josh Yiu, Director, Art Museum, The Chinese University of Hong Kong

This panel will provide an insight into how institutions approach the acquisition / display / presentation of ink art. What are the strategies to relate ‘contemporary ink art’ with ‘traditional ink’? Does your classical collection or gallery space shape the way you collect ‘contemporary ink art’? If so, how?

Lesley Ma

Lesley Ma is Curator, Ink Art at M+, Hong Kong and a recipient of the Fifth Yishu Awards for Critical Writing on Contemporary Chinese Art in 2015. She is planning M+’s first ink art exhibition in fall 2017 at the M+ Pavilion in the West Kowloon Cultural District.

Eve Tam

Eve Tam obtained a BA degree and then an MA degree from the University of Hong Kong in fine arts and in cultural studies in 1991 and 2003 respectively. She also holds a Master’s degree in Museum Studies from the University of Sydney in 2013. In 1994, she received the “Art in Belgium Scholarship” of the Belgian Consulate, Hong Kong and interned with Jan Hoet, curator of Documenta IX, at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Ghent, Belgium. As a recipient of the Lee Hysan Foundation Fellowship 2004, she conducted several internships in the US in 2005. She has worked at various museums including the Museum of Teaware, the Hong Kong Heritage Museum and the Art Promotion Office. Since 2012, she has been Museum Director of the Hong Kong Museum of Art. She has participated in a number of major new museum and art space projects in Hong Kong including the Hong Kong Heritage Museum (1996-2000), the museum at the West Kowloon Cultural District (2008-2012) and the new art space at Oil Street (2010-2012). She is now working on the major renovation project of the Hong Kong Museum of Art.

Wang Huangsheng

Wang Huangsheng has been Director of the CAFA Art Museum since 2009. He is the Founder of the Guangzhou Triennial and CAFAM Biennial. From 2000 to 2009, he was the Director of the Guangdong Museum of Art.

Wang holds an MA (1990) and a PhD (2006) from the Nanjing Art Institute in Art History. His writings have been published extensively in various catalogues and journals both within China and abroad, such as Research on Art and Literature, Art, Art and Observation, Art Trend, Art Gallery Magazine and the Jiangsu Art Monthly. He is also the chief-editor of the Art Museum periodical. His published books include Master painters of the Ming and Qing dynasties – Chen Hongshou (Jilin, 1995) and History of Chinese Painting: Landscape (Jiangxi, 2008).

As a prominent ink artist, Wang has exhibited his work widely. His works are in the collections of the Guangdong Museum of Art; Guangdong Provincial Museum; National Art Museum of China, Beijing; Victoria and Albert Museum, London; among others.

Qing Pan

Qing Pan is presently the deputy director for Curatorial Affairs and Exhibition Design Department at the National Museum of China. After obtaining her PhD from Columbia University in 2007, she returned to China to serve as a curator of modern and contemporary art at the National Art Museum of China. Since then she has organized various regional and international exhibitions including Transforming Marks of Ink: Chinese Contemporary Ink Paintings (2008) at the National Museum in Berlin and the National Museum in Dresden, Crossing: Dialogues for Emergency Architecture (2009) at the National Art Museum in Beijing, Animamix Biennial (2009) at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Shanghai, Trans-Realism: Chinese Contemporary Art (2009) at Christie’s Auction House in New York, and Tales of Two Cities: New York & Beijing at Bruce Museum in Greenwich, USA (2016).

 

Session 3: The market and collecting - What is the future of contemporary ink art?
Saturday 17 December 11:30am to 12:30pm
In English

• Catherine Maudsley, Independent art advisor, curator and art historian
• Daphne King, Director, Alisan Fine Arts
• Vincent Lo, Collector
• Katharine Don, Deputy Director, Department Head of Contemporary Ink Art, Sotheby’s Hong Kong

Moderator: Olivia Wang, Representative, The Ink Society

The world of collecting contemporary art is constantly shifting. This panel will discuss how collecting contemporary ink art has evolved in recent years. In light of the growing interest in this genre, how are serious collectors, curators, institutions, gallerists and auction houses shaping the landscape of contemporary ink art?

Catherine Maudsley

Catherine Maudsley is a pioneering fine arts professional who has lived in Hong Kong for more than three decades. She works with distinguished collectors worldwide, providing a unique blend of integrated services: collections management, curating, researching, writing and strategic overview. Catherine Maudsley has served on the Executive Committees of the University of Hong Kong Museum Society and the Oriental Ceramic Society Hong Kong and is a Hong Kong Art School Council member.

An independent scholar and advocate of lifelong learning, Catherine Maudsley has lectured for institutions including the Department of Fine Arts at The University of Hong Kong, Christie’s Education, and Sotheby’s Institute of Art and has moderated discussions for the Asia Society, Christie’s Art Forum, L’ÉCOLE Van Cleef & Arpels and many others. She has published widely, including Arts of Asia, the Asian Art Newspaper, Orientations and has contributed to and edited a number of art related books. 

Daphne King

Born in America, Daphne has lived in Hong Kong since she was five. She graduated from Philips Academy, Andover, and the University of Pennsylvania with a BA in History. After graduation, she worked in the advertising industry in New York and Hong Kong. In 1996, she joined Alisan Fine Arts and was promoted to Director in 2005; in 2011 she formally took over operations at the gallery. Since then she has curated several landmark exhibitions, including Selected Asian Cultural Council Fellows: Then and Now held at the Asian Cultural Council and Alisan Fine Arts in 2011; Fang Zhaoling, Vigorous and Fresh Chinese Ink Painting held at Fine Art Asia and Alisan Fine Arts in 2012; Rhythms of Creation – Chinyee held at the Hong Kong Arts Centre and Alisan Fine Arts in 2013; Mountainscapes: New Ink Art by Wang Tiande held at Alisan Fine Arts in 2014; The Ink Discipline, A series of rare original prints by Fabienne Verdier held at Alisan Fine Arts in 2014; Yang Jiechang: Good Morning Hong Kong held at the Hong Kong Central Library and Alisan Fine Arts in 2015; A Legacy of Ink: Lui Shou-kwan 40 Years On held at the Hong Kong Arts Centre and Alisan Fine Arts in 2015.

A patron of the arts, Daphne was a Friend of the Hong Kong Museum of Art from 1997–2000 and is currently a Trustee of the Friends. In 2011, she was appointed Director of The Ink Society. Daphne has been a keen supporter of the Hong Kong Ballet since 2002, and was co-chair of the Guild from 2011-2015, she currently is an Executive Member of the board. Since 2015 she has been a patron of Asian Cultural Council Friend’s Circle. She founded the University of Pennsylvania Scholarship Fund in Hong Kong and was the President of the Fund from 2002-2014.

Vincent Lo

Vincent Lo is a lawyer by profession and has served many committees of the HKSAR government and statutory bodies. Currently he is a member of the Advisory Committee on Arts Development under the Home Affairs Bureau and a member of the Museums Advisory Committee under the Leisure and Cultural Services Department. He is also the Vice Chairman of the M Plus Board and its Acquisition Committee. He is a director of the Ink Society and he collects Chinese classical paintings and calligraphy as well as contemporary ink art works. 

Katherine Don 


Katherine Don joined Sotheby’s in 2014 as the Department Head of Contemporary Ink Art in Asia. Prior to joining Sotheby’s Hong Kong, Katherine was an art advisor specialising in contemporary Chinese art. From 2013 to 2014, she was a key contributor to Sotheby’s contemporary Ink sales in New York and Hong Kong as a consultant. For nine years, Katherine established and directed RedBox Studio Ltd, an art advisory firm for private collectors of contemporary Asian art. Her curatorial activities in Beijing, New York, Canada, and Spain had a consistent focus on works on paper, including contemporary Chinese ink painting. Born in Hawaii, Katherine holds a dual-degree in Art History and East Asian Studies from Barnard College, Columbia University, and received a Master’s degree from UCLA Anderson School of Management.

 

Session 4: Ink art and its development in mainland China, HK and Taiwan
Saturday 17 December 3pm to 4:30pm
In Mandarin with simultaneous interpretation

• Pan Gongkai, Artist, scholar and former President of CAFA
• Chia Chi Jason Wang, Independent curator and art critic
• Zhang Yu, Artist
• Wang Tiande, Artist
• Leung Kui Ting, Artist

Moderator: Zhou Jin, Associate Professor, Department of Fine Arts, The Chinese University of Hong Kong

The panel will discuss the development of ink art, tracing the cultural and historical changes over the past decades, in different countries. Regional trends, differences, and perspectives towards the ink painting tradition will be explored.

Pan Gongkai

Born in 1947, Pan Gongkai studied in the Department of Chinese Painting at the Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts (now China Academy of Art). As a distinguished scholar, artist and educator, he has played an important role in the country’s artistic and intellectual life. He previously served as President at the Central Academy of Fine Arts (2001-2014) and China Academy of Art (1996-2001).

Pan Gongkai has written widely on modern Chinese art. A fervent advocate of China’s own artistic traditions, Pan has researched extensively the relationship between Chinese and Western art in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.

Pan Gongkai’s works have been exhibited extensively both within China and abroad. Most recently, he has had solo exhibitions at the San Diego Museum of Art (2015), Frye Art Museum, Seattle (2014), and the Today Art Museum, Beijing (2013). In 2011, his work was included in the China pavilion at the Venice Biennale. His works are in the collections of the National Art Museum of China, Beijing; National Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall, Taipei; Asian Art Museum, San Francisco; among others.

Chia Chi Jason Wang

Born in 1961, Chia Chi Jason Wang lives and works in Taiwan as a curator and art critic. He was the curator of the Taiwan Biennial 2008, the Taiwan Pavilion at the 51st International Art Exhibition of the Biennale of Venice 2005, and the 9th International Architecture Exhibition of the Biennale of Venice 2004. He also worked as co-curator of the 2002 Taipei Biennial Great Theatre of the World.

He has curated over thirty exhibitions since 1998. Beginning in 1992, he has contributed widely to various art catalogs and Chinese and English magazines. He also served on the Academic Advisory Board of Asia Art Archive from 2004 to 2009.

He graduated from the English Department of Fu-Jen Catholic University (BA, 1984), the Institute of Fine Arts of Chinese Culture University (MA in Art History, 1986), and the Group in Asian Studies of the University of California at Berkeley (MA, 1991).

Zhang Yu

Born in Tianjin in 1959, Zhang Yu graduated from the Tianjin Academy of Arts and Crafts in 1988. Recognised as both a scholar and artist, Zhang is an important figure in the establishment and development of experimental ink painting. His early nonfigurative series, Divine Light, created in the 1990s, was considered a breakthrough as it obliterated most traces of the brushwork. His is also well known for his Fingerprint series, installation and performance works, which abandon the brush completely and go beyond traditional representations of ink.

Over the last two decades, Zhang Yu’s works have been extensively exhibited both within China and internationally. His works are in the collections of the Hong Kong Museum of Art; Chengdu Modern Art Museum; National Art Museum of China, Beijing; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Benetton Museum, Venice; Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Denmark; and the Chinese Culture Center, San Francisco.

Wang Tiande

Born in Shanghai in 1960, Wang Tiande graduated from the Chinese Paintings Department of Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts (now China Academy of Art) in 1988 and later obtained a PhD from its Calligraphy Department.

Since as early as the 1980s, Wang has embraced the abstract expressive potential of ink painting. His work often takes as its source classical landscapes and calligraphy, but Wang upends traditional forms in his work. In his celebrated Digital series, he replaces the brush and instead uses a cigarette or incense stick to burn the paper, creating a unique pictorial language. Wang has also incorporated additional layers in his compositions in the form of stone rubbings.

Wang Tiande’s works are in the collections of the Hong Kong Museum of Art; National Art Museum of China, Beijing; Shanghai Art Museum; Shenzhen Art Museum; Guangdong Art Museum, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; British Museum, London; Spencer Museum of Art, Kansas University; Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Berkeley Art Museum; among others.

Leung Kui Ting

Born in 1945 in Guangzhou, Leung Kui Ting moved to Hong Kong at the age of 3. At 19, he began his studies in painting under Lui Shou-kwan. He later took graphic design classes with Wucius Wong. Leung has experimented with multiple media and techniques since the 1960s, including ink, oil, woodcut, sculpture and graphic design. He has focused on painting with ink since the mid-1980s. Influenced by his background in design, Leung focuses on the structural elements and compositions of his works. In his ink paintings, he combines traditional brushwork with geometric lines and shapes. In his recent oeuvre, Leung assimilates the technological vocabulary of the digital age into his landscapes to create a distinct artistic language.

Leung Kui Ting’s work have been collected by the Hong Kong Museum of Art; Hong Kong Heritage Museum; Museu Luis de Camoes, Macau; and Ashmolean Museum, Oxford University.

Ink art has been a long-standing tradition being passed on for centuries in China. To cater for the continuation of the Chinese ink tradition to our younger generation, The Ink Society has organised a tailor-made ink art education programme "The Ink Tradition: Fragrant Harbour in the Eyes of Young Painters" as follows:-

Stage 1: Train the Trainer Programme
Early this year, The Ink Society invited thirteen renowned Chinese ink masters, namely CHU Hing Wah, HO Pak-lee, HUNG Hoi, HUNG Keung, LIN Tian-xing, Daniel LAU Chak Kwong, LEUNG Kui-ting, MA Kwai Shun, Harold MOK, OU Dawei, Laurence TAM, WONG Chung-yu and Wucius WONG, to provide ink art seminars, demonstrations and trainings to participating visual art teachers and potential art tutors in Hong Kong. Between January to March 2012 with nineteen sessions in total, teachers were introduced to a number of topics including the values and background of the ink tradition, fresh takes on modern contemporary ink art and training on various brush and ink techniques.

Stage 2: "Fragrant Harbour in the Eyes of Young Painters"
Group Painting Competition
Upon completion of Stage 1, the ink masters selected 18 teachers to enter Stage 2 of the programme. From March to June 2012, the selected trainers were required to pass on the values and techniques of Chinese ink art to their students, and helped guide them through the creation of a big-dimension ink art in collaborated effort. Students in each group were motivated to capture the dynamic Hong Kong harbourfront through their own perspectives, and translate their visions into Chinese traditional ink art. In the end, the adjudicating panel selected 3 teams as the winner, first and second runner-up, and along with 6 other merited teams, their works are now on display for sharing with the public in the "Fragrant Harbour in the Eyes of Young Painters" Exhibition through 5-14 August 2012.