“You may forget but let me tell you this?someone in some future time will think of us.”
You May Forget But by SapphoAmanda Wei Gallery is delighted to present you the group exhibition “Muses’ Calling” during Christmas season, telling stories of six female artists from diversified cultural and social background. This is also AWG’s first female group exhibition which discuss about the complex and ambiguous connections between gender and intellectual thinking from various dimensions.
In Greek mythology, Muses are goddesses in charge of art, literature and science. They are transmogrified from the narcissus, beside the mountain spring. Their elegant and seductive appearance is always extended to the incarnation of art, expressing the free and crazy art spirits resemble muses. In the modern era, the Muse is frequently used as a metaphor for the female idols and heroines admired by artists, bringing endless inspirations of creation. However, female artists are not only the Muse in the eyes of others but also more importantly the Muse of their own. They are given the vitality and tension of the mythical Muse, and able to transcend the power structure of being admired and gazed at by others. They always tell the self-discovery as the protagonist of the story, eagerly waiting for all the occasional & non-occasional, predictable & unpredictable in life, and at the same time “tempting” the focuses from the outside.
The participating artists of “Muses’ Calling”represent six different forms of Muses, Huang Yin, Hua Xiyu, Niu An, Scotie Ad, Vianne Savoli, and Diana Zhang came from different growth backgrounds. Their paintings have significant characteristics that are peaceful, rebellious or even dream-like portraying variant regional cultural scene; On the other hand, their cross-cultural sojourn life after adulthood offers them vision and perception beyond time and space. Through the clear brushstrokes, colors, and emotional expressions that detach from the present, the inner power of women is fully told: the stereotype of women being outsiders in art history has long been challenged, and their gender identity represents no longer a subordinated power system. We hope this group exhibition could be a unique experience that re-position the “self” as a female: social documentation, environmental impression, cultural identity, life style, emotional expression, dialogic therapy, etc., altogether showing us the aura of the complex, mysterious and seductive goddess, Muse.
The Preview events (by appointment only) of the exhibition will start from 7th to 11th December, two time slots: 2-4pm & 4-6pm.
Grand Opening is dated on 12th December 12, start from 3pm. Amanda Wei Gallery sincerely invite our dear friends to attend the exhibition!
Huang Yin
Huang Yin graduated from the Oil Painting Department of Sichuan Academy of Fine Arts in 1997. In the same year, she won the “Towards the New Century-Chinese Youth Oil Painting Exhibition” award held by the National Art Museum of China with “The Years Like Water”. As she loves reading Asian and Western literature, she gradually implements more of her thoughts & desire through paintings. A lot of fictional approach, her paintings are often presented like a stage setting, therefore what’s happening in the painting is often hard to implement in reality. Huang’s paintings often feature a single or group of young boys dressed in the uniforms in the 60s and 70s China and share the same life experiences with her.To her, they are similar to the main character in German novel “The Tin Drum” who always keep innocent and never grow up. Also, the children’s faces resemble the child fable Pinocchio, showcasing the feeling of lost and telling Children’s life experience in the collectivist era.
In Huang Yin’s usual pieces, you can see the whole outfit, featuring – white shirt, blue trouser & red scarf. In this piece, you can barely see the white shirt, and the overwhelming blue velvet like curtains. As if you are peeking into what the future holds of the unknown realm, no matter this is the moment of Opening or Curtain Call.
Hua Xiyu
Hua Xiyu was born in Lijiang, Yunnan Province in China in 1986. She got her bachelor degree in Visual Communication Department with BFA from Sichuan Fine Arts Institute in 2009. She studied master degree in the Visual Communication, Studio 10 in the School of Design in China Central Academy of Fine Arts from 2010 to 2013. She is now living and working in Beijing. In terms of the language of the paintings, Hua punctures the construction of imaginations, that is, through the media of painting, paintings are restored as “photos” – a medium different from classical painting. Those intentionally left
shapes and lines, as well as the saturated and pure colours, all highlight her “impressionistic” approach when she captured the fleeting light, neat as the feeling of pressing the shutter. She allocated the composition, exaggerating the dull parts of the plane that came from the digital products, to make the
picture sharp and decisive.
Hua Xiyu’s paintings slowly project dazzling light to the world, creating a peaceful and stable visual
effect, yet meanwhile, subtly point out that those scenes are illusions only. Images in her paintings come from the scenery of Hua’s hometown, Lijiang in Yunnan Province – the south of colorful clouds with picturesque seasons, soft and delicate. These images of memories are like a protective layer to the artist living in Beijing, resisting negative feelings brought by the busy and rough environment.
Niu An
Using fluid, gestural lines, Niu An builds upon calligraphic tradition to tell stories both personal and
universal. Incorporating elements of traditional Chinese ink painting and Western oil painting, the artist works in both oil on canvas and watercolor on rice paper. Her representational and calligraphic compositions, which draw from street art and Abstract Expressionism, are rendered with energetic brushstrokes and in vivid colors and thin washes. Her work features free-spirited gestures that filter traditional techniques through a modern lens. Based on Chinese tradition, the series melds poetry from the post–Cultural Revolution era with ancient objects of meditation. Niu An’s works have been exhibited in China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan, France, the Netherlands, Australia, and collected by the Singapore National Art Museum, Shanghai Art Museum, and private collectors worldwide.
Pillow is one of the most significant motifs in Niu An’s work. The main function of pillow is to help
sleeping, while sleeping is the medium of dream. This explains why Niu An is so fond of portraying
dreams which is intangible, unpredictable, but the most unrestrained. To large extent, this series of
artworks is to virtualise and abstracts the sleeping person. Those wild lines and brushstrokes, sharply contrasting colours, and symbolic texts hidden in the background combines together, showing a scene of chaos that temporarily isolates people from reality.
Scotie Ad
Scotie was one of the first female graffiti artists in France. From the 1990s, she began to survey the land to deposit her first colors under her pseudonym “Scotie”. She is a member of the “THS” crew. Her artistic career began in the atmosphere of the wasteland in Nantes, then in Paris, and passing through Amsterdam. She graduated in Applied Arts in 1996. Graffiti is for her a wonderful getaway which inspires her in her work today: feminine sensuality mingle with drips, tags, letters for a contrast that reflects her personality. A tasty blend where brutality flirts with infinite finesse.
“ These two diptychs is about the first “Valentine ´s day” that my husband accompanied me in China. During our evening, in the taxi bringing us back from the restaurant, a call from France announced a serious situation, forcing Arnaud to leave immediately… My painting expresses my anguish, blue, and cold feelings towards his absence. At this precise moment, they express my joy to be there drowned in my creation and worries to my children’s well-being while waiting for their father.”
From Scotie AdVianne Savoli
Vianne Savoli is an Iranian-Dutch-French artist based in Paris known for her real-life size mannequins and dandys with no face and no hair in strange fantasy settings. A meeting point between pop art, artdeco and fashion, Vianne uses oil on canvas depicting characters with exaggerated shapes and bold vivid colors. Inspired by the opera, literature, cinema, geopolitics, dreams and everyday’s life her characters animate different theatrical scenarios on each canvas through a story, deliberate positions and details, where mostly feminine figures play a critical role with the Aphrodite archetype seeking expression with a certain mockery of the man-made conditions. As a keen connoisseur of Carl Gustave Jung and the In-Depth Psychology, very often Vianne makes references to Jung’s theories in her works.
“June 2014, I was in love. One night, around 11pm, I took the pencil on a white canvas and around 5am these four bald women were born. One of them was looking at me with a complaint on her face. Their message was not clear until the very end when I finished the beer bottles on the bar. They were jealous. Of whom though I wondered. Of me? Of each other? What is it in that closed space that makes them cross looks with desire, envy, mystery and seduction. Perhaps it is that big odd hat? Or the sense of possession which pushes one in and pulls the other one out? Didn’t she see that smoking was prohibited inside?”
from VianneDiana Zhang
1976 born in Jilin, China, 2014 participated in Paris Biennale des Antiquaires, 2020 graduated from
Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Department of Fine Art. Diana Zhang’s painting to some
extent, is presenting her childhood memories and chaotic history she encountered. In her jewelry design, she pursues a perfectionism of extreme beauty and glamour, through which she expresses unique concepts for each piece. However, painting gives her desire to explore inwards, going beyond a perfect form. Diana’s painting encourages her to review the significance of life and continues to discover her “self” in the everlasting changing present. Painting is her own dialogues, cultural identity questioning, it goes beyond time & space, becoming a series of criticism and reflection of modern people’s struggle and existence.
“Since June in 2019 till now, it has been an extremely unusual time for Hong Kong. The vastly changing world leaves us helpless and lost, facing so many desires, tensions, and plagues. For me, the peace and happiness in heart is the only solution to convince me that everything is ‘in god’s hand’.” from Diana. Her latest art series “Muzi” is named after her childhood memories. “Muzi” is another “her” in art that is a deformed expression of personality. Through those figurative Neo-expressionist style paintings, the artist talks about the vulnerability of human emotions as a form of self-therapy.
Cali
Born in 1985 in Nantes, France, now live and work in Casablanca, Morocco, Caroline Limousin (alias Cali) devoted herself to drawing from a young age. Equipped with a double degree in Applied Arts from Rennes and Nantes, Cali went to Paris before settling in Saint-Tropez and started to exhibit her artworks since 2011. In 2013, she signed the contract with “BCK” Gallery in Marrakech, Morocco. Her compositions mix together glamor, rebellion and contradictory emotions. In her own way, she “packages” celebrities from different fields of this world into a form of “pop” merchandise. The symbolism in her work is strong, making the unusual with an ordinary tool, and developing a complex technique from simple materials. Cali’s work brings an extraordinary pop art trend worldwide.
The artist could create customised creative portrait according to collectors’ demands and preference. Unique pieces only.
