How does painting reflect part of our life? Painting is a habit, a pursuit, and a way of intellectual training. More often, artworks record and preserve our feelings and thoughts about the surroundings, even acting as a mirror reflecting the truth of the artists.

Living in the speedy pace of hustle city life, we need to have conversations to tidy up our minds, lift our boundaries to achieve our internal peace. What are mindful freedom and internal spirituality? Through visual art created by our artists, CHAK (the oil paint artist) and SHIBA (the copper printmaker), could they show any intertwined possibility between the two?

The beginning of our thoughts in this mindful dialogue

Under the social frame of capitalism, the acceleration of the cycle of industrial productivity and social capital accumulation, we chase for speed and freshness in consumption. In the digital society, it has become easier to receive information quickly, and life experience has been compressed and even fragmented.

The Western Society experienced a transformation of capital in the 300 years—the appearance of Bohemian marks the birth of liberalism. Technological advancement, together with romanticism, brings the thinking of Art for Art(Ars gratis artis), and rational subjectivity with scientific explanation was emphasized. On the other hand, there were spiritual awakenings for individuals. Now, contemporary art is experiencing the explosive database or digital era. Compared to other critical historical times, contemporary art promotes more individual intellectual thinking and conceptual pursuit.

Contemporary Artists CHAK and SHIBA explore more than just the presentation of the external physical world; both the visual artists investigate the internal mind. The possibilities of linkage between different cultural backgrounds and art mediums in this specific moment and location could be discussed visually and impatially recorded. The exhibition shows how they balance intricate observation and intrinsic complexity.

Revitalizing memories through painting

Painting as a form of expression requires the artist’s delicate touch and complex observation. It exposes the artist’s imagination or how they interact with the real-time world at a specific moment.

CHAK exhibits his numerous drafting and his brand-new series of oil paintings. In the skyscraper landscape of Hong Kong, CHAK skillfully illustrates Lantau Island and Fo Tan’s mountain scene. With the overlapping of mountains and rivers, the eye-catching colors bring the audience’s visuals along and the mature strokes tie the imagination of nature. His subject matter may be concrete and subjective while not existing in any part of the world. It may ascribe the beautiful scenery to his interpretation. His oil painting scenery intently omits something; the utter typical highlights of tall buildings and giant shopping malls are not in his eyes of Hong Kong. He is devoted to the natural scenery. A different exquisiteness of living details and rhythm exemplified his audience’s vision.

SHIBA’s artworks also reflect individual visions. She re-collects the past and records the present using graphite and copper print. She plays with symmetrical patterns, imagines through spaces and constructs untouchable landscapes. Her artworks, scattered strategically with symbols and cryptography, house her memories and thoughts, further describing the feelings in the memories. The artist tries to connect the physical world more romantically; her prints and paintings display unbounded dimensions and spaces. Geometry, memory symbols, extending curvy lines and fantastical faces… SHIBA’s accurate contours are seemingly easy to understand but require more effort to interpret.

The quantum age is full of variability, uncertainty and ambiguity. CHAK and SHIBA could be deemed as the adverse of such a trend. They praise the depth of their experiences and attempt to present decent details about their lives. During their working process, their artworks embody contemporary uncertainty and vagueness. Such vagueness in (visual) languages is indispensable, enriching our ways of communication. (1)

This exhibition aims to perform communication and dialogue between two artists with different working mediums (oil and copper print) in search of individual visual experiences and functional dimensions in the present era. The exhibition will discuss and reflect on natural inspiration and limited connection, broadening audience horizons into artists’ sentimental thinking.

(1)In the book Geschichte der Unschärfe (the title means “The History of vagueness” (2002)) deals with different visual media, Wolfgang Ullrich pointed out that sharp boundaries and vagueness are technical words that originated from the invention of photography in the late 19th century.